The mountainous forests of northern Madagascar are biodiverse beyond measure, containing plant and animal species found nowhere else on the planet. Other forests in Madagascar have been lost in recent centuries and decades, but these have stood the test of time and remained relatively unscathed. They are difficult to access, and some have been officially protected since the 1920s. And yet their protected status is no longer enough: satellite data show they are now being cut down at an increasing rate.

In May, Mongabay reported on the dire situation in Tsaratanana Reserve. Since then, deforestation has continued apace, both in Tsaratanana and a neighboring protected area called COMATSA. Levels of deforestation have spiked since September, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland (UMD) visualized on Global Forest Watch. The dry months of September and October are normally peak season for slash-and-burn, and sources say the clearing is especially severe this year due to economic pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts say the forests are being burned and cleared primarily to make space for fields of marijuana, vanilla, and rice. The scale of the biodiversity loss is immeasurable, conservationists add.Many of the forest areas are so remote that their flora and fauna have not yet been surveyed.

[This] is a loss for everyone, Brian Fisher, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences who has worked in the region, told Mongabay after looking at satellite images that show the deforestation. It hurts my heart to see these patches. It hurts because I know that the value of the forest as a forest is so much more.

Tsaratanana, which means good place in Malagasy, has a certain mystique among scientists. Its a magical forest the most mysterious place in the entirety of Madagascar, Maria Vorontsova, a botanist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who has worked in the reserve, told Mongabay.

Its now unclear how long the reserve will remain in good health. Tsatanananas river valleys, where species richness is especially high, are being stripped of their forests, more so than in past decades, when they did face some threats. Meanwhile, at higher altitudes, once-continuous forest is being threatened for the first time as clearing advances upward; Mongabay has identified several recently deforested areas at elevations higher than 1,600 meters (about 5,200 feet), which researchers say marks the threshold for habitat that is particularly important for the regions endemic, endangered wildlife.

The change did not come overnight. Deforestation levels in Tsaratanana inched up in recent decades, then exploded in the last few years. Between 1996 and 2006, Tsaratanana lost only about 0.1 % of its forest cover to deforestation per year; things got worse from 2006 to 2016, when the level of deforestation increased to about 0.5 % per year, according to a three-volume compendium of Madagascars protected areas published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. Since 2016, the rate has been 1.3% or higher every year, according to Madagascar National Parks (MNP), a semi-public agency that manages the reserve. Government data for 2020 is not yet available, but preliminary satellite data from UMD visualized on Global Forest Watch indicate the deforestation rate in 2020 may be higher than in years past.

The double whammy of deforestation and climate change could have a severe impact on wildlife populations, scientists warn. Tsaratananas elevational range makes the area suitable for a diverse set of plants and animals, including, for example, four genera of endemic bamboo (Hickelia, Oldeania, Sokinochloa and Nastus) and 15 species of tenrec (family Tenrecidae), a shrew-like animal. The reserve also provides crucial habitat for several threatened species found nowhere else in the world, including at least four endangered frog species: Rhombophryne guentherpetersi, Rhombophryne ornata, Rhombophryne tany and Cophyla alticola.

Many species will likely have to shift upslope as the area warms. Indeed, the warming is already pronounced the protected areas average temperature increased by 2.4 Celsius (4.3 Fahrenheit) between 1985 and 2014, according to the compendium and some species have already shifted. If their habitats become fragmented by deforestation, they may have nowhere to go to escape the heat.

The primary cause of deforestation in Tsaratanana is marijuana cultivation, according to MNP. The area is reportedly attractive to marijuana growers and smugglers because of its remoteness. Marijuana cultivation is illegal in Madagascar, regardless of protected area status, and Tsaratanana is one of only two major production areas.

Some of the marijuana product is exported via Nosy Be, a coastal city in the northwest, to nearby Indian Ocean islands. It fetches high prices in the island of Mauritius: an average of about $67 per gram, according to a forthcoming report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Marijuana is also consumed in Madagascar. The price there is low about $0.03 per gram but its still considered a profitable domestic business.

To stop the clearing and burning, MNP is partnering with law enforcement, forming what it calls mixed brigades that descend into the depths of the forest. According to MNP, the brigades have conducted five missions this year, during which they arrested 13 people, destroyed dozens of camps and shelters, and incinerated several tons of marijuana that had already been packaged in bags and cans; they also destroyed 35 hectares (86 acres) of marijuana fields.

UMD satellite data show significant deforestation since September. When first contacted for this article, in October, MNP representatives indicated that the data were misleading that many of the recent tree cover loss alerts were showing deforestation from previous years. However, following brigade missions over the last three months, MNP has confirmed to Mongabay that many of the alerts from the satellite system reflect recent deforestation. Satellite imagery of locations corresponding with the alerts also confirms that much of the deforestation is recent, particularly in upland areas.

Tsaratanana is not the only protected area in the region facing deforestation pressures due to shifting agriculture. COMATSA, a protected area that abuts Tsaratanana to the east, has also seen an increase in deforestation this year and a spike in the last three months, especially in the east of the protected area.

In COMATSA, people are clearing the forest mainly to plant vanilla or rice, and there is also a very small amount of marijuana cultivation, according to Maeva Volanoro, a technical officer for WWF, which manages the protected area.

For many years, COMATSA was somewhat well protected, with deforestation rates at just 0.3-0.5% of the protected areas forest cover per year, according to WWF. But that has changed in the last three years.

Some of the change has been due to fluctuations in international commodities prices. Madagascar produces roughly 80% of the worlds vanilla, and much of it cultivated in the northeast. In 2018, vanilla prices were especially high, and this led to a demand for more land to grow the beans. Consequently, deforestation rates in COMATSA increased to 1.7%, which amounted to 4,224 hectares (10,438 acres) of forest lost that year, about one-third of which was in the hard-core zones designated to protect primary forest. As the vanilla price dropped, pressure on the forests went down by about half in 2019, but deforestation is on the rise again this year, despite low vanilla prices, Volanoro said.

The regional outpost of the environment ministry has attempted to control the spate of slash-and-burn in COMATSA, with three patrols since August. Its work on the ground has confirmed what the Global Forest Watch data show.

Like weve seen in the satellites, the situation is bad, Volanoro told Mongabay.

As in Tsaratanana, the deforestation poses a threat to COMATSAs biodiversity. Its one of the only homes of the critically endangered silky sifaka (Propithecus candidus), a large lemur with white fur. Its also a crucial link in the chain of mountainous forests running across northern Madagascar. Indeed, the name COMATSA is short for corridor Marojejy Tsaratanana; it was designed to connect Marojejy National Park in the northeast with Tsaratanana Reserve in the northwest. It became a fully fledged protected area in 2015. Officially, its two protected areas, COMATSA north and south, with slightly different conservation rules in each.

Unlike Tsaratanana, COMATSA has a mixed-use status that permits local people to pursue livelihoods such as farming and to use resources in the protected area (except in the hard-core zones that have stricter rules). Community groups from villages near the protected area help manage and patrol it, with support from WWF.

Despite the more flexible rules, all of the clearing detected in COMATSA is illegal: even in sections of the protected area where human activity is allowed, deforestation is not. Moreover, slash-and-burn farming violates national law unless a permit is issued.

The uptick in deforestation since September coincides with the regions dry season, which is normally the peak period for slash-and-burn activity. Fires are easier to set in the dry conditions, and cultivation isnt possible then, so people have time to clear the forest in preparation for the rainy season, which begins in November or December.

Economic pressures caused by this years global recession are exacerbating the seasonal trend, local conservationists say. A lack of tourism in Madagascar has rippled through the entire economy, leaving people who live near the forests with less money, and thus more need to exploit them. Meanwhile, MNP has missed out on nearly all of the revenue it earned from ticket fees at the 46 protected areas it runs: it took in $1.84 million in ticket fees in 2019, but only about 5% of that this year.

These multilayered conservation challenges will not be easy to solve, but the singular nature of the problem in Tsaratanana does lend itself to possible solutions. Conservationists told Mongabay that if marijuana cultivation laws were changed, a more transparent farming and management system could be put in place and people would have little reason to farm the crop in the depths of the forest. Madagascars environment ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this article, including a question about whether such reforms are being considered.

Madagascars marijuana laws are a remnant of French colonialism and, perhaps, subject to change. Many countries around the world have reformed their marijuana laws in recent years, and a 2019 op-ed in La Gazette, a Malagasy newspaper, called for Madagascar to do the same. The author argued that legalizing the trade would benefit farmers, medical users, and the public purse. It might also help the tenrecs in the countrys northern forests.

Banner image of a silky sifaka adult and baby in Marojejy National Park by Jeff Gibbs via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Editors note:This story was powered byPlaces to Watch, a Global Forest Watch (GFW) initiative designed to quickly identify concerning forest loss around the world and catalyze further investigation of these areas. Places to Watch draws on a combination of near-real-time satellite data, automated algorithms and field intelligence to identify new areas on a monthly basis. In partnership with Mongabay, GFW is supporting data-driven journalism by providing data and maps generated by Places to Watch. Mongabay maintains complete editorial independence over the stories reported using this data.

Feedback:Use this formto send a message to the editorof this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.

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A Madagascar forest long protected by its remoteness is now threatened by it - Mongabay.com

London leavers bought 73,950 homes outside the capital in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic led the biggest exodus from London in four years.

People from London bought homes worth a collective 27.6bn over the course of the year the largest amount spent since 2007, according to research by the estate agent Hamptons.

The dash for property outside the capital was partly driven by a desire for larger homes with more space for home offices and gardens sparked by life under lockdowns. The same trend was experienced in other big cities across the country.

Sevenoaks, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Oxford were the three areas that experienced the biggest increase in the share of homes bought by Londoners, compared with 2019.

The stamp duty holiday, suspending payment of the tax on the first 500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland until April 2021, also helped to boost house sales.

Despite Covid-19 closing the housing market for seven weeks, the number of homes bought by Londoners outside the capital has risen to the highest level in four years, said Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons.

While leaving London has been a rite of passage for many, often families reaching life-stage milestones, the effects of lockdown and the desire for space seems to have heightened this drift.

Meanwhile, the lure of a stamp duty holiday acted as an impetus for more buyers to bring future planned moves forward. The prospect of homeworking more regularly has also meant that London leavers are moving further than ever before. The average London leaver moved 10 miles further than in 2019 as buyers favour space over commutability.

The research found that the average distance moved by a Londoner buying outside the capital hit 40 miles for the first time in more than a decade, up from 28 miles during the first three months of the year.

This means the average person leaving London from May onwards travels as far as Cambridge to the north, Colchester to the east, Brighton to the south or Didcot to the west.

Hamptons said first-time buyers tended to stay closer to London than those selling up their capital home for a lifestyle change. Since May, the average first-time buyer leaving the capital bought 26 miles away.

Conversely, someone selling a home in London tends to sever their ties more deeply by moving much further, the agency said. The average person selling their London home to buy outside the capital travels 41 miles, 57% further than a first-time buyer. These numbers are reflected in the sorts of homes leavers buy, with someone buying a two-bed property moving an average of 34 miles, while someone buying a four-bed travels 43 miles.

This year, 62% of homes in Sevenoaks were bought by a Londoner, 39% higher than in 2019. Windsor and Maidenhead (+27%), Oxford (+17%) and Rushmoor (+15%) in Hampshire followed.

In the first half of 2020, London leavers bought 6.9% of homes sold outside the capital, equating to 24,480 sales. However, in the second half of 2020, this figure rose to 7.8% and twice as many sales (49,470). In the final six months of 2020, Londoners bought 18.4bn worth of property outside the capital, more than in any full year between 2008 and 2013.

Beveridge said she expected the outmigration trend to continue next year. But usually as prices in the capital begin to flatline, which we forecast to happen in the second half of 2021, more Londoners decide to stay put, she said. Even so, given the housing market has been anything but normal since the onset of Covid, we expect to see the total number of homes bought by London leavers next year to hit 2016 levels.

The average price of a UK home started the year at 239,927, according to the mortgage lender Halifax, dropped to 237,00 after the first lockdown, then rocketed to 253,243. Between the end of June and the end of November, prices experienced the fastest five-month gain since 2004.

The pandemic triggered some clear changes in what people wanted in a home. The website Zoopla analysed searches by buyers and found that open-plan living was sharply down in popularity as more people worked from home while a home office or study and gardens became the priority. Detached, rural and secluded became Zooplas fourth, fifth and sixth most common search terms, as greater numbers of people shunned metropolitan living.

Sevenoaks: 39% increase.

Windsor and Maidenhead: 27% increase.

Oxford: 17% increase.

Rushmoor: 15% increase.

Eastbourne: 15% increase.

Wokingham: 13% increase.

Stevenage: 12% increase.

Luton: 10% increase.

Epsom and Ewell: 10% increase.

Brighton and Hove: 10% increase.

Excerpt from:
Covid led to huge London property exodus, says Hamptons - The Guardian

President-elect Joe Biden gave a sobering year-end message, particularly about the challenges remaining in the Covid-19 crisis and in the impact of the massive cyberattack on U.S. government agencies.

Biden said that there was hope with a new vaccine, which he received on Monday, but that the virus is still raging out of control, with more than 3,000 deaths per day.

Here is the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. So we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines. As frustrating as it is to hear, its going to take patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus.

The major news networks and NBC and ABC carried the remarks. CBS streamed the remarks on CBSN.

Related StoryUnemployment: Benefits End For Millions, Future Stimulus Funding Uncertain

Biden praised Congress for working together to pass another Covid-19 relief bill, but said that additional measures will be needed, including money for vaccine distribution and additional stimulus checks to boost the economy.

He criticized President Donald Trump for his response, or lack of response, the the cyberattack. Ive seen no evidence that suggests its under control, Biden said, adding that the Defense Department wont even brief us.

Biden said that Trumps failure will land on my doorstep, and he cited comments from some members of the administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr, who have said that Russia likely was behind it. Trump, though, has cast doubt on that assessment and pointed to China as a culprit.

The truth is this, the Trump administration failed to prioritize cybersecurity, said Biden, adding that Trump has been engaged in an irrational downplaying the seriousness of the hack.

Asked whether he thought that he would get a honeymoon period when he takes office, or a period in which politicians of both parties tone down their rhetoric and work together, Biden said, I dont think its a honeymoon. I think its a nightmare that everybodys going through, and they all say, Its got to end. Its not a honeymoon. Theyre not doing me a favor.

After he took a series of questions, Fox News Peter Doocy asked Biden whether he thinks the stories about his son, Hunter Biden, that came out during the campaign were Russian disinformation and a smear effort.

Yes, yes, yes, Biden said. God love you. Youre a one-horse pony.

He added that his Justice Department will be totally on its own in making judgments about how they should proceed.

Hunter Biden revealed earlier this month that he was under a federal investigation of his taxes.

Read the rest here:
Joe Biden, In Year-End Message, Warns That Our Darkest Days In The Battle Against Covid Are Ahead Of Us - Deadline

All of the world's freshwater dolphin species are now threatened with extinction.

With the small gray dolphin moving into the endangered category on the IUCN's latest Red List of Threatened Species, all of the world's freshwaterdolphinspecies are now listed as threatened. Of the 128,918 species included on the updated list, released Thursday, 35,765 are threatened with extinction as of December, according to the conservation organization.

And 31 plant and animal species have gone extinct, including all 17 freshwater fish species found mostly in Lake Lanao and its outlet in the Philippines.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

There is at least some positive news in this week's report. Europe's largest land mammal, the European bison, has moved from vulnerable to near threatened.

The bison and 25 other species recoveries documented "demonstrate the power of conservation," Bruno Oberle, IUCN director-general, said in a statement. "Yet the growing list of extinct species is a stark reminder that conservation efforts must urgently expand. To tackle global threats such as unsustainable fisheries, land clearing for agriculture, and invasive species, conservation needs to happen around the world and be incorporated into all sectors of the economy."

The European bison population has seen a recovery, thanks to continued conservation efforts.

The small gray dolphin is mostly found in the Amazon river system. Its numbers have been severely depleted by fishing, river damming and water pollution. Eliminating the use of curtains of fishnet called gill nets, which hang in the water, and reducing the number of dams in their various habitats are priorities that should help numbers recover, the IUCN says.

The Chiriqui Harlequin Frog, endemic to Costa Rica and Panama, is now extinct.

Three Central American frog species are also now considered extinct. Additionally, 22 frog species across Central and South America are listed as critically endangered (possibly extinct). The main reason for these extinctions could be chytridiomycosis disease, an infectious disease caused by the chytrid fungus that affects amphibians worldwide.

"As a conservationist, the most emotionally impactful news to present is the confirmation of extinction. The causes range from overexploiting to disease, with some threats easier to mitigate than others," Thomas E Lacher Jr., a professor of wildlife and fisheries sciences at Texas A&M University, said in a statement.

Grevillea caleyi, from the protea family, is now listed as critically endangered.

Animals aren't the only species on the extinct and nearly extinct list. According to the new list, 45% of the protea family of plant species are now considered vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. These flowering plants grow mainly in the Southern Hemisphere. And three macadamia species have entered the IUCN Red List as threatened with extinction in the wild.

Excerpt from:
Bison recovery offset by 31 animal and plant species declared extinct - CNET

News

You supply the house, you supply the utilities, you supply the septic tank. Mother Nature took care of the rest.

This waterfall isnt quite as dramatic as the one outside Pittsburgh atop which Fallingwater sits, but the 60-foot-high Buttermilk Falls makes for a dramatic enough setting for your own vacation home. Its part of a five-acre lot on White Haven Rd., Bear Creek, Pa. 18702 | Luzerne County Association of Realtors MLS images via Century 21 Smith Horrigan Group

The story of the most famous house in Pennsylvania began when Pittsburgh department-store magnate Edgar Kaufmann took starchitect Frank Lloyd Wright on a tour of the lot in Bear Run where he wanted Wright to design a house for his family.

Wright asked Kaufmann what their favorite spot was on the property. Kaufmann showed him a clearing next to a waterfall where they loved to picnic and watch the stream.

Wright promptly plopped the Kaufmanns house on top of the waterfall. And the rest is history.

Im not suggesting that you even try to duplicate Fallingwater on this Bear Creek lot for sale. But if you are looking for a one-of-a-kind lot on which to build your own vacation retreat, well, here it is.

And to be fair, its current owner wouldnt mind if you did try to one-up Wright on this lot.

Buttermilk Falls at peak water flow

I would hope that if somebody did build on there, they wouldnt pack it out with as many homes as humanly possible, says Victor Juliano. (At least in theory, local zoning would allow you to build up to five houses on this lot if you found the room.) I was always thinking of a Frank Lloyd Wright type of house.

This lot certainly has the Wright stuff. A tributary of Bear Creek runs through its middle, and in the middle of that tributarys passage through this lot is the 60-foot-high waterfall you see at left, known as Buttermilk Falls. The lot is surrounded by conservation lands, which means that your retreat wont be surrounded by subdivisions someday.

This lot has been in private hands for more than a century and in the hands of Julianos family for 80 years. It was assembled by a Northeast Pennsylvania tycoon named Albert Lewis. Lewis, whose work as a timekeeper on the Lehigh Valley Railroad impressed founder Asa Packer so much he put Lewis in charge of the first train to run from the railroads hub in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) to White Haven, married into the family that supplied lumber to the railroad and eventually went into the lumber business himself.

What brought Lewis to Bear Creek, however, was ice. He built a dam and a company village on the creek a half-mile upstream from here in 1895 that became the foundation of a prosperous ice-hauling business. The company survived his death in 1923, going out of business finally in 1938. This lot was not part of the ice operation, but it was part of the huge tracts of land Lewis amassed in Luzerne County. Juliano estimates that at his peak, Lewis owned about 100,000 acres in this rural part of the county.

Julianos grandfather eventually acquired this land from Lewis descendants through sheer persistence. When he went camping on the plot, Juliano says, he would ask the owners if they were willing to sell it. And for years and years, they said No, they had no interest in selling it. And one time, he went up there, and they said Yes, and he bought it. This would have been sometime around 1940, 17 years after Lewis death.

The falls in winter

Since then, Julianos family has used it as a getaway and a campground. Their own plans to build on the property never came to fruition, and as a result, he says, they became caretakers of the lot. And the lot became a community trust of sorts. I met a guy who was in his 90s once in Bear Creek Village, he says. And he told me that he used to go there with his father and play in the water. Somebody else told me that was where they proposed to their wife. Its meant a lot to a lot of people.

Juliano, who now lives in South Jersey, no longer visits this place like he used to, nor do his relatives, so they have decided to sell it on the open market for the first time since it was assembled by Lewis in the early 20th century. The stories he tells should make you aware that you are buying not just a lot with a lovely waterfall in it but a piece of Bear Creek Village history. Its yours to do with as you please, but if you decide to restrict access to it while you prepare to build your own vacation dream house on it, be aware that you might want to let your neighbors know respectfully that you plan on making it truly private.

Closeup of the face of the falls

Even though this lot is closer to Wilkes-Barre, a 20-minute drive to the northeast, than to Mt. Pocono, about 35 minutes to the east, its still a good place to build a Poconos vacation home, as several ski resorts, including Big Boulder, Split Rock and Camelback, are a 25- to 35-minute drive from here. And this lot is easier to get to from Philadelphia than many other places in the heart of the Poconos: its about a 10-minute drive from the Wilkes-Barre interchange (Exit 115) of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Northeast Extension. With state game lands even closer to this lot, you can indulge your hunting desires in season as well.

Even though he would love to see a Frank Lloyd Wright type of house on this site, Juliano, who is himself a developer, says he never would have chosen Wright himself to build it had he pursued that vision: He just made the decision and he built what he wanted, he says. He wouldnt be my ideal architect.

Given his personality, temper and monumental ego, he probably wouldnt have been yours either, but I suggest that whoever you do choose should be at the very least attuned to nature and rural environments. You will be giving that person a spectacular canvas on which to create a work of art.

Juliano hopes that whoever buys it at least doesnt clear the land and put a bunch of modular houses on top. And, he adds, You wouldnt want to put a McMansion on top, you know what I mean?

I certainly do. And I hope you do, too. It will be your land, and you can do with it what you will, but whatever you do with it, I think you at least should respect both its history and its setting.

THE FINE PRINT

LOT SIZE:5.05 acres

ZONING:Residential

SALE PRICE:$267,500

OTHER STUFF:Should you decide to build on this lot, you will need to provide your own electricity source, find a suitable source of water and build your own septic system, for this lot lacks public utilities.

White Haven Rd., Bear Creek, Pa. 18702 [Ben Piccillo | Century 21 Smith Horrigan Group]

See more here:
Just Listed in the Poconos: Five-Acre Lot in Bear Creek - Philadelphia magazine

Charles Bolinger, charles.bolinger@edwpub.net

Brewster Companies is blessed to have work so theyre giving back

MARYVILLE Brewster Companies, with land clearing, demolition, site preparation, erosion control and paving divisions, plans to donate 300, 15-pound turkeys to the first 300 drivers who show up at their location Saturday.

Between 9 a.m. and noon, drivers can visit 6321 East Main in Maryville and Brewster employees will put a frozen bird in their trunk, cargo area or on the back seat. Senior vice president Brent Phelps said that breaks down to 1.6 seconds per vehicle.

Phelps said for the past 15 years, the company has thrown employee holiday parties. Since thats impossible this year, they wondered what could they do to give back to the community. Unlike others who are unemployed or struggling to find work, 2020 has been good to Brewster Companies, Phelps said.

We are blessed to have work, he added.

To be charitable, they conceived the idea of giving away turkeys. After the company president approved it, Phelps soon discovered the difficulty in finding 300 turkeys to give away but after overcoming the hurdles, the frozen birds will be delivered in time for the giveaway. He said there are no other items included with the turkeys.

Mother Nature decided to throw a wrench into the plan by adding rain for Friday and Saturday morning. Phelps said adding a tent to the drive-through plan meant adhering to another set of rules.

The tent will be on the crushed rock parking lot in front of the building and Phelps said entrance and exit signs will be posted. Drivers pull in, workers load the turkey and drivers exit to either continue east on East Main or make a U-turn and head west.

They can roll down their windows or not, well put the bird in then tell em, Merry Christmas, Phelps said.

Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at 618-659-5735

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Brewster Companies is blessed to have work so theyre giving back - The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Authorities said people were living illegally on the North Portland property for months. An eviction Tuesday morning sparked a protest.

PORTLAND, Ore. Authorities early Tuesday morning made several arrests and cleared people who they said have been trespassing for months at the "Red House on Mississippi," a private property in North Portland.

The Multnomah County Sheriffs Officesaid the alleged trespassers had been ordered to leave the property by court order in September.

Sheriffs deputies and Portland police officers arrived at the home, on North Mississippi Avenue near Skidmore Street, around 5 a.m. Tuesday. Police blocked off streets and sidewalks surrounding the property while they removed people from the area.

The police activity led to a tense confrontation between protesters and police.

Officers took one person who was armed with a gun into custody. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) announced seven arrests in a press release Tuesday morning.

Police later said protesters tore down fencing around the property and built a barricade blocking North Mississippi Avenue.

Just after 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, police announced that the barricade must be removed and that continued criminal activity at the scene "may result in arrests including the potential use of force."

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced at about 6 p.m. that he was authorizing the PPB to "use all lawful means to end the illegal occupation" on the property.

A tweet fromRed House's Twitter accountsaid the property is not an autonomous zone but rather "an active eviction blockade on Indigenous land."

According to representatives for the family inside the house, police "violently dismantled the 75+ day "Red House' encampment" on Tuesday morning.

"Along with sweeping the encampment, which supports and surrounds the Red House, officers entered the home itself, destroying its interior, and violently arresting two residentsinjuring at least one," the statement reads.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell on Wednesday called for a "peaceful and safe resolution to the occupation." He later recorded a video about the occupation that was posted to Twitter.

"We are aware of the stockpile of weapons and the presence of firearms," he said in the video. "We are aware of the threat to the community, to media, to police. We've seen the attacks. The Portland police will enforce the law and use force if necessary to restore order to the neighborhood."

Lovell said that can be avoided if those in the encampment "end it peacefully by putting down their weapons and leave the barricade."

Officers have responded to at least 81 calls at the property and surrounding area from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, according to PPB. The calls included reports of fights, shots fired, burglary, theft, vandalism, noise violations, trespassing and threats. Community members told officers they were threatened and intimidated by people on the property, police said.

The Multnomah County Circuit Court ordered an eviction at the property in February 2020.

The judgment was issued prior to state and federal emergency moratoriums, said a press release from the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office. The eviction moratoriums do not apply to evictions based on post-nonjudicial foreclosures, such as this case.

In September, a group of protesters staged a sit-in at the property, which they said was the home of a Black-Indigenous family. The sheriffs office said housing and food assistance had been provided to people at the property.

Police announced the following arrests on Tuesday:

Read more:
'There will be no autonomous zone in Portland' | Wheeler says encampment at 'Red House' must end - KGW.com

GOULD Stunned by unprecedented megafires, Colorado is embracing logging mowing holes up to 140 acres in beetle-infested lodgepole pines in an effort to revive out-of-balance forests.

This for-profit mechanized tree-cutting, concentrated between the blackened Cameron Peak and East Troublesome burn scars, has been clearing 3,000 acres a year.

And state foresters propose to clear more.

At two cutting sites west of Fort Collins last week, hulking red and yellow tractors equipped with whirling hot saws sliced through 12-inch trunks of the towering pines, then as they thumped to the ground raked them into bunches. De-limbers stripped off branches. Hooked pinchers hoisted the logs into bus-sized loads for diesel-belching trucks. Drivers hauled these along icy mountain roads to sawmills at Saratoga and Parshall, where workers convert logs to lumber as a surging national wood-products market pays record prices.

This large-scale cutting creates fire breaks to give firefighters a place to make a stand and take out the energy from inevitable future record wildfires, Colorado State Forest Service director Mike Lester said.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

When lodgepoles grow back, the surrounding broader forests will gain age diversity, with different species such as aspens popping up amid pines on newly-sunlit slopes, Lester said.

In lodgepole forests, if you want to mimic what happens to lodgepole naturally, you do clear-cuts, he said. Lodgepole pines naturally regenerate with forest-clearing fires.

Colorado traditionally hasnt had logging on the industrial scale seen in Oregon and other northwestern states, and forest ecologists warn against clear-cuts that accelerate erosion, degrade wildlife habitat and enable increased human incursions.

But state officials now are turning to this large-scale cutting as an alternative to inaction at an especially difficult moment. Across western Colorado, insect attacks on old and drought-enfeebled trees over the past decade have ravaged 5 million acres. Systematic suppression of wildfires, federal land managers priority for a century, has led to unnatural thickening.

For years, ecologists and emergency planners have warned that dying, dry and overly-dense forests would lead to massive, ruinous fires. Climate warming has emerged as the trigger, unleashing flames this year that burned across 700,000 acres, including the three largest fires ever recorded in Colorado: the Cameron Peak fire, at 208,913 acres; the East Troublesome fire, at 193,812 acres; and the Pine Gulch fire, at 139,007 acres.

If we keep doing things as weve been doing, this is going to be what we will see, Lester said.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

Colorados population growth and development boom, particularly the construction of mountain homes by people compelled to escape cities, complicates the forest imbalance. Houses in woods force progressively more aggressive fire-snuffing, which allows more increased thickening of trees.

A recent state report estimated a $4.2 billion backlog in forest-thinning needed to selectively clear trees and create safety buffers around the most at-risk forest homes. Thats tree removal that state agencies and property owners generally must pay for in contrast to this industrial logging that brings in revenue when market conditions are right.

Last week, state foresters supervising the cutting of a 100-acre patch on Owl Mountain, within a 376-acre parcel controlled mostly by the federal Bureau of Land Management, pointed to the economics revenue of about $200,000 to state and federal agencies from loggers. And even if logging wasnt profitable, every dollar spent removing trees from fire-prone forests would save an estimated $7 in avoided firefighting costs, Steamboat Springs-based forester Carolina Manriquez said.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

Now we have 200,000-acre fires rolling through. What is 100 acres? Nothing at the landscape scale, Manriquez said. We need to do more of this. I mean, were spending millions to suppress fires.

Colorado forests that increasingly burn, along with millions of acres where beetle-kill leaves trees unusable, might have helped sustain logging companies, said C.J. Pittington, a Walden-based logger running a 40-ton red feller-buncher last week clearing a 140-acre chunk of state land. He can mow through about 5 acres of lodgepole forest in a day and has built up a business his father began in 1973, currently employing a dozen workers, and expressed hope the big fires will lead to greater social acceptance of large-scale logging.

Logging in forests near sprawling mountain municipalities also will help protect people, Pittington said, referring to the East Troublesome fires destruction of 300 homes and other buildings.

If the U.S. Forest Service would have done something like this behind Grand Lake, many homes there would still be standing, Pittington said.

Future expansion of logging in northwestern Colorado will depend on industrial capacity, said John Twitchell, the supervisory state forester overseeing the work, who also serves on the states forest advisory commission.

Our logging industry has been small. We havent had a lot of users of the wood. Our capacity to use wood will dictate how much work we can do on our landscapes, Twitchell said.

We want to re-generate a new, healthy forest. As long as this dead timber is here, inevitably, it is going to fall and in time it will burn, he said. Weve seen the consequences of inaction. If we can have more cuts like this, we can accomplish a lot of goals at once.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

But forest ecologists raised concerns about the logging. Industrial clear-cuts of 40 acres or more widely have been seen as harmful. Lodgepole forests like those in northwestern Colorado play key roles in nature stabilizing mountainsides that otherwise erode into streams and eventually municipal reservoirs, helping form soil, giving habitat for raptors and other wild animals.

If it is just willy-nilly punching holes in forests, it may not do any good at all and may make things worse, said Greg Aplet, a Denver-based senior scientist for the Wilderness Society.

Forest tree-cutting must be done based on large landscape-scale master plans, connected to broad restoration around the East Troublesome and Cameron Peak burn scars, he said. The risk is that Colorado forest officials, once beetle-killed lodgepole pines are removed from state land, will try to expand cutting on private and federal land by using social concern about fires to grab the social license to conduct more logging without the kind of review and careful ecological analysis that normally would attend large-scale logging, Aplet said.

The Wilderness Society isnt opposed to logging. Were not opposed to forest management. What we are opposed to is bogus science, poorly-planned projects and squandering money that could be spent on treatments that actually improve forest health, he said. There is reason to keep sawmills alive so that we have a destination for the logs that come out of well-planned forest restoration projects.

University of Colorado Denver forest ecologist Diana Tomback said much depends on how much forest thinning is done and where. When westerners began snuffing wildfires a century ago, this obligated some form of logging to replace disturbed natural processes, Tomback said. But large clear-cuts cause erosion and even standing majority-dead forests can be preferable ecologically, she said.

A storm of threats climate warming, megafires, insect outbreaks and drought is converging now to greatly diminish our nations once-magnificent forests, Tomback said, suggesting Gov. Jared Polis should convene a forest science brain trust to develop a strategy.

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

This convergence is new, and we are learning. And the answers may not all be there, she said. But we need a methodical approach. We have to sit down and talk about a new forest management paradigm. We dont want to do things ad hoc.

Federal forest managers at U.S. Forest Service headquarters werent available for comment. A newly-appointed regional director has declined for a month to discuss the overall health of Colorado forests in the face of climate warming, insect infestations and wildfires.

Lester was looking to make that connection. Most of the acres burned this year were in federally-managed forests, he said, urging better shared stewardship.

Polis recently proposed spending $6 million for grants to improve forest health, but the scale of work to save dying forests requires far more, Lester said.

What do we need from the feds? Certainly we need financial resources. And we need to sit down and coordinate what we are going to do. How are we going to get this done?

See original here:
Colorado looks to logging to help re-balance forests in an era of climate-triggered megafires - The Denver Post

Sunshine Holdings Group Managing Director Vish Govindasamy urged the Government to strengthen the backend structure of the local agriculture sector by identifying the key pain points of both public and private institutions and addressing them by actively engaging in discussions with relevant stakeholders of the industry.

Speaking as a panellist at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit Roadmap for Takeoff: Driving a People-Centric Economic Revival, organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) recently, Govindasamy said that fortifying this framework would prepare the agriculture sector to leverage numerous post-Covid opportunities, bring prosperity for all parties involved and make the sector resilient for any future disruption.

Covid-19 has brought several opportunities for the Agri sector, and we have ambitious plans on being self-sufficient in agriculture, dairy and fishery.

While we are preparing for that, we need to make sure that all backend processes and the framework which encompasses these processes have to be robust, he said.

Taking the dairy industry as an example, Govindasamy said, The country has a great vision for the local dairy industry intending to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in milk by 2023. However, the backend framework has to be perfect before we even try to bring a herd.

Also, the animals need to have enough feed, which means that we have to clear land for farmers to grow. This needs to be done through a transparent land clearing process. Furthermore, the industry needs to deploy enough machinery and bring in modern technologies to meet this target. There are so many aspects to be looked at from a backend operations perspective to make front end operations of the dairy industry successful, said Govindasamy.

Read more:
Call to build a resilient agri sector - Sunday Observer

By Eric Trent

The Chronicle

WILLAPA HILLS Its a surprisingly warm 40 degrees outside as I arrive at a house Ive never seen before in Raymond at 5:30 a.m. Friday. A Pacific County native, Im back home to embark on my first-ever hunting trip and have no idea what to expect.

Jeff Boggs is loading gear into his red, lifted Chevy pickup as he greets me when I pull into the driveway. He hands me a pair of camouflage pants and a long sleeve shirt as I slip my boots on and climb into the cab.

We merge onto U.S. Highway 101 as Boggs rolls his window down and says, Theres your picture! as a herd of elk graze in the darkness of early morning just off the road; less than 100 yards from his house.

Unfortunately, these elk are on private property and are illegal to shoot. Instead, we head deep into the heart of the forest in search of one of Washingtons most prized big game animals.

Adult bull (male) Roosevelt elk can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, and average around 600 to 800 pounds. Adult cows (females) weigh in around 500 pounds. With thick bodies, short tails and long legs, adult elk stand 4 to 5 feet high just at the shoulder.

The first elk Boggs harvested two years ago gave him over 200 pounds of meat and lasted him the entire year. He processes everything on his own, from dressing and cleaning to cutting every steak and grinding the burger.

This is the best meat Ive ever eaten, Boggs said. My kid will eat elk and deer over anything. Id rather have an animal Ive killed over store-bought meat any day.

Boggs and I are heading to Game Management Unit 506, also known as the Willapa Hills region, which runs from the Columbia River in Wahkiakum County all the way up north of Route 6, east of Menlo.

General season ended in Western Washington on Nov. 18 for modern firearms and Sept. 24 for archery. Right now, the only hunting that is open in the Willapa Hills is late archery elk, a season that runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 15, and Boggs is trying to fill his freezer after striking out during early archery.

Boggs, 33, has been hunting since he was 9 years old, getting one pheasant his first year out. He bagged his first deer at just 10 years old, and has harvested a deer every year since then except once. He didnt start hunting elk until four years ago, after he bought his first bow.

When we arrive at the spur of a gated logging road at 6 a.m., its still dark out and were the first hunters to get here. Typically, during hunting season, every timber company gate has a cluster of cars parked in front of it as thousands of hunters descend upon the woods.

In 2019, there were 54,500 elk hunters statewide. In the Willapa Hills alone, there were 1,916 hunters during the general season, many of which pour in from urban areas and cities. This year, 98,000 elk tags were bought statewide since April 1. In the Green Creek area east of Menlo, there were 30-foot fifth-wheel motorhomes parked on the sides of the logging roads.

Boggs and I, reveling in the early-morning solitude at our empty gate, put our camouflage on and began trekking up a winding logging road. Its 7 a.m., still a bit dark out, as we step as lightly as possible on the crunchy gravel.

Boggs holds his bow by the string as he walks. Its a Bowtech Realm SR6, one he bought used earlier this year and set him back $900. In his Bowtech Octane quiver are Easton 6.5mm carbon arrows. A quality entry-level bow for a first-time hunter, he said, would run about $500.

He got into bow hunting for a multitude of reasons, the main one being that archery season runs from Sept. 12-24, during the height of the rut, when horns clash and males vie for female mating partners. Its the easiest time to bag an elk as archers use an assortment of calls, such as a bull elk challenge and a female in heat, to coax the bulls near for a clean shot. Boggs uses Phelps Game Calls, a company located in Pe Ell.

Another advantage for bow hunters is that modern firearm season doesnt begin until Nov. 25, about a month after the rut has ended, meaning a lot less hunters are out during this time. In 2019, there were over 30,000 modern firearm hunters in the state compared to less than 15,000 archery hunters.

After 20 minutes of slowly trudging uphill, Boggs and I reach the first clearing. Its the spot he shot his first elk two years ago. I stand a few feet back, concealed behind a small cluster of bushes, as he surveys the landscape with his Vortex binoculars. We gingerly move along the side of the road that runs parallel to the clearing, looking for any signs of movement or the telltale tan bodies of the giant elk.

Archery hunting is no easy feat, I begin to realize, as Boggs points to a stump off in the distance and asks how far away I think it is. After years of covering high school football games, I felt I have an accurate judgement of yardage. I guess 50 yards. Boggs takes out his rangefinder and says Nope. 100 yards.

Even that stump looks like a tough distance to land a shot, and in reality, its still a bit further than the optimal shooting range of 40 yards with a bow. His maximum range is 80 yards, but even then its a desperation shot.

You have to get so close, and if the wind blows they smell you and youre not going to get your animal, Boggs said. Youve got to hunt the wind. If I have an 80-yard shot and I feel like I can get closer, Im getting closer.

As we continue along the road, the only sound is the crackling gravel under our boots. Every word we exchange is a hushed whisper. We need every advantage we can get to spot these elk before they see, smell and/or hear us.

With a modern firearm, a well-aimed hunter can drop an elk from hundreds of yards away. Still, modern firearm hunters had a lower success rate than archery hunters in the state last year; 9 percent for firearms and 10 percent for archery. Thats mostly due to double the amount of firearm hunters, however. In the Willapa Hills, archery hunters had a bit more luck. Of the 785 archery hunters, 133 successfully harvested an elk, for a 17 percent success rate.

Still, the odds are against us today.

We make our way through multiple spurs, guided by an app that shows the owner for every parcel of land in the area to make sure we dont stumble upon private property. It isnt until about 4 miles in that we find our first spot where elk bedded down the night before. Boggs points to a big circle and a smaller circle in the grass. Thats where a mom and its baby laid down, he said.

Yards away, we find our first fresh elk poop. Boggs guesses its hours old. We follow the poop trail down a branching road a couple hundred yards before it disappears completely. At some point they left the road and went off into the thick blanket of trees and brush, he said. We wont venture into the trees. Not only would our steps be too loud, but the branches are too thick to get off a clean shot even if we did find them.

We continue on, stopping every so often to rest, as Boggs tells hunting stories in a whisper. He tells why he wont elk hunt with a firearm, because of the thousands of people and craziness it brings. He shares a story of his friends dads friend who shot an elk and after locating it was approached by a father and son who claimed it was them who had shot it. There was an argument, and the man was shot and killed by the father and son.

Its just one example of the hyper-competitiveness of elk hunting, and how difficult it can be to get one of your own. Even Boggs had someone try to steal the elk he killed. After landing a shot he was sure would be fatal, Boggs sat on a stump and waited for the elk to die. Chasing after a shot elk is a huge mistake, he said, as they will run for miles and miles if pursued.

When he finally located the elk, a hunter was standing next to it, claiming he had shot it. Boggs showed him his arrows, which matched the arrow in the elk and, luckily, the hunter continued on his way.

Still, the positive encounters far outweigh the negative ones for Boggs. He shoots at least 10 arrows a day, 365 days a year in anticipation for the season. He has targets set up at his house so he can even shoot out of the window of his trophy room.

I dont want to have to think about it, I want to draw it and have it just like a gun, Boggs said. Youve got to build the muscle memory. Its all technique. Once you learn how, its all easy.

We survey a handful of clearings as we make a giant loop on the logging roads back toward Boggs truck. We walk a total of 7 miles and dont see a single elk, though the bedded-down grass and fresh poop let us know we must have just missed them.

As we near the truck, he takes me down a wooded trail that he saw mushrooms growing in earlier this year. We collect a handful of chanterelles and a large, pink coral mushroom before arriving at the gate. Looks like we wont go home empty-handed after all.

For now, its back home for some lunch, then hell head back out for a few more hours until dark. Hell return on Saturday and Sunday, too, chasing the thrill of the hunt.

Jeff Boggs draws back his $900 Bowtech Realm SR6 bow. Boggs harvested his first elk, a cow, two years ago.

See the article here:
Hunters have one final chance to bag an elk - The Daily World