National forests threatened by new road rule

Potential changes by the Bush administration to the roadless rule threaten to destroy the pristine and wild character of more than 32 million acres of public land, according to a series of reports released by the Heritage Forests Campaign. The administration has already rolled back roadless protections for Alaska’s Tongass National Forests and intends to further revise the rule, which conservationists say is one of the most popular and important conservation initiatives in the nation’s history.

US Agriculture Department Secretary Ann Veneman pledged to uphold the provision of the rule, which was put into effect in January 2001 during the last days of the Clinton administration, but critics contend she has already run afoul of that pledge.

The rule bans road building for commercial activities within some 58 million acres — or one third — of the national forests, but it does allow new roads if needed to fight fires or to protect public health and safety. Supporters say it provides vital protection for some of the nation’s last remaining wild places and wildlife. They contend road building in these roadless areas only further subsidizes the timber industry and note that the Forest Service already faces a maintenance backlog of $8.4 billion for its 380,000 mile network of forest roads.

More than two million Americans submitted comments on the rule during the federal rulemaking process, with more than 90 percent in favor of the rule.

But the Bush administration sees the rule as too broad and restrictive. In addition to lifting the rule from the Tongass, it has proposed amending the regulation to allow individual exemptions for states. That decision could come as early as this month. (ENS)

Scientists petition for 225 endangered plants and animals

Scientists joined environmental groups May 4 in petitioning the government to add 225 plants and animals to the endangered species list, four-fifths of which have been on the agency’s waiting list for a decade. The 225 species listed in the petitions are from 39 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana and Northern Mariana islands, and American Samoa. Nearly half are from Hawaii.

More than 1,200 species have been placed on the endangered list since the Endangered Species Act became law in 1973. The Bush administration has listed only 31 species total as endangered, in contrast to an average of 65 a year by the Clinton administration and 59 a year under the first President Bush. The Bush administration is accused by the petitioners of seeking to undermine the Endangered Species Act.(AP)

‘Environmental refugees’ on the rise

Environmental activists from Pacific nations threatened by rising sea levels have called on Australia to recognize “environmental refugees” who try to escape the effects of global warming. They say that Australia, as the region’s biggest producer of the greenhouse gases which cause global warming, has a special responsibility for the environmental damage caused.

The conservationists currently visiting Australia say climate change is raising sea levels and increasing the frequency of events like cyclones, which will one day make some low-lying Pacific island nations uninhabitable.

The conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard joined the US in 2002 in refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, a UN treaty for lowering the production of greenhouse gases, saying the pact was flawed.

If left unchecked, global warming is projected to cause a significant rise in sea levels over the next century through the melting of polar ice caps and thermal expansion. It is also blamed for an increase in extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and storms, and damage to coral reefs and other sensitive ecosystems. (AFP)

Russia’s forests falling

Illegal logging, arson, insects, and controversial business plans have ecologists raising the alarm in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region, Russia’s prime forestry area and vital to a country struggling under massive air pollution.

“In Russia, up to 30 percent of tree logging is illegal. Depending on the region, the wood then goes to Scandinavian countries or China,” said Yevgeny Shvarts of the World Wildlife Fund. In addition, 2,000 fires last year alone — most of them due to arson — and the Siberian bombyx parasite has devastated entire swaths of the region’s forest.

But the government’s new forestry code, which is still being drafted and allows the privatization of forest zones, is most troubling. Environmentalists fear the new codes would allow for whole sale logging by private companies which could also bar from the forests, millions of Russians who make their living by collecting cedar kernels, mushrooms, and berries. Currently, the Russian forest is almost entirely managed by local forestry administrations which hand out licenses to loggers.

The government also hopes to encourage the creation of wood refining factories and paper and cellulose plants. Russia, 70 percent of whose massive territory is covered by forests, nets $4.5 billion annually from wood exports, but could profit more if it could refine wood at home rather than ship the raw material to be treated abroad. (AFP)

Anti-logging protests mark Bush administration visit

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey canceled an impromptu meeting with environmentalists to discuss salvage logging in the northwest May 7 after he was confronted by angry protesters.

The roughly 50 shouting protesters who assembled outside Rey’s speech to the Oregon and Washington chapters of the Society of American Foresters foreshadowed future confrontations in the woods if the Siskiyou National Forest goes ahead with plans to log 518 million board feet from the area burned in the Biscuit fire, environmentalists said. The Biscuit fire burned 500,000 acres in southwestern Oregon, making it the nation’s biggest wildfire in 2002.

It is the focus of an intense debate over whether it is better to salvage timber killed in wildfires to speed up restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, as the Forest Service and timber industry want, or leave forests to recover naturally, as environmentalists and some ecologists advocate. (AP)

Plastic in the ocean

Earth’s oceans are teeming with minute scraps of plastic, say researchers who have surveyed the tiny particles in sea water. As the plastic does not break down, the pollution will be with us for centuries to come. It is not yet known whether the particles damage wildlife, said Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth, UK, and his colleagues, who carried out the research. But their study has shown that the plastics are ingested by marine animals and could end up in the human food chain.

Environmentalists already know that the world’s seas are strewn with plastic debris such as bags and bottles. Although the chemicals from which they are made do not break down, Thompson’s team discovered that these items are ground down into tiny particles.

The researchers combed Britain’s coastline, collecting samples of sea water and sediment, and studied plankton collected by ships traveling between Scotland and Iceland over the past few decades. All specimens contained microscopic fragments of plastics including nylon, polyethylene, and polyester.

“I expected to find this material, but I was surprised by how common it is,” said Thompson. Many more particles may have gone undetected in the study, he added, as the team can only spot brightly colored particles that are larger than 20 micrometres in diameter. (Nature)

British scientists want to clone human embryo

A plan to create the first cloned human embryo in Britain by the end of the year is expected to receive the go-ahead within weeks following a license application from a team of medical researchers at Newcastle University.

Scientists insisted that the aim of the research is to create new treatments for serious disorders and that the cloning attempt will not lead to the creation of a cloned baby. However, if the license is approved — as expected — it is bound to unleash a torrent of disapproval from religious groups and anti-abortionists opposed to all research on human embryos.

Expert advisers for the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority are now studying the first formal application the authority has received to clone a human embryo and they are expected to make a decision within weeks.

The Newcastle team is one of only two groups in Britain that have already cultured stem cells from ordinary human embryos. Embryonic stem cells can be made to grow into any specialized tissue and are seen as vital for future transplant medicine. (Independent (UK))

Scandal of zoo’s ‘missing’ tigers

Questions are being asked about the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, just outside Bangkok, Thailand, and the tigers it breeds in the hundreds. Where do all the tigers go? Is a shipment of 100 live tigers to China the tip of an illicit trade that serves the demand for tiger meat, pelts, and folk medicine and aphrodisiacs concocted from ground bones?

Last week, one of the zoo’s owners, Sommai Temsiripong, faced charges for breeding tigers without a permit. It may well prove to be the opening phase of the great Thailand tiger scandal.

Campaigners have already raised issues about Sriracha. Victor Watkins of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, said: “Behind the scenes there are hundreds more tigers being bred in appalling conditions. The park states that there are no more than 200-400 tigers there. But they are breeding lots of new cubs every year, which prove impossible to trace. They say they are being bred for zoos but we can find no evidence of that.”

A report conducted by the Environmental Investigation Agency into Thailand’s tiger economy in 2001 found that several medicines derived from tiger bones were actually on sale on the zoo premises at the Sriracha Health Traditional Medical Clinic.

The Worldwide Fund for Wildlife estimates that only 5,200 tigers remain in the wild. (Independent (UK))

Vieques cancer rate an issue

New statistics from Puerto Rico’s Health Department show the cancer rate in Vieques, the tiny island used by the US Navy as a bombing range, continues to be significantly higher than on the main island. Vieques’ incidence of cancer for 1995-99 was 31 percent above the main island, said Dr. Nayda Figueroa, director of Puerto Rico’s Cancer Registry.

Figueroa revealed the latest figures last week as she worked to finish the registry’s report for 1990-2000, expected within weeks. The registry usually issues reports for 10-year periods.

Vieques residents and others have long alleged that the high cancer rate on the tiny island is due to toxic materials released by the Navy’s activities on the island. But Figueroa cautioned that there are no in-depth studies of the causes of the cancers in Vieques.

The Navy has steadily insisted that there’s no hard evidence linking its activities in Vieques to the high cancer rate there. The Navy said it had not seen the Figueroa statistics but was always interested in reviewing any valid studies on Vieques health issues.

But Figueroa’s new statistics are certain to fuel complaints that the higher cancer rates in Vieques are linked to Navy activities on the 21-mile-long island six miles east of Puerto Rico, a US commonwealth.

“Most people in Vieques are convinced that the horrifically high cancer rates here are related to the 60 years of accumulated military toxins,” said Robert Rabin, an activist with the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques.

Since 1941, the US military used the eastern third of the island as a bombing range and the western third as an ammunition depot. Some 9,100 civilians lived in the middle third. In 1999 an errant bomb killed a civilian security guard and turned up the heat on long-running protests against the Navy’s presence on the island. President Bush ordered the Navy in 2001 to close the base on May 1, 2003. (The Miami Herald)