Tree Trends

From Chris Mooney comes this pathetic story of the Bush administration's continued efforts to erode science. It seems the Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that species recovery plans under the Endangered Species Act can only use genetic science that was in place at the time a species was listed. So if a species was listed in 1975 but today's genetic techniques show that it actually consists of two subspecies, too bad. Managers can only 1975 data. This is incredibly stupid if you assume that the purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to help endangered and threatened species recover. If, as in the Bush administration, the ESA is a nuisance to be ignored when possible, then the new interpretation makes sense. Since the revolution in molecular genetics really only took off in the late 1970's, there is a vast amount of genetic techniques and information that postdates the listing of many species.

A single female specimen of Sirex noctilio, a European woodwasp has been found in Fulton NY. The woodwasp has been devastating pine forests in the southern hemisphere and has the potential to do the same in North America. The woodwasp deposits a toxic mucus and spores of a toxic fungus, Amylostereum areolatum, when it lays eggs in the sapwood of conifers. Primarily a pest of pine, other conifers can be infested as well. The insect was discovered by E. Richard Hoebeke, a Cornell University entomologist, during a routine survey of bark beetle traps from throughout New York. The Sirex specimen is the first female ever caught in the eastern US, but it is highly unlikely to be the last. A female was found in Indiana in 1992 and several males have been intercepted. Federal and state agencies are setting up traps throughout the region to determine whether there are other woodwasps present. If more woodwasps are present, and they probably are, a battle like the ones underway against the Emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle will ensue. Attempts will be made at quarantine. There is an established control method in use in the southern hemisphere using a parasitic nematode

Photo by Kent Loeffler, Cornell University

A modeling study suggests that many European plant species are threatened by climate change. More than half of all European plant species could be listed as endangered, threatened or vulnerable by 2080 under some climate change scenarios. All scenarios of the UN IPCC would lead to reductions in viability of European plant populations. A research group led by Wilfred Thuiller of the South African National Biodiversity Institute found that alpine plants are at greatest risk. Alpine plants will lose habitat space as warming allows forests to develop at higher elevations. Alpine plants could begin growing on what are now permanent glaciers or snow pack, but space is limited.  The article is to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, but is not yet online.

One problem presented to European plants is the direction of mountain ranges. In North America, mountain ranges run north-south, and plants can migrate along the mountains or the valleys to the east and west. In Europe, the major mountain ranges are east-west, forming barriers to migration. This explains the lower species diversity of northern Europe compared to northern North America: after the last glaciation, North American plants were free to migrate north from refugia in the south.

Governors of three states, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, have declared the week of May 22 Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week. The goal of the declaration, coming at the beginning of the summer travel season, is to try to slow the spread of the insect. People are the major long-distance vectors of the insect, carrying firewood and other wood products out of quarantine areas into uninfested areas. With the season for beetle emergence approaching, this is an especially critical time to avoid spread of infested material.

As the summer camping season begins, Michigan has announced a ban on firewood taken across the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula (UP). Checkpoints will be set up on the highway to the bridge and firewood will be confiscated from campers travelling to the UP.

This week is Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week, as the season for emergence of the beetles approaches. Michigan authorities hope to prevent further outbreaks of the beetle in the UP. To date, there have been "EAB"s found in only one location in the UP.

This morning is "Rainforest Rally" at my son's elementary school, a celebration of rainforests and expression of concern. So the news of events in the Brazilian Amazon is especially disturbing. Loss of rainforest in the Amazon to agriculture is accelerating. In spite of strong laws to protect remaining rainforests, the Brazilian government is unable to stop illegal logging and land clearing.

Rainforest clearing increased by 6% in last year's satellite surveys. The major cause is a booming national economy, but high worldwide demand for soybeans is a factor. Annual revenues from soybean exports now exceed those from coffee and sugar, Brazil's mainstay commodities for many years.

The government, despite passing strong laws and attempting to enforce them, is complicit in the conversion of land. BR-163, the major highway that bisects the Amazon from north to south, is being paved. The history of road encroachments is clear - more roads provide easier access which accelerates land conversion.

Corruption plays a major role. The governor of Mato Gross is also the largest soybean producer in the country. As in Indonesia and other countries where rainforest destruction is accelerating, the combination of poverty, greed and official corruption is fatal to efforts to conserve rainforests. Countries like Malaysia (at least Peninsular Malaysia) with strong economies and a tradition of fairly clean government are better able to combat greedy interests and at least slow the rate of rainforest conversion and illegal logging.

Where do the logs from illegal logging and land clearing go? While domestic consumption is significant, much of this wood is probably finding its way onto the international market, and is therefore winding up in the US. Is any going to China?