ForestBytes --- February 2004 Volume V, Issue 46 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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. Announcements ¤ Actress and Magazine Support Wildfire ReLeaf ¤ Artists for a Cool Planet ¤ Rare Tigress Dies, Attracts Environmental Attention ¤ Toyota and American Forests Plant a “Living Classroom” ¤ Valentine’s Day Chocolate in Trouble? II. What's Happening? ¤ Records Show CA Rejection of Emergency Funds for Dead Tree Removal ¤ Forest Species on the Brink? ¤ Biscuit Timber Will Not Be Logged ¤ Old Glory On the Move III. Activities and Links ¤ American Forests' Feature Creature: Bald Eagle ¤ Tree Trivia ¤ Fun Fact == ANNOUNCEMENTS ================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Actress and Magazine Support Wildfire ReLeaf ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last year‘s fires burned over half a million acres in California. Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar has joined the effort to raise money to bring back these lost forests, Gellar with support from Netaya.com & Marie Claire Magazine. The actress was featured in Marie Claire’s current issue in an article that describes her work with the Red Cross providing aid to fire victims. In the same issue, Sarah Michelle models a butterfly design necklace that is being sold to help plant trees in areas burned by wildfire. All net proceeds from necklace sales come to American Forests’ Wildfire ReLeaf Program. You can purchase the necklace by visiting http://netaya.com/stsibupe.html Every dollar will plant two trees in a California forest. American Forests is hopeful that they can plant more than a million trees to help restore these forests. The necklace is crafted of sterling silver with 51 individually set cubic zirconias. Normally retailing for $149, it is being offered for $29.95 plus 6.95 s&h. Approximately $7.95 of each sale will benefit Wildlife ReLeaf. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Artists for a Cool Planet ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Forests has teamed up with Danby Refrigerators to produce the ultra-hip, ultra-chic, ultra-cool program, “Artists for a Cool Planet.” Ten renowned artists—from landscape photographer Clyde Butcher to world-class surfer/painter Christian Riese Lassen—have created original paintings and photographs to be reproduced on refrigerator doors. For each Danby Art Cooler sold, American Forests will plant 10 trees, helping to fulfill American Forests’ mission to cool the earth with trees. These environmentally sound “utilitarian art” refrigerators (including standard refrigerators, compact refrigerators, and keg and wine coolers) are the first of their kind. The marriage between American Forests and Danby combines art, refrigerators, and trees through a unique synergy: art is cool; a refrigerator is cool; and trees cool the earth. The first 10 Danby Art Coolers will be unveiled on Tuesday, March 2nd at the O.K. Harris Gallery in Soho, New York City. One hundred of each edition of the Danby Art Coolers™ will be offered exclusively at www.danbyartcoolers.com. For more information, visit www.americanforests.org or call 800-320-TREE (8733). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rare Tigress Dies, Attracts Environmental Attention ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Rare Siberian tigress, so dazed by illness she wandered into a village in Russia's far Far Eeast, died of a disease that attacked her nervous system, the Itar-Tass news agency reported in late January. For six weeks, experts from Russia and the United States had battled to save her life, originally suspecting she had been poisoned. But the news agency reported she had probably died of encephalitis—a brain disease. Her appearance sparked further curiosity for scientists who have been studying the reclusive animal. There are only around 400 Siberian tigers remaining in the wild. They are the world’s largest members of the cat family; males weigh in at up to 660 pounds. Siberian tigers and leopards, which live near the Russian city of Vladivostok, are endangered both from a loss of habitat to logging companies and from poachers collecting body parts for traditional Chinese medicine. American Forests began Trees for Tigers in 2000 to combat the problem of lost habitat. Although American Forests has planted 500,000+ native Korean pines in the Russian Far East, there is still much to be done. For thousands of years, vast, undisturbed forests of native Korean pine, oak, birch, fir, and maple stretched from the heart of Russia to the Sea of Japan. Wide-ranging, solitary tigers ruled the forest. But as suitable habitat for tigers and their prey has disappeared or been fragmented into a few isolated parcels, nature's order has been thrown dangerously out of balance—and the Siberian tiger has been forced to the brink of extinction. To learn how you can help, visit www.treesfortigers.org or plant trees for tigers by clicking to http://www.americanforests.org/planttrees/. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toyota and American Forests Plant a “Living Classroom” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elementary school students in the Southeast will learn more about how their environmentally conscious decisions can help maintain the environment through a program sponsored by American Forests and Southeast Toyota. The “Living Classrooms” program kicked off in January in Jacksonville, Florida, when American Forests and local Arlington Toyota teamed up to plant trees at Kernan Trail Elementary School. A large Andrew Jackson Southern Magnolia tree was planted on the school grounds and dedicated by Miller McCormick of Arlington Toyota, a Jacksonville dealership. The tree is the direct offspring of one President Jackson planted at the White House in 1828, in memory of his wife Rachel, who died shortly before his inauguration.. The entire school—including 230 students, many parents and the school board—gathered in the schoolyard in support of the tree-planting event. Mike Kennedy of Southeast Toyota attended, along with Jeff Meyer, director of American Forests’ Historic Trees project ;project; and several local news stations. Students carried a seed kits back to their classroom to initiate a series of lesson plans and activities combining trees, history, and the hybrid technology of Toyota’s earth-friendly Prius. With 167 dealerships making up Southeast Toyota, many more tree-plantings and Living Classrooms will kick-off throughout 2004 at schools located in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and North and South Carolina. As many as 30,000 trees could be planted on school grounds in the Southeast as a result. To find out more about the Toyota Prius, visit http://www.toyota.com/prius/ . To learn more about American Forests’ Living Classrooms, click to http://www.americanforests.org/resources/livingclassrooms/. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Valentine’s Day Chocolate in Trouble? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just in time for one of the biggest chocolate-buying holidays of the year, there’s some sobering news for Valentine's Day gift-seekers: All is not well in the world of chocolate. Several fungi, most significantly Crinipellis perniciosa, are attacking Theobroma cacao trees, source of the seeds that are the chief ingredient for cocoa and chocolate. Crinipellis perniciosa fungus penetrates the stem and fruit tissue of cacao trees, inhibiting their formation of seed pods and destroying mature pods. What to do about this threat to chocolate lovers everywhere is being discussed this week during a first-of-its-kind symposium on T. cacao in Washington, DC. Among the topics, the Agricultural Research Service says, is: a five-year project underway with the maker of Dove Chocolate to breed cacao that resists serious diseases. The cacao symposium is hosted by the National Academy of Science. WHAT'S HAPPENING =================================================== * Records Show CA Rejection of Emergency Funds for Dead Tree Removal According to the San Francisco Gate newspaper, records show California's pleas last spring for emergency federal aid to remove more than a million highly flammable dead and diseased trees were quickly rejected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it was earlier this month. The Press-Enterprise examined records and found federal help was doomed even before then-Gov. Gray Davis wrote an April 16 letter to President Bush asking for emergency funds. California's failed effort to obtain about $430 million in emergency aid. California wanted the money to remove the trees and eliminate the potential for a catastrophic wildfire, but officials said the huge amount of money could only be made available if there was a fire. With more than 90 percent of dead trees still standing, FEMA spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said the agency decided that removing dead trees on the scale sought by the state wasn't its job. The Southern California wildfires began in October, the same week FEMA officially rejected California's request for tree removal aid, and by early November the blazes had killed 23 people, destroyed 3,500 homes and blackened 750,000 acres. * Forest Species on the Brink? Did you know about 19 percent of native animal species and 15 percent of native plants species in United States forests are ranked as “imperiled” or “critically imperiled” Another 1 percent of plants and 3.5 percent of animals might already be extinct? According to scientific calculations by the Heinz Center, The Center’s risk categories are based on such factors as the number and condition of individuals and populations, the area occupied by the species, population trends, and known threats. Degrees of risk range from “critically imperiled” to a more moderate “vulnerable” label. Species that have not be located despite intensive searches are considered to be possibly extinct. “Forest species” live in forests during at least part of their lives and depend on forest habitats for survival. These species are valued for a variety of reasons: they provide products, including food, fiber, and, more recently, genetic materials; they are key elements of ecosystems, which themselves provide valuable goods and services; and are also valued for their intrinsic worth or beauty. The Heinz Center concluded that, when “vulnerable” species are counted, about one-third of all plant and animal species are considered to be “at risk.” To find out more about Global ReLeaf and other American Forests’ tree-planting and forest restoration programs, visit www.americanforests.org. To learn more about how American Forests has planted native species to help endangered wildlife such as the Kirtlands warbler in Michigan, etc. * Biscuit Timber Will Not Be Logged According to an article published by The Oregonian this month, Oregon State University forestry professor John Sessions thinks much of the timber burned by the 2002 Biscuit Fire in Oregon will never be cut because it will have lost its value to decay. He had previously calculated that rapid salvage logging of 518 million board feet of timber could earn enough to pay for both the costs of fighting the massive blaze and replanting charred hillsides. But the federal process for mounting logging operations could take until the summer to complete. And burned timber deteriorates so quickly, 40 percent will be worthless to sawmills by then. If that happens the timber will no longer carry enough value to cut and remove by helicopter, the best way to minimize damage to the forest floor. Sessions said fast-growing brush will soon eclipse any opportunity to speed the forest's recovery by replanting burned slopes. His comments highlight the mounting pressure on federal forest managers to complete a recovery plan for the nearly 500,000 acres affected by the Biscuit blaze. The plan could be further delayed bydelayed by lawsuits from environmentalists. * Old Glory On the Move The Los Angeles Times reports that Old Glory has been moved. The 70-foot valley oak that sparked a debate over the pace of growth in north Los Angeles County was towed from its centuries-old home in a California suburb in late January, making way for a road-widening project that had originally doomed it to the chipper. The relocation of the tree, which neighbors in the Santa Clarita Valley suburb of Stevenson Ranch called "Old Glory," closed a chapter in a contentious story that began in late 2002, when activist John Quigley climbed into its branches and camped out there for more than two months, protesting plans to cut it down. The protest generated news from West Virginia to Wales and attracted a wide variety of anti-development forces, as well as celebrities such as Rene Russo. Quigley became a hero to the environmental movement, while the American Spectator, a conservative opinion journal, ridiculed him for "taking tree-hugging to a new level." Old Glory was transported down a suburban thoroughfare on 128 wheels to a resting spot just 1/4 mile/4-mile from its original location. The total load was estimated at 250 tons, requiring the pushing and pulling of a team of specialized trucks that are usually used to tow nuclear reactors and the enormous cranes used at ports to lift containers. At the end of the day, the tree was resting in its new location. The oak tree is now completely replanted. The tree box has been disassembled and soil from the oak tree’s original growing site has been used to back fill the hole in which the tree now rests. The tree remains dormant and continues to demonstrate good health. The arborist, Senna Tree Company, expects the tree to start pushing new leaves sometime in March. In the meantime, it is under constant supervision and receiving regular treatments of water and nutrients.   == Activities and Links =================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------- American Forests' Feature Creature: Bald Eagle ----------------------------------------------------------------- The bald eagle, our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle is found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska; another 20,000 live in British Columbia. The majestic birds flourish there in part because of salmon. Dead or dying fish are an important food source for bald eagles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had proposed that the bald eagle be declared a “fully recovered” species—and thereby removed from the federal Endangered Species List—by July 2000. That decision has been delayed, though, until officials decide how best to manage the bird under its new status But even if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removes bald eagles from its "threatened" species list, the bird will still be protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, making it illegal for anyone to collect eagles and eagle parts, nests, or eggs without a permit. As the human population grew, the eagle population declined. More than 100,000 bald eagles were killed in Alaska from 1917 to 1953 by salmon fisherman who feared they were a threat to the salmon population. As the human population expanded westward, the natural habitat of the eagles was destroyed, leaving them fewer places to nest and hunt, which caused the population of bald eagles to decline sharply by the late 1800s. The use of an agricultural agent, called DDT, also played a role in weakening the Eagle population. DDT weakens the shell of eggs laid by birds feeding of rodents and fish near agricultural areas using DDT. Since 1990, American Forests has planted more than 2 million trees for bald and golden eagle habitat at locations in 15 states plus British Columbia. To read about some other tree plantings for bald eagle habitat, visit our American Forests magazine archives online at: http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/2002fall/feature1_1.php ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tree Trivia ----------------------------------------------------------------- Question: This tree was used by Native Americans to make totem poles, canoes, baskets and fishing nets. The tree is: A) oak B) birch C) western redcedar D) blue spruce If you answer correctly, you have been automatically included in the February drawing to win a tree! One lucky winner will receive a Historic Tree (species depends on your local climate) from American Forests' Historic Tree Nursery. Make sure you include your phone number and up-to-date email address please! Last month’s question: With American Forests’ new National Register of Big Trees coming out in a couple months, can you name the state that had the most new champs in 2002/2003? Answer: Georgia—Congratulations to Mary Dauncey of Washington! Interesting Fact: Thanks to harsh environmental conditions, a tree growing in the city has an average life expectancy of seven years. That’s compared to the same tree’s rural life expectancy of 150 years! ********************* ARE YOU A MEMBER??************************ You can do your part to help the environment today by joining AMERICAN FORESTS. Not only are 25 trees planted for you in a damaged ecosystem or forest restoration project, but you will also receive: - A free subscription to our quarterly magazine - A free Big Trees calendar - A window decal Join Today! Visit http://www.americanforests.org/ ***************************************************************** == ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS AND FEATURES FROM ENS-NEWS.COM and ENN.COM ================= * Prominent Speakers to Address North American Forest Certification Conference http://www.enn.com/direct/display-releasem.asp?objid=||D1D1366D000000FA3403ACE3DADFCAE9 ______________________________________ 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.