Greenpeace

As you read this, chainsaws and bulldozers are laying into huge swaths of ancient forests – illegally – across the globe.  More than a few trees here and there, the growing problem of illegal logging is much more serious than most people realize.

Take Indonesia for example.  Indonesia got itself into the Guinness Book of World Records for the worst forest destruction rate in the history of the world: about 4.5 million acres a year.  80% of that logging, or 3.6 million acres, is thought to be illegal.  That’s enough criminal clearcutting to cover the state of Delaware every year – twice!

With that much dirty logging comes a lot of dirty money that fuels corruption, crime and gang activity.  The brutal dictator of Liberia, Charles Taylor, used illegal logging to fuel paramilitary forces and years of civil war in West Africa.  In Mexico this year, 21 year old Aldo Zamora, who worked to curb illegal logging in Zempoala National Park, was shot dead by criminal loggers.  Where there is illegal logging, you can bet there will be human rights abuses – these sad examples are just the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, wildlife suffers as well. In addition to destroying millions of acres of critical wildlife habitat every year, illegal logging roads bring poaching and illegal hunting of bush-meat into virgin forests.  The endangered orangutan has lost 80% of its forest habitat since the 1980s.  Illegal logging is responsible for much of that loss.  Without action now, orangutans could be extinct in the wild within 20 years.

Forest fires, both accidental and intentional, also accompany illegal logging, destroying habitat, releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases and threatening the health of those living nearby.

The economic burden of illegal logging is enormous as well.  US jobs are lost as domestic logging companies are robbed of an estimated $1 billion a year due to illegal timber imports.  In developing nations, black-market timber robs local communities as cash flows to gangs and corrupt corporations.

The good news is, we have a real chance to do something about illegal logging.  Legislation in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate is poised to set up the first national safeguards against the import of illegal timber.  Isn’t it nice when there’s a light at the end of the tunnel?

Learn more about these bills and take action by clicking here.

With your help, we can put illegal logging in check.  That's worth a few clicks, right?

-Rolf

Since my last post about the Bush Administration and its cozy relationship with logging industry lobbyists, the “revolving door” between the two has spun again.

The latest whirl has Jan Poling, a high-level lawyer for the Forest Service, landing in the lap of the nation’s most powerful timber industry lobbying group – the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA).

As Poling takes her post as general counsel for AF&PA, she’ll run into lots of familiar faces.  There will be, of course, industry friends who kept her company during her stint at the Forest Service.  But there will also be Dave Tenny, Bush’s former “deputy undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment” (does that title even fit on a business card?) who, like Poling, swapped his job at the Bush administration for one at AF&PA this year.

To bring the door back full circle, I’ll point out Dave Tenny’s new job at AF&PA – vice president of forestry and wood products – is the same one that Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey held before Bush put him in charge of the Forest Service.

I think the revolving door is becoming more like one of those carnival rides where you spin and spin until the centrifugal forces stick you to the wall.  I love those rides.  But this one ain’t as much fun.  Rather than defying gravity, this ride has folks like Rey, Polling, and Tenny defying the public interest, sticking to the narrow ideology of the logging industry instead.

-Rolf

People of all political persuasions breathed a sigh of relief when Bush’s top political advisor and neo-con lightning rod Karl Rove recently announced his resignation from the White House.

For lovers of forests, that celebration may have come too soon!

Rove’s replacement, DC-insider Ed Gillespie, has made millions of dollars as a logging industry lobbyist for the past seven years.  In fact, one of the first well-heeled clients of Quinn Gillespie (his lobbying firm) was a logging industry group from British Columbia, Canada!

I’m guessing Mr. Gillespie isn’t a big fan of efforts to protect the Great Bear Rainforest.  And, he’s probably not super supportive of protecting the Boreal Forest either!

Now, only a fool would expect the Bush administration to suddenly embrace science-based, forward-thinking forest policies after Rove's departure.  After all, putting ideology before the public interest has become this administration’s trademark.  In some ways, Gillespie’s pick is just more business as usual from Bush and company.

Still, the revolving door between anti-conservation lobbyists and the Bush administration is spinning so fast, it's starting to make me dizzy.  I’m feeling queezy...is it 2008 yet?

-Rolf

News Flash!
The Bush administration misrepresented science to promote an ideological agenda favoring special interests that puts our environment at risk!

Yeah, I know this isn't exactly a surprise, but it just happened again.

Bush’s Fish and Wildlife Service is in the process of “revising” (read: ripping apart) the recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl – an endangered creature that depends on old-growth forests to survive.  Everyone knows that to help endangered wildlife, you need to protect habitat.  Nothing can survive without a place to live.

So, with the owl plummeting towards extinction, the obvious thing to do is boost protections for old-growth forests, right?  With breath-taking disregard for science and common sense, the Bush administration proposed logging more old-growth forests as part of its owl recovery plan.  In fact, they propose buzz-sawing about 25% of the owl’s remaining critical habitat.

And that’s supposed to help?

Now, I’m not sure why they thought they could get away with this.  In fact, when they commissioned an independent science panel to comment on their plan, the scientists said the Bush administration “failed to make use of the best available science and, in fact, appears to have selectively cited from the available science to justify a reduction in habitat protection.”

That’s polite, scientist-talk for: “Are you kidding?  You guys cheated to make excuses for more clear-cutting!”

Another review had this back-to-the-drawing-board feedback for the Bush administration: “Our main recommendation to (Fish and Wildlife) is to scrap the draft recovery plan, convene a panel of independent scientists and ecologists to redo the recovery plan and place on hold related forest policy decisions…”

Ouch!  That's a serious scientific slap-down.

The scientists have had their say; now it’s your chance.  Click here to send your comments on Bush's old-growth logging, uh, I mean “owl recovery” plan by this Friday, August 24th.

To read the official plan, click here.

And don’t worry – you don’t need to be an owl expert to comment on these plans.  In fact, if you passed 5th grade science, it seems you’re way out ahead of the Bush administration!

-Rolf 

Before high-tech monitoring systems, miners brought canaries into coal mines to detect dangerous levels of methane and carbon monoxide gases.  When the sensitive birds fell ill or died, miners knew they could be next and quickly left the mines.

Birds aren’t used in mines anymore, but they can still help us figure out if there’s something wrong in our environment.  A recent headline-grabbing report shows that even some common birds – the kind Americans are used to seeing in their backyards and nearby natural areas – are disappearing at alarming rates.

The report lists twenty common birds whose numbers have dropped by an average of 68% since 1967.  A big reason for the declines is habitat destruction, especially in the Boreal Forest.  No surprise there.  About half of North America’s bird species depend on the Boreal Forest for habitat.  As clearcuts and logging roads slice and dice the Boreal, migrating birds wrestling with other problems like global warming may be pushed over the edge.

Of course, beloved backyard birds don’t need to go the way of the dodo. The solution is pretty simple.  Most of the logging in the Boreal ends up in the United States.  And most of that wood is used to make paper products – things like Kleenex tissues.  If enough of us speak up, Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest tissue maker and a big user of Boreal wood, would have to change its ways.

By using recycled paper and fiber from Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, Kimberly-Clark could protect sensitive bird habitat and blaze a responsible trail for other tissue companies to follow.

While birds can sing, they can’t make phone calls or write emails.  That’s your job.  So, go to the Kleercut.net campaign site and speak up for the birds!

-Rolf 

When you think of roads, do your National Forests come to mind?  Maybe they should.  The sad truth is that there are more miles of roads in our National Forests than in the Interstate Highway System – enough to circle the Earth seventeen times!  All those roads and decades of clearcutting have made wild, roadless forests rare jewels...and even more critical to conserve.

Millions of have weighed in on this issue, and the consensus is clear: Americans want their last roadless wildlands protected.  The trouble is, the Bush Forest Service isn’t listening.  Since the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was approved in 2001, they have fought to drive chainsaws, bulldozers and drills into our last wildlands.  I guess that’s what happens when you put a guy like Mark Rey, a former logging industry lobbyist, in charge of the Forest Service.  Fox in the hen house anyone?

Here’s the good news.  Last week was a rough one for stump-lovers like Rey.  On June 8th, a US District judge slapped down an attempt by the State of Wyoming to bring a nationwide ban on the Roadless Rule back from the dead.  That means the Roadless Rule remains in effect, and 58 million acres of our best wildlands are safe from roadbuilding, industrial logging and oil and gas drilling.

The Wyoming ruling is expected to be appealed, and more court challenges are already on the way from anti-forest forces.  This is nothing new.  A dizzying swarm of lawsuits has buzzed around the Roadless Rule for years, leaving its fate in legal limbo.  When will it stop?  Maybe soon.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers recently introduced legislation to make the Roadless Rule into law.  That would make it immune to lawsuits and permanently safeguard wild forests from Alaska to Alabama.

So, don’t just sit there – contact your members of Congress and tell them to get on board with the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2007.  The sooner we pass this bill, the sooner we can give Mark Rey and his minions something better to do…

-Rolf