Logging

30 May 2008 -- Brazilian officials say they have located and photographed one of the country's last uncontacted tribes in the remote western Amazon jungle near the border with Peru.

Of the more than 100 uncontacted tribes in the world, more than half live in the Brazil-Peru area.

Jose Carlos Meirelles from the Brazilian National Indian Foundation said the tribe is threatened by illegal logging which is encroaching on their territory and could force them off their land.

He says they have been monitoring four distinct groups in the area for the past 20 years

Advocates for indian tribes are calling on countries to enforce international law in an effort to protect the people's habitat.

Source: VOA News

Pristine Areas Targeted for Logging

Juneau, AK (January 25, 2008) -- Today, the Bush administration took its third swipe in recent weeks at opening protected areas in America’s national forests to logging before it leaves office. A Bush plan announced today puts a “for sale” sign on trees in vast swaths of the nation’s largest national forest – the Tongass rainforest in Alaska.

This move by Bush officials to reverse roadless area protections joins two others made recently in the national forests located in Idaho and Colorado.    » read more »

Washington , DC - 01/25/2008 - Robert Vandermark, manager of the Pew Environment Group's Heritage Forests Campaign, today issued the following statement in response to the release of the Bush administration's Land Management Plan for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

"In its final months, the Bush administration is attempting to give logging and mining industries the keys to the Tongass National Forest - the world's largest intact temperate rainforest.    » read more »

November 30, 2007 -- AUGUSTA -- Maine Governor John E. Baldacci today signed a Declaration of Civil Emergency regarding the high price of diesel fuel and its impact on the State’s forest products industry.

“Diesel prices in Maine are at all-time highs, and it is having a devastating impact on our economy, and particularly on the forest products industry,” Governor Baldacci said. “This emergency order will allow us to take further steps to help truckers and loggers in the State, and place more pressure upon Washington to take action.”    » read more »

September 28 , 2007 -- Washington, D.C.: Rainforest defenders from Indonesia, Peru and Papua New Guinea kick off a tour of the U.S. Monday in San Francisco focusing on illegal logging and the United States’ role in driving it. The internationally-acclaimed, prize-winning activists are speaking out about the impact of illegal logging and associated trade on their communities, forests and global warming.    » read more »

Governor continues permits for oversize trucks removing burnt timbers

September 12, 2007 -- ATLANTA — Today Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue extended an Executive Order that allows permitting through September 30 for oversized trucks removing burnt timber from any of 21 southeast Georgia counties affected by wildfires this spring. These were the largest wildfires in Georgia’s recorded history.    » read more »

BALTIMORE, MD (September 4, 2007) – Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Charles W. Peterson, 53, of Preston, Maryland has been charged in the Circuit Court for Talbot County with illegally logging in a nontidal wetlands. The charges allege that Peterson violated the State’s nontidal wetlands and sediment control laws, from June through August, 2006, by cutting trees in unpermitted wetland areas at and near Brant Court in Easton, Maryland.    » read more »

New Bush appointee says public lands no longer protected by landmark law

WASHINGTON, DC (August 14, 2007) – A decision just released by the new director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) means that countless potentially harmful projects involving oil and gas exploration, logging and grazing on public lands are no longer subject to a key federal law that protects our nation’s natural resources, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).    » read more »

June 26, 2007 -- Augusta - Maine Labor Commissioner, Laura Fortman, reminds employers of foreign logging workers, commonly referred to as “bonds,” of a recent change in Maine law requiring documentation of ownership of logging equipment used by bonds in the course of employment.    » read more »

09 May 2007 -- China has become a leading exporter of furniture, plywood and wood flooring. But environmental activists say the industry's need for raw timber is contributing to tropical forest destruction. As Claudia Blume reports from Hong Kong, one group is calling for international pressure on Chinese producers to use sustainable sources of wood.    » read more »