Indiana aims to halt tree-munching bug

Left unchecked, the emerald ash borer could destroy state's 147 million ash trees

By Tammy Webber (tammy.webber@indystar.com)

DECATUR, Ind. -- Tromping through the woods north of town, Karen Cox stopped to examine the saplings, scrutinizing their bark, branch patterns and buds.

Satisfied they were young ash trees, Cox sprayed a band of orange paint around the trunks, then yelled to a fellow state forester keeping tally: "Dawn, three cheeseburgers!" -- using the code for trees less than 4 inches in diameter.

Although healthy, these will be among thousands of Indiana ash trees cut down early next year in an all-out effort to halt the spread of the emerald ash borer. They are too close to an ash infected with the tree-eating beetle that is so deadly it could destroy every ash in the state if left unchecked.

Already, more than 100,000 Indiana ash trees have been cut down. Millions of ashes in other states have met the same fate.

There are an estimated 147 million ash trees in Indiana's forests and perhaps an equal number in its cities. With its rounded crown and vibrant gold fall color, the ash is a popular street and yard tree. Ash comprises about 6 percent of the state's forests, 70 percent of which are south of Indianapolis.

Three years ago, U.S. bug experts didn't know of the ash borer. Today, experts at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources fear that if the beetle reaches the large cities and southern forests, it might be impossible to control. "For all practical purposes, ash could be wiped out," DNR entomologist Robert Waltz said.

Strong and easily worked, ash is used for making tool handles, baseball bats and furniture. The wood also is important in American Indian religious ceremonies and basket-making. Experts agree a widening infestation would have a significant effect on Indiana's $8 billion-a-year forestry industry.

Discovered in Detroit in 2002, the half-inch-long, dark metallic green insect -- an Asia and Eastern European native believed to have hitched a ride on wooden packing material -- wiped out that city's ash trees and since has spread into most of Michigan's lower peninsula.

The insect has led to the destruction of about 15 million ash trees in Michigan, the hardest-hit state. The beetle also has been discovered in parts of Ontario, Canada, Ohio and in four Indiana counties near the Michigan and Ohio borders: Adams, LaGrange, Randolph and Steuben.

On its own, the beetle, which can fly, moves about a half-mile a year. But it has spread much faster due to infested firewood, nursery trees and logs being moved.
"If we educate citizens so they realize the consequences of moving (ash), that can go a long way to stopping it," Waltz said.

Areas in the four Indiana counties have been placed under quarantine, meaning no ash trees or logs may be moved into or out of the area without state approval.

Also, more than 118,000 ash trees have been cut down in Indiana's infested areas. About 15,000 will be cut early next year in Decatur, which is in Adams County, where the beetle was discovered this fall. Forestry officials estimate another 15,000 will be cut in Winchester, in Randolph County.

Some are massive trees more than 75 years old, including one in Decatur that is 51 inches across.

"I just wanted to cry. It's heart-rending because we will never see (an ash) this size again in our lifetime" in Decatur, said Dawn Bale, a member of the forestry crew. "But it is for the greater good."

Once an infested tree is identified, all ash trees within a half-mile radius must be cut down. The hope is to eliminate the ash borer's only food source, said Jodie Ellis, an exotic insects expert at Purdue University.

Adult ash borers lay eggs on the bark of ash trees. When larvae hatch, they burrow beneath the bark and feed on the tree's vascular tissue, the systems that carry water and nutrients. Infested trees starve to death within one to three years. Once a tree is bug-ridden, there is no way to save it.

"This is a fascinating story but a terrible story. I wish this had never happened," Ellis said. "But if people would comply and not move this thing, we might be able to get a grip on it."

What state is doing
Indiana officials are taking several steps to stop the spread of the emerald ash borer:

• Nine townships in four counties -- Adams, LaGrange, Randolph and Steuben -- are under a quarantine that prohibits the movement of ash firewood, logs and nursery trees without permission from the state. Violation of the quarantine carries a minimum $250 fine; moving ash across state lines could result in a $2,500 federal fine.

• Thousands of ash trees are being cut down in infested areas to slow or stop the beetles' spread. More than 118,000 trees have been cut to date; an additional 30,000 are expected to be cut in early 2006. Indiana has about $2.2 million to spend on eradication, of which about $1.8 million is federal money.

• State officials are asking the public to avoid moving ash and to report any suspected sightings of the emerald ash borer or infested trees.

Emerald ash borer

• How does it kill trees? The beetle lays eggs on the trunk of ash trees. When the larvae hatch, they burrow beneath the bark and feed on the trees' vascular tissues, which transport nutrients and water. Trees usually starve to death within one to three years, with one-third to one-half of the branches dying in a year.

• Where did it come from? Its natural range is eastern Russia, northern China, Japan and Korea.

• How did it get to the United States? Researchers believe it came here in the 1990s on wooden packing or crating material or in wood used to stabilize cargo on ships.

Source: Michigan Department of Agriculture

Lumber crisis: Despite closings, layoffs, not one federal party is addressing recent problems of Canada's iconic industry

Dec. 17, 2005. 12:50 AM
DAVID OLIVE | Toronto Star

The holiday spirit isn't much in evidence in a dozen or so mill towns across the country.

The past week alone has brought distressing news to more than 1,700 forest products workers at five mills, spanning Stephenville, Nfld., to Squamish, B.C., who have been notified their jobs will soon be terminated.

On Wednesday, newsprint giant Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. dropped the axe on more than 600 jobs at mills it will close in Stephenville and Kenora, Ont. A day later, it was the turn of Western Forest Products Inc., which said it will begin shutting down its Squamish pulp mill the week of Jan. 23 — election day, as it happens — with a resulting loss of 323 jobs.

Later the same day, Weyerhaeuser Co. said production at its Prince Albert, Sask., pulp and paper facility will end this month, affecting 690 employees. And one of the firm's paper machines at Dryden, Ont., will be shut down in April, with the loss of another 80 jobs in that one-industry town.

The cruelly timed announcements follow hard on decisions by Domtar Inc., Cascades Inc. and Tembec Inc. last month to close or streamline mills, with a loss of more than 2,000 jobs.

That brings the total number of jobs eliminated in the industry to more than 42,000 over the past five years — or about 15 per cent of the total workforce. The damage is more widespread than those numbers suggest, given that an estimated two indirect jobs are supported by each mill worker.

As employees at General Motors of Canada Ltd. learned with the recent announcement of major job cuts in Oshawa at one of the company's most efficient plants worldwide, worker ingenuity in boosting a facility's competitive prowess means little if markets are weak, a strong loonie conspires in favour of offshore producers, or management miscalculates the product mix best matching customer demand.

"We have broken production records as well as improved the quality of the papers over the past few months," Ron Bucks, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union local at Weyerhaeuser's Prince Albert mill, told Canadian Press last week. "These machines are world class and profitable and this announcement makes no sense at all."

There is worse to come.

Tembec, a sizeable lumber producer based in Montreal, warns of bigger cuts down the road as it copes with weak demand and rising energy costs.

And Weyerhaeuser, a $23 billion (U.S.) behemoth headquartered in Washington state, says the market for paper products is so poor that the "urgent changes" necessary "to improve the competitiveness and lagging performance of this business" are not over. "We anticipate future changes," CEO Stephen Rogel said Thursday — a euphemism for more cutbacks in the absence of a miracle turnaround in the industry's fortunes.

Somehow, the crisis in one of Canada's iconic industries is not an issue in the current federal election campaign. Indeed, the entire economy is a non-issue, as parties dwell on the long-ago sponsorship scandal, the exposure and resolution of which are draining the federal treasury but creating jobs only among a passel of big-city lawyers.

The Liberal platform makes commitments to R&D spending and specialized job training. But the Martin government has not developed either a national industrial strategy or comprehensive plans for reviving selected troubled sectors.

The NDP decries a 12-year Grit legacy of "no national strategy to help jobs-rich industries adapt to changing markets and rising costs — like steel, aerospace, shipbuilding, forestry and agriculture." Alas, the NDP's own turnaround strategies for those sectors is a well-kept secret in a poll-driven campaign that identifies Liberal corruption, healthcare and tax breaks as the vote-getting issues.

The Tories correctly note that "this election is a chance for working families to send Ottawa a wake-up call on job losses in sectors such as manufacturing, natural resources and agriculture."

But the Tories also offer no specific plans for rescuing towns and regions dependent on those ailing sectors.

It's not like the solutions require more than the usual brainstorming. The response of Queen's Park to a similar forestry crisis a decade ago was to bail out troubled mills, modernize them and usher them into the hands of new private-sector owners.

Once again, it's Ontario and Quebec that have responded to a forestry crisis, with a combined $780 million in proposed industry funding. But that money isn't enough to finance an overdue renaissance for an industry that needs to replace obsolete plants — some dating from the 1920s — with state-of-the-art technology by which European producers have continued to thrive in the current downturn by developing innovative products and manufacturing processes.

To the residents of Dryden, Thunder Bay, Stephenville and Squamish, the electoral contest must seem surreal indeed.

Elsewhere in the country, many voters are sanguine about an economy with a 6.4 per cent jobless rate, the lowest in three decades; and debate on how best to treat ourselves to the $80 billion in projected federal surpluses over the next decade or so — a reward, many would understandably see it, for the sacrifices in high taxes and social-services cuts of the 1990s.

But the dynamic economic recovery of recent years bypassed many parts of the country, which appear to be alone in thinking that an obvious use of a modest portion of that surplus would be a nation-building exercise in restoring prosperity to troubled communities.

The spirit of the season is lost on Dave Coles, a CEP union vice-president, whose negotiations with Weyerhaeuser and the Saskatchewan government were abruptly short-circuited by the company's "horrific" announcement last week.

"To string our members along for more than two months and then slam them with this news 10 days before Christmas is simply unconscionable," Coles said. It's not easy to find gentler words for the political leaders whose campaign-trail priorities so far betray a similar insensitivity. (*)

Weyerhaeuser shuts Ontario and Prairie Mills

U.S. forestry giant shuts Ontario and Prairie mills
Dec. 16, 2005. 01:00 AM

U.S. forestry giant Weyerhaeuser Co. is closing two paper operations in Canada, affecting more than 800 jobs in northern Ontario and Saskatchewan.

The moves, announced late yesterday, reflect a continued slump in the North American paper industry, which has been hit hard by rising energy costs and weak demand.

Weyerhaeuser said one of the paper machines at its Dryden pulp and paper mill in northern Ontario will close April 1, affecting 80 of the mill's 795 employees. Another 40 jobs were cut earlier.

Meanwhile, the Prince Albert pulp and paper mill in Saskatchewan, which the company said in October it would shut down, will end paper production at the end of this month.

The pulp mill, which is being put up for sale, will continue operating until spring to minimize risk of cold-weather damage.

The Prince Albert mill employs 690 employees.

The Federal Way, Wash., company said the latest cuts will result in a pre-tax charge of $380 million (U.S.) to $385 million in the fourth quarter.

Weyerhaeuser is one of the world's largest integrated forest products companies, with 2004 sales of $22.7 billion.

Weyerhaeuser's announcement comes a day after Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. said it had permanently closed two newsprint mills — one in Stephenville, Nfld., that employed 300 people, and another in Kenora, Ont., where 320 people had worked.

The Tory government in Newfoundland and Labrador said yesterday it will consider expropriating Abitibi's Stephenville mill if a buyer appears. Both Premier Danny Williams and Natural Resources Minister Ed Byrne said the tough measure is being kept as an option.

Abitibi has made it clear it hasn't obtained a buyer for the plant or equipment, nor does it plan on selling at this point.

Abitibi-Consolidated said the closings were brought on by high costs and an inability to renegotiate a union contract.

The decision has embarrassed the government in Newfoundland, which just a month ago offered the company $150 million in assistance over 10 years to keep the plant going.

Canadian Press

Have a hot, dry, stormy life, kids

SOURCE: International Herald Tribune

OTTAWA My wife and I recently became empty-nesters. Our children moved out, and we began to think of downsizing. But climate change is forcing us to reconsider. My children may need shelter yet.

The thousands of delegates who attended the United Nations conference on climate change in Montreal, which concluded on Dec. 9, reinforced the fact that after some 20 years of debate, the threat of climate change is indisputable and pervasive.

To be sure, climate is not static. It has always changed over time. But this is the first time that humans have been the principal drivers of such change. In heating our homes or propelling ourselves across our planet, we are contributing to the rate of change.

And because there are so many of us, we are now using energy in unprecedented amounts. We are converting carbon stored in coal and oil into atmospheric gases, and the increased carbon dioxide along with other gases in the atmosphere traps heat. The conveniences we use today have serious consequences for our children and grandchildren.

What if one ignores all this and says, If my children are affected, I will provide for them. If they are living in areas likely to be flooded or afflicted by severe droughts, or if they must escape conflicts over resources, or lose their jobs or run out of food, I will take them in, and their children, and maybe even some of their friends.

Those with children living in low-lying areas of the world, and particularly in hurricane-prone regions, must definitely start making plans now. Ocean waters are rising, and storms of increased intensity and frequency are already upon us. The displaced people of New Orleans are still looking for a semblance of normalcy and stability. Island states in the Pacific are building up walls that are probably as vulnerable to breeching as the Louisiana levees.

Oceans are changing. The algae in the seas are absorbing some of the excessive carbon in the air, but as they do so, the acidity of the oceans is rising. You may recall from your chemistry class how calcium carbonate fizzes when acid is poured on it. Shellfish do poorly in acidic waters, so there goes the shrimp, crab and lobster fishing industries. What will your children eat when they move in with you?

In the past, mountain glaciers melted in the warm summer months and were replenished with winter snowfalls, providing a regular source of water downstream. Urban centers expanded, farmlands were irrigated and oil production was enhanced by the water pumped into the ground.

However, as glaciers recede and disappear, water will become scarce, droughts will increase and farm crops will fail. The ice on Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro is already gone. Conflicts are inevitable, as we cannot live without water; I hope you will have some for your children to drink.

Diseases and pests that have been kept in check by limiting temperatures are on the move. Forest-killing beetles are eating their way across areas never touched before in British Columbia and now Alberta. The forests of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario await them. Forestry jobs are at risk, and the dead trees heighten the risk of fires; if your children will be affected, better make some room.

If all that is not enough, polar ice caps are melting and are expected to release a plug of cold, fresh water that could drastically affect ocean currents. Moderating currents like the Gulf Stream will be abruptly deflected, leaving northern countries in the cold and contributing to drought. Wherever they live, our children will have to burn more fossil fuels, perpetuating the problems we are creating for them.

If you are still smug about global warming, I would like to know where you live. I need to move to this safe haven and wait for my children to arrive, along with other displaced people.

Just think of the level of investment we will need to secure this zone. I can't help believing that any measures we can take now would be justified if it will help avoid such chaos in the future. That would enable us to downsize, and to stop using up fuel to heat my empty nest.

(Nikita Lopoukhine, formerly director general of national parks in Canada is chairman of the World Commission on Protected Areas of the World Conservation Union.)

Forests Urged as New Front in Global Warming Fight

December 02, 2005 — By Alister Doyle, Reuters

MONTREAL — Forest preservation should be the new front in the fight against global warming with Third World nations earning cash for protecting trees, tropical countries told a U.N. climate conference Wednesday.

"The present state of affairs is untenable," Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica wrote in a proposal backed by seven other developing nations, complaining that they lacked incentives to slow logging or forest clearance for farming.

"Globally ... tropical deforestation is the second leading cause of climate change behind fossil fuel combustion," they said in the report to a 190-country climate meeting in Montreal from Nov. 28-Dec. 9.

Most efforts to curb global warming center on reining in emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars in industrial nations. But trees soak up carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming, as they grow. They release it when they die and rot.

The report suggested that tropical nations that slow the rate of deforestation -- perhaps tracked from space by satellites -- might win cash incentives from rich nations to encourage better management and more tree plantings.

It estimated that deforestation, from the Amazon to Africa, represented losses of billions of dollars. Forests are home to half the species living on land and a key source of food, building materials and medicines for people.

LOST FORESTS

A net 7.3 million hectares (18.04 million acres) of forests -- the size of Panama or Sierra Leone -- was lost each year from 2000-2005, according to United Nations data.

The conference agreed to study the proposal and report back in a year's time. The proposal also had backing from Bolivia, the Central African Republic, Chile, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua.

Richard Kinley, acting head of the secretariat of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the reaction among delegations was "very positive."

"We'd be very interested in exploring it further," said Sarah Hendry, head of the British delegation. Britain holds the European Union's rotating presidency. Some delegates warned, however, that it was extremely hard to measure forest area.

The Montreal talks are also looking at ways to widen a U.N.-led fight against global warming to involve poor nations and the United States and Australia, the two main industrial nations outside the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.

Under Kyoto, about 40 industrial states are trying to cut emissions by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 to curb warming that may cause catastrophic effects including more powerful storms, rising sea levels and more desertification.

Source: Reuters

What's a boreal forest really worth?

By Mark Hume (Globe and Mail)
Friday, November 25, 2005 Page A9Key

VANCOUVER -- How much is a forest worth if it's simply left standing instead of being logged and sent to a mill?

That question, in simple terms, is what researchers from the Pembina Institute set out to answer in a two-year study that calculated for the first time the "natural capital" contained in Canada's boreal forest ecosystem.

Considering everything from the pest-control services provided by birds to the worth of having peat lands filter drinking water, the researchers calculated the boreal forest ecosystem's non-market value at more than $93- billion annually.

In addition, the study found that the boreal forest, which reaches from Yukon to the Eastern Seaboard, works as a massive carbon sink. It stores an estimated 67 billion tonnes of carbon, the equivalent of 303 years of Canada's total 2002 carbon emissions. Considering the global effort to control carbon emissions, researchers said the boreal forest could be looked at like a "carbon bank account" worth $3.1-trillion (U.S.).

David Schindler, a professor of ecology in the faculty of science at the University of Alberta, said the Pembina Institute report should help convince Canadians that nature has far more to offer than just aesthetic value.

"Dollars and cents are part of a language everyone understands," Prof. Schindler said. "I hope this will make people sit up and take notice of the value of the resources around them and the value of the services they provide."

He said society generally looks only at the market value of natural resources, without taking into account the services that forests and wetlands are providing for free.

Prof. Schindler said the value of the "natural capital" must be considered whenever resource projects are contemplated in the boreal forest region.

"What it's saying is, 'Look at these values before you turn the forest into another pile of logs and sell it.' "

The Pembina Institute, an independent, not-for-profit policy research organization, undertook the study for the Canadian Boreal Initiative, a conservation group concentrating on issues affecting the boreal forest. The report is to be released today.

The report defines natural capital as the "resources, living systems, and ecosystem services," that provide benefits to humans.

When that value is added to the balance sheet, the study states, the picture is more complete, and remarkably different.

The report says the non-market values to be considered include: $5.4- billion for pest-control services by birds; $4.5-billion for nature-related activities; $575-million in subsistence value for aboriginal peoples; $79- million in non-timber forest products and $18-million for watershed services, such as holding municipal water resources.(*)