News center

Neglected national parks create fuel for bushfires (nafi.com.au)

The National Association of Forest Industries said today that the damage caused by recent bushfires in Victoria could have been lessened if adequate funding and resources had been allocated to national parks by the State Labor Government. Over the past decade there have been huge areas of new national parks created. At the same time, park managers were not provided with sufficient resources to maintain the existing newly proclaimed areas,” said NAFI’s CEO Catherine Murphy.

2006. February 7.

Duma's Working Group Drafts New Changes to the Forest Code (ForestPress)

Duma's Working Group published (http://www.duma.gov.ru/cnature/workgroups/les/home.shtml) changes they are proposing for the second reading of the Forest Code.

2006. February 6.

FIRE PARADOX (ForestPress)

An Innovative Approach of Integrated Wildland Fire Management Regulating the Wildfire Problem by the Wise Use of Fire: Solving the Fire Paradox Fire Paradox is an important project for joint research on forest fires. It has just been accepted by the European Union, should start in early 2006, and will last four years. This project is co-coordinated by the Higher Agronomic Institute at Lisbon, Portugal.

2006. February 6.

Province gives $1.4 Million for UBC Wood Research Chair (ForestPress)

VANCOUVER – As part of its plan to tackle the mountain pine beetle epidemic and find new uses for beetle-affected timber, the Province is contributing $1.4 million towards a Chair in Wood Building Design and Construction at the University of British Columbia. Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman made the announcement during a tour of the UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, where product development and testing will occur.

2006. February 6.

Rain gardens 'cut city pollution' (BBC News)

By Mark Kinver "Rain gardens" can dramatically cut the amount of pollution in urban storm water, according to a study by US researchers. Most of the rain that falls on cities lands on impervious surfaces, such as roads, where it absorbs pollutants before it finally drains away. The team says a shallow depression in a garden containing bark mulch and shrubs can remove up to 99% of toxins.

2006. February 5.

4,000 homeless as Kenyan police burn down forest squats (AFP)

Kenyan police have burned down the homes of some 4,000 people in a forest community during a long-running tussle between landless squatters and the government, officials and witnesses say. Police razed more than 300 grass-thatched huts in the Eburru forest near the town of Naivasha in the central Rift Valley, 90 kilometres north-west of the capital late on Thursday, leaving nothing but smouldering ruins in a latest bid to rid the area of squatters.

2006. February 4.

Non-poisonous insecticides in Swedish forestry (Nordic)

Hylobius abietis – Photo by György Csoka Most of the tree plants for replacing the storm stricken forests in Southern Sweden are to be treated with poisonous insecticides in order to prevent the large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) from gnawing at the stems. However, new alternative non-poisonous methods may soon be dominant. Sweden's biggest tree plant producer, the company "Svenska Skogsplantor" has purchased the rights of two kinds of non-poisonous insecticides.

2006. February 3.

News

U.N. reaches new pact to manage tropical timber (Reuters)

By Wafa Amr GENEVA (Reuters) - Tropical timber exporters and importers on Friday struck a new 10-year pact to help promote the sustainable development of forests in the face of illegal clearances and logging. Global sales of timber average about $10 billion a year, and some 15 million hectares of forest -- an area nearly the size of Belgium -- disappear every year.

2006. February 2.

News

Romanians Torture and Kill Wild Birds Near Danube (Reuters)

BUCHAREST - Romanians have been torturing and killing wild birds stranded by freezing weather close to where the country's first bird flu outbreak was detected in October, a wildlife organisation said on Tuesday. "Around 15 young men, aged between 20 and 25, were catching the birds, throwing them in the air, using birds which were still living as soccer balls, and tearing off their heads," Razvan Popescu, director of the Oceanic Club wildlife protection organisation told Reuters.

2006. February 2.

Report Says German Forests Are Ailing (Deusche Welle World)

Goethe composed odes to the lush German forest, today it's a shadow of itself GERMAN FORESTS, IMMORTALIZED BY GOETHE IN POEMS, ARE FAR REMOVED FROM THEIR IMAGE OF ROBUST HEALTH. A NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT INCREASING AIR AND SOIL POLLUTION HAVE TAKEN A HEAVY TOLL ON THE COUNTRY'S TREES.

2006. February 1.

News

If you're going to burn wood, burn it cleanly (The Seattle Times)

By Tom Watson When it comes to the environment, firewood has a split personality. From an air-quality standpoint, it's hard to defend wood heat. Wood smoke contains a slew of harmful or carcinogenic substances, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, dioxin and particulate matter, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

2006. January 31.

They're coming back to the Alps (ForestPress)

The WWF European Alpine Programme published a report on the conservation status and outlook of alpine large carnivores. The plight of Europe’s large carnivores has become an issue of growing conservation concern.

2006. January 31.

New software model to help plantation industry (csiro.au)

Ensis has developed a software model called CABALA that will help managers make better plantation management decisions. Ensis, the joint venture between CSIRO and Scion, has developed a software model called CABALA that will help managers make better plantation management decisions.

2006. January 30.

Deer Muscle a Source of Infectious Prions reuters (Science)

Mule deer (Odocoileus Hemionus) NEW YORK - Findings from an animal study suggest that disease-cause prions can be spread via infected skeletal muscle from deer with chronic wasting disease (CWD)– a wildlife illness related to mad cow disease.

2006. January 30.

Argentine Governor Takes Pulp Mill Protest to Hague (Reuters)

Uruguay River BUENOS AIRES - An Argentine provincial governor said on Wednesday he would try to block construction of two European-owned pulp mills in neighboring Uruguay by having the case taken to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Jorge Busti, the governor of Entre Rios province, said Argentina's federal government had agreed to file a petition to the international court against the planned $1.7 billion project along the Uruguay River shared by the two countries. Argentine government officials could not be reached for comment.

2006. January 29.

Indonesian scientists find world's tiniest vertebrate (english.people.com/ForestPress)

Ralf Britz and the Paedocypris progenetica The smallest animal with a backbone known to science, a fish from the carp family, has been discovered in the peat swamps of Indonesia. Mature females of the fish species Paedocypris progenetica reach just 7.9 millimetres in length, making them the smallest vertebrates yet identified by a tenth of a millimetre.

2006. January 27.

Cracks in timber from storm felled forests (Nordic)

A new investigation made by researchers at the Växjö University indicate that more than half of the wood from trees felled by the storm in Southern Sweden a year ago have a new kind of cracks, so called core cracks.

2006. January 27.

News

China Commits $180 Billion to Green Energy (ForestPress)

NEW YORK, NY, (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) – Green Energy Resources Featured at London Biofuels Conference Green Energy Resources (OTC: GRGR) will speak at the Europe 2006 Bioenergy Conference in London March 16th. The International conference will include a feature article in the UK-based Environmental Finance magazine in February. Environmental Finance has over 30, 000 renewable energy subscribers and is a top-ranking industry publication.

2006. January 26.