View From The Canopy #38
Hello and welcome to issue #38 of View From The Canopy newsletter. This week finally saw some movement on the issue of old-growth logging on Vancouver Island in B.C., Canada. The provincial government has issued a two year deferral for logging in the Fairy Creek watershed and Central Walbran areas on the request of the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations. Read more about that and other news in this week’s newsletter.
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News articles 📰
[USA]
Biden moves to reverse Trump opening of Alaska forest to logging
The Biden administration on Friday began a process to reverse a Trump-era policy that opened vast swaths of the largest U.S. national forest, the Tongass in Alaska, to logging and mining.
[CANADA]
B.C. defers old-growth logging in Fairy Creek and Central Walbran upon First Nations’ request
B.C. has accepted a request by the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht and Huu-ay-aht First Nations to defer old-growth logging for two years in the Fairy Creek watershed and Central Walbran areas on southwest Vancouver Island, Premier John Horgan announced on Wednesday.
[USA]
How a forestry project helps Black families keep their land
During the past century, Black families in the U.S. have lost more than 90% of their landholdings, often due to factors related to their race. But a new initiative is fighting that trend, helping them generate income from their land and making sure it stays in the family.
read at The Christian Science Monitor
[ENGLAND]
Woods for wildlife and people get £16m funding boost in England
Landowners will be paid thousands of pounds in bonuses for creating new woodlands that boost wildlife, increase public access and reduce flooding, under a new £16m scheme for England announced on Wednesday.
[KENYA]
'We have history': Saving Kenya's last sacred forests
Wearing a crown of cowry shells and traditional regalia, Hillary Mwatsuma intoned a prayer to the ancestors who have been laid to rest in Kaya Kauma, one of 45 sacred forested villages scattered along Kenya’s southern coast, since the 16th century.
[WORLD]
Targeting tree species within ecosystem restoration
Around half of the world’s forests have been lost or are degraded, resulting in loss of biodiversity and essential ecosystem services such as water regulation and food production. Ecosystem restoration can help to restore these vital elements, but it is important that we look at the how, not just the why, when we talk about restoration.
Forest Fires Updates 🔥
🔥 Thunder Bay area, Ontario, Canada
Opinion 💬
The destruction of the last old growth forests has to stop. We must protect the mother trees - by Suzanne Simard
[…] As an ecologist in British Columbia I discovered that trees are connected through below-ground fungal networks and that they communicate with each other and form complex societies similar to our families. After decades of research and hundreds of journal articles published, I have come to understand forests as intelligent systems built on sophisticated relationships with all creatures, including people.
Research & Reports 🔬
The secret bears of Bolivia’s lost dry forests
Researchers have discovered a secret population of spectacled bears in a remnant, endangered forest in the highlands of Bolivia. The forest is one of the last surviving patches of the highly imperilled inter-Andean dry forest. While the spectacled bear population is small and has many threats, researchers say they hope to connect it with other populations.
Featured Forest ✨
Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Sri Lanka
Photo © Dhanushka Vithanage
This weeks featured forest is the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka. Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a forest reserve and a biodiversity hotspot in Sri Lanka. It is of international significance and has been designated a Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sinharaja is the country's last viable area of primary tropical rainforest. More than 60% of the trees are endemic and many of them are considered rare. 50% of Sri Lankan's endemics species of animals (especially butterfly, amphibians, birds, snakes and fish species).
The hilly virgin rainforest, part of the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests ecoregion, was saved from the worst of commercial logging by its inaccessibility, and was designated a World Biosphere Reserve in 1978 and a World Heritage Site in 1988.
Miscellaneous 🍂
Deciphering Words in the Woods: A New Irish Tree Alphabet
Artist Katie Holten seeks to decolonize language and rewild the imagination by transforming letters into trees. Combining the ancient script Ogham with Irish and English, her Irish Tree Alphabet transforms words into an arboreal language of place and belonging.
A never-before-documented flower blooms on one of world’s rarest trees
Only about two dozen trees from the Karomia gigas tree exist in its wild Tanzanian habitat. Its new flower is a hopeful sign for its survival.
Monumental Trees on a map (Netherlands)
Selected Book 📚
Big Lonely Doug
by Harley Rustad
Big Lonely Doug weaves the ecology of old-growth forests, the legend of the West Coast’s big trees, the turbulence of the logging industry, the fight for preservation, the contention surrounding ecotourism, First Nations land and resource rights, and the fraught future of these ancient forests around the story of a logger who saved one of Canada's last great trees.
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
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