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Posted on 10/05/2003 7:44:46 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:59:04 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Thick as a phone book, a new state report on the environment cites a little-recognized danger to global forests: California.
By consuming "vast amounts of ... wood products" while increasingly protecting our own forests from logging, Californians are sharpening the pace of cutting elsewhere, including Canada, says a draft of the report "The Changing California, Forest and Range 2003 Assessment," obtained by The Bee.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
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Everything possible should be done to spare every tree on the planet, because timber is not a crop. It's some sort of weird sacred life form.
You're not kidding. I just spent the whole summer walking through a tiny part of it. Until I started walking several miles a day, I never realized how many trails there were within just a few miles of my house. There are about 200 miles of marked trails within a five mile radius of where I live.
Flying from Manchester, NH to Birmingham, AL recently, I couldn't help but notice that it was pretty much all forest the entire way with a few cities and towns poking through at times. The entire eastern seaboard of the U.S. appears to be mostly woodlands.
DARN I'm glad that was only water I was drinking!
Good thing many states "elsewhere" have good forestry management policies, and the most heavily logged states continue to have the most forest. According to environazis, this should not be possible, and these states shouldn't have any forests left.
Yeah, plants are like that. The environazis have people convinced that once they're cut, forests will never grow back....then force environmental policy that creates the conditions for devestating wildfires that kill everything, even the microbes in the dirt, cause the soil to erode away and allow invasions by noxious, non-native weeds.
I've never understood how people could believe it's better to burn than to tend and nurture. I can see me now, tending my flowerbeds with a flamethrower instead of a dandilion digger.
Alabama is 73% forest (not cotton fields like everyone thinks) and it is increasing by one million acres a year.
LOL. Pulp Fiction.
It grows at about 1/20th the rate of forest growth in California.
RURAL CLEANSING!!! COWS DON'T VOTE!!! IMPEACH EARL WARREN!!! (oh, that's right! It's too late for that)
RURAL CLEANSING!!! COWS DON'T VOTE!!! IMPEACH EARL WARREN!!! (oh, that's right! It's too late for that)
RURAL CLEANSING!!! OVERTURN REYNOLDS V. SIMMS!!! EXHUME EARL WARREN!!!
(then impeach the bastard and burn the carcass)
I wasn't suggesting that you were. I knew that if you had seen them, you'd find them pretty ugly.
They are not, and that was before the Kudzu invasion gained full steam.
You've seen what that weed does to one of those magnificent oaks? When I saw one I started crying. Then there's that lumpy lme green blanket from the air. Staggering.
I've heard that the New England forests need work too, but that they are in better shape because the climate is too harsh for most exotics. Things happen slower there because of the winters so it's easier to keep after them.
I don't know about this. I have been to Russia a few times, and one of the most striking things I saw were open railcars carrying loads of saplings -- tree trunks no more than 6-8" in diameter at the base and possibly 20' long. These were commonplace and I would see at least one or two trains with this size of logs almost every day. In the entire time I was there I saw no trees or lumber that we would consider worthy of the name.
At the time I thought they were destined for a papermaking facility, but after seeing lots of small trees and no large trees I question Russia's claim to timber.
Who'd wanna dig up that old Commonist Tird???(grin)
Check out www.naturalprocess.net for a fantastically promising process to reverse the trend you describe, especially re: government involvement!!!
You are correct. Those 6-8" diameter trees were probably on an average about two hundred years old. The Siberian Taiga is notoriously unproductive forest land.
This lead to "The Sierra-Nevada Frame-Up!" (oh, excuse me, I meant "The Sierra-Nevada Frame Work.")
Now at the beginning of this new decade Knudson has written a new series trying to un-do the excessive EnvironMental groups "suffocation in the name of preservation" that has occurred after the prior series!!!
I bet he didn't realize that he was advocating a scorched earth policy for California's forests.
Not only forests... but CA's economic interests!!!
Isn't it Ironic that these "writers" including Marc Riesner of "Caddilac Desert," eventually realize the damage they have wrought!!! Now Riesner realizes the "cheap water" provided by government tax dollars was what was keeping Big Valley Farmers in business to grow crops instead of houses on their land.
Now that his EnvironMentalista buddys have succeeded in making "cheap water" so expensive that farmers have no choice but to "sell out" to developers, or land grabbing CONservancies & Land (dis)Trusts who eventually develop the land themselves as a fund-raiser for further litigation to pressure more farmers... IS A VICIOUS DOWNWARD SPIRAL FOR CA!!!
I cannot express how disappointed I am in the Wilson/Schwarzenagger administration to be (probably), that they have adopted the continuation of this self-destructive garbage!!!
RURAL CLEANSING!!! OVERTURN REYNOLDS V. SIMMS!!! EXHUME EARL WARREN!!!
(then impeach the bastard and burn the carcass)
I know what you mean. I have a harvest plan hung up in the process out of the Santa Rosa CDF office. The landowner and I have decided to wait till after the election to move the process forward, if that is even possible. Looking at Arnold's enviro position does not give us hope however.
From what I understand, coastal southeast Alaska has pretty good growth rates, but northern boreal forests tend to resemble shrubbery the further north one gets. Siberia and Canada are the same, just depends on the length of growing season and the average rainfall amounts. My info is second hand though, based on reports from friends that have visted these places.
Why is the President's Healthy Forests Initiative seemingly stalled?
For twenty points, guess who Mark Rey used to work for (Rey is now Undersecretary of Agriculture in charge of the National Forests (Dave Tenney's boss)?
Note: I don't ascribe to the tacit opinion in this piece, but it appears to have some very interesting data, especially concerning Russian operations.
Overseas operations
Weyerhaeuser imports from Brazil, Chile, and Sweden to the ports of Chester, Philadelphia, and Savannah (1996 Directory of United States Importers, p. 1168).
Capricorn Corporation (Philippines) is a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary (Who Owns Whom 1990: Australia & Far East).
In October, 1989, Weyerhaeuser "sold" its Paneling Division to Chesapeake Hardwood Products Inc., a newly-formed affiliate of the Indonesian Kalimanis Group. Weyerhaeuser's Chesapeake, Virginia wall paneling and Hancock, Vermont hardwood plywood plants, whose main raw material is Indonesian plywood, remain under Weyerhaeuser management (according to Asian Timber, Nov. 1989, p. 22; Gerry W. White is PT Kalimanis Plywood Industries' managing director in Indonesia). "Weyerhaeuser will remain a customer and distribute for the new company" (Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer, Oct. 24, 1989). Weyerhaeuser has been boycotted, along with Georgia-Pacific, for being one of the major importers of tropical wood in the U.S. In letters to the Rainforest Action Network, Weyerhaeuser denies controlling Chesapeake and denies having tropical forest business. See Rainforest Action Network leaflet, Dec. 1989, and World Rainforest Report, Jan-Feb. 1990.
Chesapeake Hardwood Products, 201 Dexter St., PO Box 1188, Chesapeake, VA 23320, 804-543-1601
Kalimanis Plywood Industries, Box 252, Mentang Raya 72, Jakarta, Indonesia
This is also the address for Georgia-Pacific Indonesia (Who Owns Whom 1990: Australia & Far East).
Kennedy Bay Timber (Malaysia) is a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary logging and selling lumber from Sabah (Who Owns Whom 1990: Australia & Far East).
Pacific Hardwoods (Malaysia) is listed as a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary in Who Owns Whom 1990: Australia & Far East, and in 1990-91 U.S. SEC documents filed by the company. Asian Timber (April 1992, p. 8) shows Pacific Hardwoods to be the fourth largest sawntimber exporter (48,023 cubic meters, or about two percent of the 2.23 million exported) and the fifth largest plywood exporter (55,592 cubic meters, or about 8 percent of the total 704,751 exported) from Malaysia in 1991. In 1990, Pacific was the second largest plywood exporter from Malaysia. Pacific Hardwoods is a member of the Timber Exporters' Association of Malaysia and the Malaysian Plywood Manufacturer's Association (Asian Timber, April 1992, p. 8).
Silam Forest Products (Malaysia) is a Weyerhaeuser subsidiary listed in Who Owns Whom 1990: Australia & Far East.
Weyerhaeuser Far East Ltd. (Hong Kong). Also has a Jakarta office at Box 2682, Kartika Plaza Bldg, Jakarta, Indonesia.
P. T. International Timber Corporation of Indonesia (ITCI). In 1971, Weyerhaeuser bought ITCI (Ann Rep 1971, p. 21). By 1971, Weyerhaeuser had rights to two million acres in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines (Ann Rep 1971). In its 1978 annual report, it said "Our operations in Canada, Indonesia, and Malaysia depend solely or substantially upon purchase of government timber."
ITCI held 1.5 million acres containing ten billion board feet of timber in Kalimantan, Borneo. Weyerhaeuser signed a 21-year agreement with the Indonesian military for the concession, obtained by paying $3.5 million in advance to the army, which needed cash after overthrowing the Sukarno regime. The concession called for eventual payment of $65 million to the army. Weyerhaeuser would invest $30 million over ten years, while gross revenues were estimated to worth up to $300 million. Weyerhaeuser planned a sawmill and chip plant at Samarinda, and also exported raw logs. Weyerhaeuser announced its intention to remove tribespeople living in longhouse communities, and to relocate them to company towns with schools, churches, hospitals, etc. Weyerhaeuser vice-president Charles Bingham said the Asian operations were beneficial. "I do not believe that disease, poverty, and illiteracy are inalienable human rights, or that primitive societies should be forced to remain primitive, simply to provide museum pieces for their more affluent world neighbors' entertainment. I feel no apologies are necessary for offering the members of those societies a choice." He admitted there would be changes. "Any major investment brings major changes in the economic arena, and those changes tend to translate gradually into social change... and to that same extent, I am sure we do disrupt primitive societies. I do not think we cheapen their cultural values, or inherent human rights. Nor, do I think we corrupt cultural values. After all, compared to many forms of consumer gadgetry, a two-by-four has little corrupting potential. It is possible, however, that by making visible alternative life-styles, major investments can plant the seed of political or social upheaval. This is a risk the governments are obviously willing to take; the alternatives of starvation, further economic decline, expanding population and endemic diseases and despair are considered even more dangerous" (Robert Wenkham, The Great Pacific Rip-Off: Corporate Rape in the Far East, Chicago: Follett Publishing, 1974, pp. 151-169. For the quotes from Bingham, Wenkham cites an unpublished 1973 paper of Bingham's entitled "Multinational Issues: Some Observations and an Example"). Bingham conveniently ignores the fact that all those dangers are brought about by "major investments."
Weyerhaeuser sold P. T. International Timber in 1981 (Directory of Multinationals, Macmillan, 1989, p. 1417). The Indonesian Network on Tropical Forest Conservation (SKEPHI), in its "Selling Our Common Heritage: Commercialization of Indonesian Forest" (1990, p. 24,30-31) said, "Despite complaining of unstable political and economic decisions on the part of the Indonesian Government, Weyerhaeuser seems to be more committed to maintaining the forestry sector in Indonesia compared to other foreign investors. The answer actually lies in forest plantations. ITCI was looking for a more profitable timber estate plantation for pulp industries rather than concern for Indonesia's forest sustainability. ICY [sic] at present operates one of the timber estate [sic] in East Kalimantan. In fact ITCI's mahogany plantation is suffering from pest infestation. In the U.S., Weyerhaeuser would have to abide by many environmental safeguard rules. It is doubtful whether they applied the same measure in Indonesia during the seventies. Weyerhaeuser plans to log its entire [600-square kilometer, $22 million] concessions by 1990. But by the late seventies, the ITCI concession area was practically flattened by Caterpillar and other heavy American equipment. It had the so-called reforested areas. Those consisted of eucalyptus, pine, and acacia." (SKEPHI, 1990).
Weyerhaeuser in the United States
By its own estimate, Weyerhaeuser has clearcut about four million acres since 1900 (1990 Annual Report, p. A-1).
In the United States, Weyerhaeuser is involved in developing the Snoqualmie Tribe's traditional lands at Snoqualmie Falls, Washington. Plans include 15 acres of office space, ten acres of retail businesses, a golf course, and 2000 residential units. Seattle Seahawks owner and California and Washington developer Ken Behring is also planning residential development on Snoqualmie land. Puget Power already uses the Falls for hydroelectric power, and plants to increase its take, thus decreasing the water flow over the Falls. Contact the Snoqualmie Falls Preservation project at 4759 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, 206-525-1213, or the Snoqualmie tribe at 18525 Novelty Hill Rd., Redmond WA 98052, 206-885-7464.
Weyerhaeuser in Canada
The Weyerhaeuser Canada subsidiary's $1.4 billion in sales were more than 15 percent of the company's total 1992 sales; Weyerhaeuser Canada employs 4,300 people and holds licenses to cut trees on more than 18.8 million acres. In 1993, George Weyerhaeuser, Jr. was named chief executive of Weyerhaeuser Canada (Stevens, 1993).
Weyerhaeuser's Canadian holdings:
In 1971, Weyerhaeuser had cutting rights to 7.7 million acres of B.C. softwood, and 1.4 million acres of eastern Canadian hardwood (Annual Report 1971). In 1978, it was about the same; 7.9 million acres in B.C. and one million in eastern Canada (Annual Report 1978, p.29).
By 1990, Weyerhaeuser had long-term license arrangements to 13 million acres in Canada (British Columbia, 3.6 million; Saskatchewan, 8.5 million; Alberta, 1.4 million) (Annual Report 1990, p.A-1).
In 1993, Weyerhaeuser had long-term license arrangements to 17.8 million acres in Canada; its timber inventory in Canada was about 190 billion board feet (compared to 104 billion board feet in the United States (according to calculations derived from the company's 1993 Annual Report, p. 5).
Canadian operations and corporations:
In "Innovations and Trees," a booklet it published for its 75th anniversary in 1975, Weyerhaeuser had the following foreign operations were listed:
British Columbia:
- Quadrant Development Ltd.
- Kamloops and Vavenby: lumber and pulp manufacturing.
- Lumby and Merritt: softwood lumber manufacturing.
- Vancouver: environmental resources group.
Quebec:
- Princeville: hardwood veneer mfg.
Ontario:
- Sault Ste. Marie: hardwood lumber and veneer manufacturing.
Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd.'s operations now include:
Drayton Valley (Alberta), and Kamloops, Lumby, Merritt, Okanogan Falls, Princeton, and Vavenby (British Columbia). Source: DFPI 1992-93.
Weyerhaeuser subsidiaries include:
TRI-WALL CONTAINERS OF CANADA LTD (NY)
WEYERHAUSER CANADA LTD (Canada)
- BIG RIVER LUMBER CORP (Canada)
- SASKATOON CHEMICALS LTD (Canada)
Bibliography:
B.C. Ministry of Environment Information Bulletin No. 1992:ELP82, May 27 1992. (In April 1992, Weyerhaeuser's Merritt, British Columbia operation was charged with violations of B.C.'s Waste Management Act for illegally discharging and transporting wastes; maximum fines under the charges could total $3 million).
Goad, G. Pierre. 1992. Striking workers in Canada close pulp, paper mills. (British Columbia). Wall Street Journal, June 16, 1992 pC10(W).
Kamloops This Week. 1992. WCB tells Weyerhaeuser to check into safety steps. Jan. 19 1992. (After chlorine leaks at Weyerhaeuser pulp mill, Workers Compensation Board wants more communication regarding emergency evacuation procedures; Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada union says mill should have been shut down and evacuated).
Stevens, John H. 1993. Agent of change: young Weyerhaeuser focuses on job in Canada's timber industry. Seattle Times, Sept. 12, 1993. (George Weyerhaeuser, Jr. is named chief executive of Weyerhaeuser Canada; he has a degree in forestry from Yale (1976), has worked for Weyerhaeuser in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and has been a director of The Nature Conservancy. The Weyerhaeuser Canada subsidiary's $1.4 billion in sales are more than 15 percent of the company's total 1992 sales; employs 4,300 people and holds licenses to cut 18.8 million acres).
Weyerhaeuser. University of Toronto forestry lecture series. [s. l.] Weyerhaeuser Canada Ltd.
Weyerhaeuser in Russia
In 1990 and 1991, Pacific Northwest newspapers began to report that Weyerhaeuser was "eyeing" the forests of Siberia. Weyerhaeuser's director of export log marketing, Gary Drobnack, said the company was "looking into" a joint venture; he said the Soviets were particularly interested in the company's reforestation and management techniques (L. Denne, Puget Sound Business Journal, Sept. 3, 1990). Other news stories emphasized the transfer of Weyerhaeuser tree-farming technology to the regional timber enterprise Dallesprom, in exchange for the export of spruce and fir lumber or logs (J. Erickson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 223, 1990, p. C2). In September 1991, a Weyerhaeuser vice president identified several areas of spruce, larch, and white fir that the company might log and export to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and China; development of several ports was being considered, including Vanino, which provides access from the Baikal-Amur railroad to Sakhalin island and north to Magadan (Seattle Times, Sept. 18, 1991).
Having negotiated for two years to set up a joint venture to log along the Khabarovsk Krai coast, Weyerhaeuser could gain access to a million hectares of forest, including virgin forest along the Botcha River. The Botcha is habitat to endangered plants and animals, and is inhabited by about 300 Orochi indigenous peoples. Weyerhaeuser has lobbied for the venture, trying to convince local residents and environmentalists of its environmental expertise. The company has given expense-paid tours of its U.S. operations. The Far Eastern Scientific Research Institute for Forest Management was opposed to Weyerhaeuser's plans until it signed a contract with the company. The local Goskompriroda is opposed to logging, and recommends that the Botcha instead be preserved as a zapovednik (nature reserve) or national park (International Working Group on Boreal Forests' Taiga-News, No. 2, July 1992, p. 3).
Weyerhaeuser vice president Scott Marshall claimed that the company would bring efficiency and new reforestation techniques to Siberia; "once our objectives are understood, we get excellent support from the environmental groups," he claimed. He said if its current negotiations in Siberia went through, Weyerhaeuser would sell the wood in Asian markets rather than in the United States (Jane Kay, San Francisco Examiner, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 3, 1992, p. A2).
Weyerhaeuser is mentioned in an editorial on Siberia's forests written by NBC TV news anchor Tom Brokaw's (New York Times; reprinted in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 23, 1992, p. A15).
Francesco Martone of Greenpeace International has been following Siberian timber plans by Hyundai and Weyerhaeuser. In January 1993, he posted a draft report on Weyerhaeuser's activities on Econet (gn:fmartone in cdp:env.siberia, Jan. 19, 1993).
Part of it probably has to do with the $20.00/ton subsidy to harvest biomass fuel. I am not sure that this will free up alot of timber. The main hurdle will be getting banks to loan to small businesses to rebuild the infrastructure. Many banks got burned when the feds went off line in the 1990's and will be very wary of making any loans to build sawmills that process government timber. Watching the debate in the senate several months ago, I was struck by the vastness of the problem. This is no longer just a western issue>
Your right about the enviro source for the corporate data...however, looking past that line of BS shows me the meaning of the word "oligarchy".
So they acquiesed to the wishes of the masses - they removed their evil presence from all those who are offended, and went overseas.
Atlas is shrugging all around us.
Not that there aren't truly evil people in the world. Maybe Weyerhauser is populated with some of those. You would know better than I about Weyerhausers' policies - I just use their products.
As I have mentioned, I live on once-clearcut land (1949) here in NC, and unless you have counted the rings on trees like I have, you wouldn't know it was once an "environmental disaster".
Now, the trees are back, but the jobs are gone. What used to be the biggest town in the county is now just a crossroads with a few run-down shacks and one gas station.
The future of America on display, right here in my little town!
But my, aren't the air and water clean?
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