ForestBytes --- May 2002 Volume III, Issue 25 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.americanforests.org AMERICAN FORESTS People Caring for Trees and Forests Since 1875 To subscribe to ForestBytes: Visit http://www.americanforests.org/ If you find this information valuable, please pass it on to friends and colleagues. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TABLE OF CONTENTS I. What's Happening? * Trees to Remember * Communities and Western Wildfire * Clint Eastwood's Big Tree Dethroned * Liberty Tree Guitars Pay Patriotic Tribute II. Check It Out! * AMERICAN FORESTS Announces CITY Green 5.0 * May's Tree Stories * Guess the Tree, Get One Free III. GLOBAL RELEAF Spotlight * Indonesia, Northern Coast of West Java IV. Environmental News from ENN.com * "Drought points to fire danger in American West" * "Agreement to Protect Humboldt Redwoods" == What's Happening? ====================================== ------------------------------------------------------------ Trees to Remember ------------------------------------------------------------ Did you know that you can help plant memorial trees for the victims and heroes of September 11 simply by going online, visiting the grocery store, or stopping by the shopping mall? AMERICAN FORESTS’ Memorial Trees campaign is currently organizing the planting of thousands of trees to honor those affected by the tragedy. Here are two ways you can help: * Eddie Bauer--Although a dollar doesn’t sound like much, small change can buy you a lot. When you add a dollar to your purchase total at Eddie Bauer, AMERICAN FORESTS will plant trees on behalf of those affected by the tragedy of September 11. To donate dollars, you can visit Eddie Bauer stores, go online to www.eddiebauer.com, or contribute through the catalog to help plant living memorials in New York City, Washington, D.C./Virginia, and Pennsylvania. * IGA "Your Hometown Grocery Store"--Visit one of 1,200 IGA grocery stores now through May 10, and help plant trees through the AMERICAN FORESTS’ Patriot Trees for America campaign. If you donate a dollar or more, you can help AMERICAN FORESTS plant 10-tree groves in the store's local community. Visit www.iga.com To find out more about AMERICAN FORESTS’ Memorial Trees campaign, visit www.americanforests.org/campaigns/memorial_trees/ or Tell a friend and a send postcard at http://www.americanforests.org/postcards/ Look for our new public service announcements on American Forests' Memorial Trees campaign! Anheuser-Busch Inc., including Budweiser, Bud Light and O'Doul's, is proud to support American Forests' Patriot Trees for America campaign. For more information on Anheuser-Busch Inc.'s commitment to the environment, visit www.abenvironment.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Communities and Western Wildfire ------------------------------------------------------------ On April 24-25, AMERICAN FORESTS and several regional and national partners conducted a media field tour to explain to reporters what communities are doing to address the threat of wildfire on Colorado's San Juan National Forest. The reason? Wildfires are increasing in size and intensity thanks to a century of grazing, logging, and excluding wildfire from the forest ecosystem. Low intensity fires play an important role in a forest ecosystem, making it important to find ways to both reintroduce these fires to the natural system and reduce the risk of high-intensity "crown fires." Crown fires can threaten homes, critical wildlife habitat, and cause heavy erosion that damages watersheds and fish habitat. During the 1980s a wildfire in Arizona or New Mexico usually burned an average of 17 acres of forest, with a yearly average of about 35,342 acres. In the 1990s, the average acreagefire burned increased to 55 acres, totalling 112,995 acres a year. As we move into the 21st century, if conditions persist, wildfire burns will continue to climb. "We're hoping the tour excited the media about the important role communities can play in reducing wildfire threats and restoring forest ecosystems to conditions in which fire can play a regenerative role," says Gerry Gray, AMERICAN FORESTS' vice president for policy. "Our goal is to interest the media in the innovative ways communities are work collaboratively with federal and state governments to address wildfire concerns." This week alone, intense wildfires are burning in northern California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The worst may be yet to come. With the southeastern and western United States already experiencing serious drought conditions. Get the latest information about wildfires: http://www.nifc.gov/news/sitreprt.pdf Is drought forecast for your region? http://enso.unl.edu/monitor/monitor.html Meanwhile, AMERICAN FORESTS is calling on corporations, businesses, and individuals everywhere to help reforest burned areas throughout the country. Through its Wildfire ReLeaf program, AMERICAN FORESTS supports tree-planting projects to help regenerate scorched areas in places like Colorado. Much of our work focuses on reforesting ecologically sensitive areas such as streamsides, which desperately need trees to prevent erosion. Erosion, which dumps silt into streams and rivers, can have a devastating effect on wildlife and the food chain as a whole. You can learn more about these projects by clicking to http://www.americanforests.org/global_releaf/projects/project.php?benefits=clean_water Learn more about Wildfire ReLeaf by visiting: http://www.wildfirereleaf.org ------------------------------------------------------------ Clint Eastwood's Big Tree Dethroned ------------------------------------------------------------ Since the release of the 2002/2003 National Register of Big Trees last month, Clint Eastwood's bluegum eucalyptus' has another tree owner saying, "Make my day!" The actor’s former Champion Big Tree caused quite a stir when a tree 200 miles north of Eastwood's estate was found to be even bigger. For several days, news of Eastwood’s tree made headlines in papers all across the United States, and reaching as far away as England and Canada. Want to know if your town has a Big Tree? The National Register for Big Trees is now on the web! AMERICAN FORESTS has created a searchable database including the size, circumference, height, and location of the nation's 884 biggest trees. Think you have a white ash, sycamore, or pine thats got what it takes? Nominate your tree on the web. Click to http://www.americanforests.org/resources/bigtrees/ for more information about AMERICAN FORESTS' National Register of Big Trees. Visit http://www.americanforests.org/membership/ to become a member of AMERICAN FORESTS and receive the Register as a gift. You can join, or purchase the Register for $7.95 plus shipping and handling, by calling 800/368-5748. ------------------------------------------------------------ Liberty Tree Guitars Pay Patriotic Tribute ------------------------------------------------------------ Ever wanted the perfect guitar for plucking "Yankee Doodle" or "America the Beautiful"? Taylor Guitars has crafted guitars from the remains of the last standing Liberty Tree. Once honored as a meeting site for early American colonists and their patriotic fervor, the tree is now honored in the bodies of 400 liberty-themed guitars. The tulip poplar stood for 400 years on the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland until 1999's Hurricane Floyd damaged the tree beyond repair. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the guitars will go toward AMERICAN FORESTS' Historic Tree Nursery. In honor of the last standing Liberty Tree, AMERICAN FORESTS has nurtured 14 seedlings from the Maryland Liberty Tree. Over the next few months, the seedlings will be presented to the White House and the governers of the original 13 colonies. The first of these seedlings will be presented to Maryland Governor Parris Glendening. To find out more about the Liberty Tree guitars, visit Taylor Guitars at www.taylorguitars.com. Visit AMERICAN FORESTS' Historic Tree Nursery at http://www.historictrees.org/ to find out more about other famous Historic Trees. == Check It Out! =========================================== * AMERICAN FORESTS Announces New CITYgreen 5.0 Today, more and more Americans live and work in urban areas. Their families quality of life depend on the urban environment. Trees enhance the urban environment by promoting clean air and water, increasing property values, reducing erosion and stormwater runoff, providing wildlife habitat, moderating temperature, and reducing energy demands for the city. Trees are an important ingredient in the recipe for a healthier environment. As large metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and Houston struggle to meet air pollution standards for continued federal funding, they turn to CITYgreen software to help model the effects of planting programs and tree ordinances. From long-term projects to refining presentations, for six years CITYgreen software has been successfully helping city planners calculate the ecological dollar benefits of urban areas. Newly available high-resolution imagery allows us to view and analyze an entire urban forest, right down to the last tree. What makes the introduction of CITYgreen 5.0 special? High resolution imagery allows Citygreen to analyze faster and more effectively to determine the ecological cost of tree loss in urban areas. For more information about how you can use CITYgreen for your planning and educational needs, contact Mike Lehman at 202/955-4500 ext. 212; mlehman@amfor.org. You can download a trial version of this software at home by visiting http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/citygreen/ * May's Tree Stories Following the success of previous episodes of AMERICAN FORESTS' Tree Stories, the month of May brings us "Fantasy Trees", "Survivor Trees" "Traveling Trees", and "Tree Connections". Watch AMERICAN FORESTS' Tree Stories on PBS this month as Jeff "The Tree Guy Meyer" discovers arborsculptoring, and a place where houses are planted, chairs are watered, and tables are pruned in "Fantasy Trees". Also in May, Jeff visits The National Botanic Garden and the National Arboretum in Washington, DC where each showcases and protects species brought to America from all over the world. For more information about AMERICAN FORESTS' Tree Stories visit www.treestories.org or click to www.historictrees.org for details on AMERICAN FORESTS' Historic Tree Nursery. Is AMERICAN FORESTS' Tree Stories showing in your area? Check your local listings, or contact your local public television station and request AMERICAN FORESTS' Tree Stories -- http://www.pbs.org/whatson/index.html (episodes may vary) * Guess the Tree, Get One Free! How much do you know about history? If you are the first person to guess the famous owner of the tree described below, we'll send you your very own tree from this famous location. This towering white ash tree stands at a New York estate. Well educated and highly literate, this tree's owner devoted herself to a career of social reform and political support of her husband's measures. The couple and their children loved the wooded grounds of their estate. During her husband's last term as president of the United States, he once wrote, "All that is within me cries out to return to home on the Hudson River." Know the answer? Email us with your answer, name and address at info@amfor.org. The answer and winner will be featured in next months issue of ForestBytes. To learn more about AMERICAN FORESTS Historic Tree Nursery, click to http://www.historictrees.org/ ******************* ARE YOU A MEMBER??********************* Have a comment about ForestBytes? Have a question about trees? Tell us about it at info@amfor.org Not a member yet? For your $25 AMERICAN FORESTS membership, you'll get 25 trees planted for you in a damaged ecosystem or forest restoration project. You'll also receive: - A year’s subscription to our award-winning magazine - A Big Trees calendar - Your own copy of AMERICAN FORESTS' National Register of Big Trees - A window decal Join Today and tell a friend! Visit http://www.americanforests.org/ ************************************************************ == GLOBAL RELEAF Spotlight ==================== * Indonesia, Northern Coast of West Java The mangrove forests of Indonesia are the most extensive of any country in the world, extending across 10 million acres. However, many mangrove forest are being converted to aquaculture ponds. Forces like fish and shrimp farming, industry and housing construction, intensive agriculture, and mass tourism result in rapid erosion and degradation of the coast and riverbanks. This Global ReLeaf project will plant 20,000 mangrove and sea-pine seedlings along the banks of Rambut’s River, the estuarine, the coasts, and in brackish-water fish ponds in Lawang Rejo, Pesantren, Nyamplung Sari villages, Pemalang, and Central Java. These areas have been severely affected by deforestation. Bringing them back will provide essential habitat and breeding grounds for endangered and threatened species such as crocodiles, dragonflies, white egret, and lotuses. In addition, project partner Wetlands International will be working with local grassroots groups, villagers, and local government foresters and officials to spread the message of sustainable living and its relation to a healthy environment. To find out more about Global ReLeaf, click to http://www.americanforests.org/global_releaf/ ======= ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS AND FEATURES FROM ENN.COM ============ * Drought points to fire danger in American West http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/04/04252002/reu_47024.asp * Agreement to Protect Humboldt Redwoods http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?id=6650 ____________________________ ForestBytes __________________ Don't forget to forward this information to friends or colleagues. FEEDBACK OR OTHER ASSISTANCE: mailto:forestbytes@amfor.org PLANT TREES WITH AMERICAN FORESTS: http://www.americanforests.org/global_releaf/ BECOME A MEMBER OF AMERICAN FORESTS: http://www.americanforests.org/membership/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.americanforests.org AMERICAN FORESTS People Caring for Trees and Forests since 1875. ______________________________________________________________