Forest Service justifies logging with wrong pictures

The Forest Service’s controversial “Forests With a Future” campaign, handled by PR firm OneWorld Communications, includes a brochure explaining why increased logging will benefit Sierra Nevada forests. The brochure explains that fire risks have risen as the Sierra’s forests have grown more dense in the past century.

Six small black-and-white photos spanning 80 years appear beside descriptions of how the “forests of the past” had fewer trees and less underbrush, making them less susceptible to fire. However, the 1909 photo does not depict natural conditions, becasue it was taken just after the forest had been logged. And the pictured forest is nowhere near the Sierra Nevada – it’s in Montana.

Forest Service spokesman Matt Mathes said the fact that the forest was logged before the picture was taken is not important. “We needed to be accurate but not necessarily precise to the 99th degree” he said. Timothy Ingalsbee of the Western Fire Ecology Center in Eugene, OR remarked “I can’t believe they are still doing this.” He said the agency used the same sequence of photos in 1998 to support logging the Pacific Northwest, too. (AP)

EPA abandons stormwater pollution rule

The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to not subject construction sites to more stringent standards for stormwater pollution is drawing the praise of developers who will save billions of dollars by not having to numerically calculate the amount of dirt running off their sites.

But environmental groups, who have pushed hard for tighter stormwater regulation of construction sites, say the decision will allow one of the nation’s worst environmental problems to continue degrading waters and wetlands. For several years, the EPA had considered establishing new guidelines for construction sites, requiring contractors to measure sediment coming from their sites. But last week, the agency dropped the proposal amid concerns from industry groups that it would add a costly layer of requirements.

“We haven’t figured out yet what the water quality benefits are for what’s already on the book, so it makes little sense to throw in another set of even more expensive standards,” said an attorney for developers opposed to the new rules.

Existing EPA rules require developers managing sites between one and five acres to obtain national pollutant discharge elimination system permits and implement measures to reduce stormwater pollution. But in many fast-developing regions of the country, such measures are proving inadequate to stop the damage, critics say.

Despite the persistence of pollution from construction sites, land developers and contractors insist that current measures, when properly applied, are sufficient to trap sediment and protect waterways. Had EPA tightened its standards, they maintained the added financial burden would have been borne by both developers and homebuyers.

The Association of General Contractors said EPA’s decision was “a victory for everyone who values common sense and the environment.” But environmentalists and planners viewed the move as a major setback. The Natural Resources Defense Council noted in a statement that commercial and residential development is the nation’s fastest growing source of water pollution.

“The Bush administration is once again paying back its corporate polluter friends instead of protecting public health and the environment,” said NRDC attorney Nancy Stoner. (Environment & Energy Daily)

Air-hunting Alaska wolves is legal

The Interior Department has rejected a national wildlife group’s challenge of an Alaska wolf control program that allows hunting from airplanes. Defenders of Wildlife said it received a letter from Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s office saying the aerial wolf control program is allowed under exceptions in a 1971 wildlife law.

“The Airborne Hunting Act doesn’t let you mow down predators from the air just to radically reshape the entire wildlife profile of a whole area,” said Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen. The federal law says states cannot issue permits for airborne hunting for the purpose of sport hunting but that exceptions are allowed for the protection of “land, water, wildlife, livestock, domestic animals, human life, or crops.”

The state says the program is designed to protect moose calves in the winter when they are most vulnerable to bears and wolves. Another environmental group, Friends of Animals, tried unsuccessfully to challenge the aerial wolf control program in state court, citing “lack of sound biological data” on the part of the state in approving the program. (AP)

Army to dump chemical weapon debris into river

Wastewater from the destruction of a Cold War–era nerve agent should not be treated in New Jersey, nor should its chemical byproducts be dumped into the Delaware River, the governors of New Jersey and Delaware said in a recent letter to Army Secretary Les Brownlee.

The Army plans to destroy VX nerve agent at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, then ship the waste to DuPont’s Secure Environmental Treatment facility in Deepwater, New Jersey, for final treatment and disposal. The Army plans to neutralize the VX at Newport by mixing it with hot water and sodium hydroxide. The resulting chemical would be hydrolysate, which the Army and DuPont have compared to liquid drain cleaner.

A spokesman for the Army Chemical Materials Agency, said military officials would review the letter and respond.

The Army originally planned to ship the treated waste to Dayton, Ohio, for final disposal, but dropped that plan in the face of legal opposition. The VX, which can cause paralysis and death with a single drop, was scheduled to be destroyed by 2007 but Congress accelerated the process after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (AP)

Pesticides cause memory loss in Indian children

Greenpeace reports that Indian children who are exposed to high levels of pesticides have poor memories and impaired analytical and motor skills. Greenpeace drew these conclusions after studying the impact of pesticide on 898 children between the ages of four and five, and nine and 13 in 18 villages in six different cotton-cultivating states in India where pesticides are used most indiscriminately.

“The 898 children from diverse backgrounds who constituted our random sample did not have anything in common except that they were exposed to pesticides,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, who headed the study. She added that many of the children “were unable to perform even simple play-based exercises like catching a ball or assembling a jigsaw puzzle.”

The study also showed that children in a control group not exposed to pesticides performed 80 percent better than children exposed to the chemicals. India is the largest producer of pesticides in Asia and ranks as the 12th largest in the world. Environmental groups have warned such widespread use of pesticides has not only contaminated food but even ground water in India.

So far, only the northeastern states of Sikkim and Mizoram have taken to organic cultivation and given up fertilizers, said Greenpeace. (AFP)

Endangered species remain unprotected

Despite increases in the amount of protected land worldwide, many ecosystems fall outside this network of safe havens, scientists have said. This is because current protected areas do not represent enough of existing global biodiversity, the research team claims.

They propose a shift in conservation planning to avoid species extinctions in coming decades. The researchers say that, despite international conservation planning, an approach that takes patterns of diversity into account is needed. Dr Ana Rodrigues of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science in Washington, US, and her international colleagues found the relationship between protected areas and patterns of biodiversity was uneven.

“Different countries need different levels of protection. Countries with many economic resources can afford that protection,” said Rodrigues. She added that most places where such gaps have been identified are amongst the poorest countries in the world. Poorest from an economic perspective but richest in biodiversity. Countries with high densities of gap species include China, India, Sri Lanka, and Madagascar. (BBC)

Amazon jungles disappearing

Environmental groups are calling for urgent action to slow deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jungle. About 9,170 square miles of forest were lost in 2003, just up from 8,983 square miles in 2002, the Brazilian government says.

The scale is not as high as in the mid-1990s, but it confirms the world’s largest forest is disappearing rapidly. Rising exports of beef and soya in Brazil are said to encourage farmers to clear the forest for farms. Scientists fear the clearances could affect the global climate as well as threatening thousands of unique plant and animal species.

Rosa Lemos de Sa of Brazil’s World Wildlife Fund expressed worry: “The tendency is for it to stay high unless drastic measures are taken, and I don’t see the government doing anything drastic.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had promised satellite monitoring and joint action by ministries after a 28 percent jump in deforestation between 2001 and 2002 pushed the level toward the record rate seen in 1995. (BBC)

EU failing to stop illegal logging

A new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reveals that the majority of the 15 European Union member states are failing to take action against illegal logging. Illegal logging is defined as timber being harvested, transported, bought or sold in violation of national laws. This further leads to illegal processing and export, false declaration to customs, or avoidance of taxes and other charges.

The report says illegal logging will become a “very serious internal market issue” when ten accession countries join the union in May, bringing millions of acres of forests. Europe’s imports of illegally obtained timber are believed to be worth 1.4 billion dollars a year.

Earlier reports have said that up to 50 percent of all logging activities in the Russian Far East and in Estonia, and up to 20 percent in Latvia and 27 percent in northwest Russia, are illegal.

“The EU has a key role to play in halting illegal harvesting and trade which has become a multi-billion dollar business, destroying nature, impoverishing local communities and distorting markets,” said WWF spokesperson Helma Brandlmaier. (IPS)