View From The Canopy #36
Hello and welcome to issue #36 of View From The Canopy newsletter. In this week’s issue more stories and interviews coming from the Fairy Creek blockade in Canada. Will all this attention and momentum finally lead to proper protection of the old-growth forests? The B.C. provincial government seems unwilling to do what’s needed to preserve these last untouched forests that are privately owned by logging companies and in danger of clear-cutting. Maybe it’s time for the federal government to step in?
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News articles 📰
[UK]
UK banks’ support for deforestation firms topped £900m last year
British banks provided at least £900m in finance last year to companies involved in deforestation overseas, research has shown, putting pressure on the government to include financial institutions in plans to force companies to root out illegal deforestation from their supply chains
[B.C., CANADA]
‘Enough is enough’: Canadian news organizations file legal action for press freedom at Fairy Creek
The Canadian Association of Journalists, along with a coalition of news organizations including The Narwhal, are demanding the RCMP ensure journalists fair access to demonstrations and arrests taking place at old-growth logging blockades on Vancouver Island
[B.C., CANADA]
Ottawa dollars can save B.C.'s old-growth forests
A coalition of conservationists is urging the B.C. government to use federal funds to end the province’s new war in the woods on Vancouver Island, protect old-growth forest and establish targets for endangered ecosystems.
[BRAZIL]
Brazil’s Bid to Outsource Amazon Conservation Finds Few Takers
Brazil is seeking to share the cost and burden of protecting the rainforest with the private sector. But it has found few firms willing to help
[PARAGUAY]
Drugs, fire, settlers poised to wipe out one of Paraguay’s most biodiverse forests
San Rafael National Park/Proposed National Reserve encompasses one of the most unique, biodiverse and threatened forests in Paraguay. Fires in late 2020 burned an estimated 45% of the reserve, and biologists say it may take decades for the area to recover. Meanwhile, drug traffickers are expanding illegal marijuana plantations within San Rafael and on May 21, more than a hundred outsiders reportedly crossed into the reserve where they are clearing trees and establishing settlements.
[B.C., CANADA]
Follow That Tree: Where the Giant Came From — and Where It Might Have Gone
After photos of a massive log on a truck went viral, the government says old growth of its size is now protected. Environmentalists say that’s not true.
Forest Fires Updates 🔥
[USA]
Grim western fire season starts much drier than record 2020
The soil in the West is record dry for this time of year. In much of the region, plants that fuel fires are also the driest scientists have seen. The vegetation is primed to ignite, especially in the Southwest where dead juniper trees are full of flammable needles.
Interview 🎤
As tensions escalate and arrest tallies grow at logging blockades on Vancouver Island, The Narwhal spoke with one of the foresters tapped to help the province navigate its old-growth woes
Tzeporah Berman on her Fairy Creek arrest and old-growth
Tension continues to rise at the Fairy Creek old-growth blockade, where Tzeporah Berman was arrested last week for defying an exclusion zone being enforced by the RCMP.
Research & Reports 🔬
Nature funding must triple by 2030 to protect land, wildlife and climate
Global annual spending to protect and restore nature needs to triple this decade to about $350 billion by 2030 and rise to $536 billion by 2050, a U.N.’s State of Finance for Nature report said on Thursday, urging a shift in mindset among financiers, businesses and governments.
Featured Forest ✨
Goblin Forest, New Zealand
This weeks featured forest is the Goblin Forest in Taranaki, New Zealand. If you follow Pembroke Road from the Taranaki town of Stratford, you'll come to the area of Mount Taranaki known as East Egmont. A variety of walks begin here, but many visitors come exclusively to walk through the Goblin Forest, otherwise known as the Kamahi Walk. This forest looks like something from a fantasy movie. It is primarily kamahi trees which began life perched on the trunks of other trees. Their trunks and branches have grown through and around the existing trees, creating the distinctive gnarled, twisted forest. Hanging mosses, liverworts and ferns have added to the strange effect.
Miscellaneous 🍂
After visiting a two-thousand-year-old linden tree in England, William Bryant Logan explores the nearly forgotten practices of coppicing and pollarding, or cutting back a tree to stimulate growth, and discovers a symbiotic relationship between humans and trees.
The 'messy' alternative to tree-planting
Trees are excellent at taking carbon out of the atmosphere and trapping it in their trunks, roots and leaves. But what if planting them wasn't the solution?
With giant trolls, one artist preserves imagination – and the environment
Danish eco-artist Thomas Dambo built the spiky-haired troll, named Røskva, from discarded scraps of wood. It’s one of five trolls commissioned by Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens for its 323 acres of resplendent riverside woodland. The “Guardians of the Seeds” exhibition aims to give visitors an emotional connection with nature that will encourage them to become stewards of it.
read at The Christian Science Monitor
Selected Book 📚
The Heartbeat of Trees
by Peter Wohlleben
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees A powerful return to the forest, where trees have heartbeats and roots are like brains that extend underground. Where the color green calms us, and the forest sharpens our senses. In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world. In an era of cell phone addiction, climate change, and urban life, many of us fear we've lost our connection to nature-but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact. Drawing on science and cutting-edge research, The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans can have with nature, exploring: the language of the forest the consciousness of plants and the eroding boundary between flora and fauna. A perfect book to take with you into the woods, The Heartbeat of Trees shares how to see, feel, smell, hear, and even taste the forest. Peter Wohlleben, renowned for his ability to write about trees in an engaging and moving way, reveals a wondrous cosmos where humans are a part of nature, and where conservation and environmental activism is not just about saving trees-it's about saving ourselves, too.
read article by author at The Guardian
Until next week ✌️
I hope you enjoyed the view from the canopy. If you've come across any interesting articles or you've written something yourself please hit reply and let me know about them.
See you next week!
Cheers,
Johan
🌳