“We will be planting the least number of trees that we have in the past 40 years, at a time when there is an absolutely massive need for investment in replanting,” Macdonald said.

At the moment the forests in B.C. have already suffered with one million destroyed by forest fires and an additional 15 million by pests (largely the mountain pine beetle). This year the government is planning to plant 190 million trees, which is down from 225 million in a typical harvesting year. The biggest planting year in B.C. was in 1989 when a further 300 million trees were planted. Next year the number of trees planted is expected to decline further to 175 million.

According to Bell the majority of the planting is as part of reforestation obligations by logging companies harvesting Crown land. At the moment there is a two year lag between logging and replanting so the current planting decline reflects the downturn in the industry set off by the collapse of the US housing construction market.

The government’s pine beetle and fire reclamation programme has a budget of $42 million this year, with $400 million allocated over the next five years. So far 20 million trees have been planted this year. Bell this programme, called Forests for Tomorrow a ‘good, solid programme’.

To bring attention to the issue the Western Silviculture Contractors Association has launched a website at www.forestfacts.ca. In 2008 the association says that there were 6,000 tree planters working in B.C. and Alberta this year that number fell to 4,000 despite the widespread fires and beetle epidemic.

Unfortunately Bell said that the solution to the pine beetle epidemic wasn’t as simple as just replanting the affected areas.

“What we’re finding is stands that were killed 10 or 15 years ago have developed a relatively large understory, and that understory offers greater potential for the mid-term timber supply than going in, taking down the dead pine that’s left, damaging the understory that was in place prior to that, and replanting,” Bell said.

“The chief forester’s office has done a lot of work on this, and we analyze each stand individually before making a decision on whether to allow the stand to remain and the understory to survive, or knocking it down and replanting. And that’s what the Forests for Tomorrow program are all about.” He concluded.

Forestry Update is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here

Last week Tony Burke the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry announced what offers were under the Government’s Forest Industries Climate Change Research Fund. To date, twenty projects have been offered support under the research fund. The research fund was an election commitment designed to address knowledge gaps about the impact of climate change in Australia’s forestry and forest industries.

Of the funding available RIRDC has been offered a grant of $248,700 to assess how new bioenergy agroforestry crops could be established and to examine biomass harvesting in planted forests.

A further grant of $420,000 was offered to CSIRO to create a pathway for developing sustainable regional biofuel industries as well as assessing environmental economic opportunities for biofuel production from forest biomass resources in two regions of Australia.

The Department of Industry and Investment NSW received a grant of $250,000 to examine how soil carbon dynamics are affected by growing pine plantations on agricultural land and if they can potentially enhance soil quality and greenhouse reporting processes.

Lastly Private Forests Tasmania was given $255,671 in order to help farmers and regional communities understand how to invest in, grow and manage plantations as part of their own climate change management practices.

According to Tony Burke Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry the Australian forest industries plays a significant role in supporting regional jobs and the economy.

“Australia’s forestry and forest products industries turns over around $23 billion annually and supports an estimated 120,000 jobs,” Mr Burke said.

Forestry Update is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here

IU was one of 74 schools that earned Tree Campus USA recognition in 2009. The Arbor Day Foundation began Tree Campus USA in the fall of 2008 to recognize colleges and universities that practice sound campus forestry. The aim of the program is to honor college campuses and the leaders of surrounding communities for promoting healthy urban forest management and engaging the campus community in environmental stewardship.

Since its inception, Tree Campus USA has been supported by $1.3 million in grants from Toyota.

The impact Tree Campus USA had more than doubled during its second year. In its inaugural year, 29 colleges and universities received Tree Campus USA honors. To celebrate the success of the program, the Arbor Day Foundation and Toyota are holding tree-planting events on five college campuses this spring. In addition to Indiana University, Tree Campus USA tree-planting events will also be held at American University; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

During the event, IU students and volunteers in the community planted more than 50 trees as part of the campus Arbor Day Celebration. Trees were planted near the DeVault Alumni Center, which is located near Memorial Stadium and Assembly Hall. The trees will help increase the campus’s tree canopy and will provide shade for students and visitors.

“We applaud Indiana University’s commitment to improving the urban forest on its campus, and for demonstrating to students why it is so important to plant trees,” said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation. “By striving to follow best tree-care practices and encouraging students to plant trees on campus, Indiana University is helping the next generation learn first-hand the importance of giving back to the earth.”

In order to become a Tree Campus USA community, schools are required to meet five core standards of tree care and community engagement. Those standards are: Establishing a campus tree advisory committee; evidence of a campus tree-care plan; verification of dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree plan; involvement in an Arbor Day observance; and the institution of a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body.

“Today’s tree planting took place in an area that has been designated as the ‘Woodland Arboretum’ in the 2009 IU Bloomington Campus Master Plan, and initiates the implementation process of increasing the campus tree canopy cover from 20- to 40-percent over the lifetime of the plan which is estimated to be 10 years,” said Mia Williams, Indiana University landscape architect.

Forestry Update is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here

The report said that the decision to ensure the reserves are ‘off-limits’ is one of the steps in a plan to better regulate the mining industry, which lets face it has paid little attention to the environment in the past.

“I cannot, in clear conscience, clear these projects in the ‘no-go areas,’” Minister Jairam Ramesh said in an interview.

The deposits are located in some of India’s most biologically rich and densely forested areas that are inhabited by both poor tribal people and Maoist insurgents.

This new plan would mean that India as Asia’s third largest economy would have to import more coal, but Ramesh was adamant that the decision was important to saving India’s natural habitats.

Indian is the world’s third largest producer of coal and lignite but it appears that India can no longer afford to approve every proposed mine. Already there are areas where mining has clearly exceeded the carrying capacity. The consequences to privately owned firms such as Essar, Reliance and Adani as well as the state owned Coal India are that their projects located in the off-limit areas, which had received approval ‘in principle’ a few years ago will now be rejected. It goes without saying the government’s stance looks set to upset power project developers and mining firms.

“Companies are agitated,” the Financial Times quoted an unidentified executive from an infrastructure firm as saying. “Many have already ordered equipment and moved forward on this basis.”

But Ramesh remained adamant.

“It’s all very well to say environment and development have to go hand in hand, but what are the practical implications of that?” he said adding he favoured applying similar criteria to other mineral resources.

Forestry Update is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here

“We can only get an agreement on climate change if it involves Brazil and it involves forestry. We recognise the very important steps that you are taking to protect the environment against illegal activities and other threats against the forest and we are very grateful to you. But we know there is more that we can do to help you manage the forest in a sustainable way. There is no solution to the question of climate change without forestry”

Deforestation causes over 17 percent of global carbon emissions, much of it occurring in the Amazonian regions.  But finding a way in which rich nations can persuade forested countries that their trees are worth more standing intact has been difficult historically, with legal issues of land ownership and the role of its indigenous inhabitants often stalling progress.   A solution involving sustainably managed forestry plantations, employing modern forestry practices and a secure chain of custody, could  have the effect of protecting the rainforest whilst also meeting the global demand for forestry products.

In Copenhagen this December the worlds leaders will convene and attempt to agree a global treaty to address the problems of  global warming, with deforestation naturally at the top of  the agenda.

On a five day diplomatic tour, Mr Miliband  met up with environmentalists, government decision makers and leading scientists involved in climate control,  as well as Brazil’s local forestry communities.

At  a press conference after the tour,  Miliband said he had been “shocked,  seeing the actual logs piled up and the illegal roads that have been built”  during  his flight over the Amazon rainforest.

“The Amazon forest is such a beautiful place when it is untouched and then you see these scars on the landscape of the deforestation, bigger and bigger scars.  Brazil is up for a deal…we just need proper ambition from developed countries and the right financial architecture in place.”

Forestry Update is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here

Florida’s forests, which provide the backbone for the region’s rural economy and dominate North Florida’s landscape, have been earmarked by Governor Charlie Crist for a key role in meeting these goals. At the heart of Florida’s climate change program is the intention to give forest landowners an incentive to store and sequester more carbon in order to reduce overall carbon emissions.

Florida has over 15 million acres of forests – that’s almost half the entire state – and 19 of Florida’s 67 counties, all of them in North Florida, are more than 75 percent covered by forests. Significant amounts of carbon are already stored in the forests, and this could increase with reforestation efforts. Also, wood and other biomass from Florida’s forests already provide renewable energy, and with good forest management they could provide even more.

With regard to climate change, the Governor has set a target to reduce Florida’s greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Both presidential candidates from the Republican and Democrat parties have publicly supported similar reductions through implementation of a cap-and-trade program for carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.

In terms of generating renewable energy, recent comprehensive energy and climate change legislation signed by Governor Crist in June directs the Florida Public Service Commission to prepare a proposed Renewable Portfolio Standard for the Legislature’s review next session. It is likely to stipulate that a greater percentage of energy be generated from renewable sources. For example, Green Circle Bio Energy’s facility in Cottondale is producing hundreds of thousands of tons of wood pellets for use in power plants.

Florida’s state conservation agencies are increasingly looking to preserve “working agricultural lands” — including working forests — via the voluntary purchase of development rights from landowners. The concept is that such lands will be protected from future development, while benefiting the economy and environment by providing carbon sequestration and renewable energy.

Recent state legislation has extended the “Florida Forever” conservation land programme for a further 10 years. The legislation also provides a dedicated funding stream for the Florida Department of Agriculture’s innovative Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. This protects local rural economies by keeping working forests in production.

Forestry Update is sponsored by Greenwood Management. For more information on investing in Forestry please click here