Redwood Reader

Geology workshops give rangers lay of their lands
Parks' staff versed in explaining Earth's dynamics to visitors
Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Monday, September 12, 2005
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/12/MNGBHEM56R1.DTL&type=sports
Geologists see the The National Park Service as a great opportunity to educate people about local geology. Most Park employees have biology backgrounds. Robert Lillie, a professor of geosciences at Oregon State University in Corvallis, has written a book titled “Parks and Plates: The Geology of Our National Parks, Monuments and Seashores.” In it he says many of the nations’ 380 National Park sites are recognized because of unique geological features. He is on tour collaborating with Park Service rock specialists teaching rangers more about tectonic forces that shape their work. He started off with Golden Gate National Recreation Area and will visit Rocky Mountain National Park later this month. His team will visit forty-five parks in the next year. A lot of time in the article is spent explaining how cookies and decks of cards can be used to simulate geologic activity.
This has been my experience as well, that geological information is either hard to get or hard to understand, especially here on the North Coast. Even when you thin the possibilities of rock to one or two you then are left with soils to study, as shown for redwood with Dr. Paul J. Zinke, Associate Professor of Forestry, University of California, School of Forestry, Berkeley paper Soils and Ecology of the Redwoods. Even with soils a limiting factor we find redwood grows well over a much larger range than its home. It seems to me that soils must be very unfriendly to prevent growth. We do note the radical difference in plants growing in serpentine soils, home of many species of interest.
West Nile threatens magpie population
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-os-briefs13.1sep13,1,2767711.story?coll=la-news-environment
Joe Robinson reports in today’s L. A. Times article that West Nile virus threatens yellow-billed magpies, unique to California. UC Davis scientists have asked Fish and Game to arrange an inquiry board of scientists to study the situation. West Nile is particularly severe in corvids, the family composing jays, raven, crows and magpies. Two-thirds to three-quarters of crows in the East have already perished.
Walter Boyce, director of the Wildlife Health Center at UC Davis, said 88,000 dead birds with the disease have been found this year, and that is probably a fraction of all bird deaths due to the virus.
"There have been a large number of magpies observed dead this year," Boyce says, noting the yellow-billed magpie, unique to California, could go extinct. "Because the magpie is limited in distribution and highly susceptible to the virus, this could push it over the edge."
Like Sudden Oak Death, this new disease threatens to radically alter California ecosystems on a landscape level. A lot of discussion was focused on this family in the Headwaters management plan, as these birds take advantage of human activity in the forest to predate other species, or usurp their nests. I also read many years ago that due to market hunting of birds, only 10 percent of the 1900 bird population existed in 1950, and that had reduced to a similar fraction since then, leaving about one percent of the 1900 population. Market hunting in the late eighteen hundreds decimated many wildlife populations and was the cause for many of the beginning environmental laws, such as the Migratory Bird Act of 1918.
Water quality hearings on hold John Driscoll Eureka Times Standard 9/14/2005
http://www.times-standard.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=3028253
Meanwhile, North Coast Regional Water Quality hearings slated to begin yesterday in Ferndale for Freshwater and Elk River waste water discharges were temporarily shelved as Pacific Lumber got an after hours restraining order preventing the hearings. Due to PL’s claim that NCRWQCB staff could not have read all the comments and criticisms by the scheduled date. Katherine Kuhlman, Executive Director of the Board, said the Board does not simply respond to its staff critiques, and often overruled them in their decisions. She said she was unclear of the cause for the restraining order, which appears to cover a September 27 hearing as well. The case could cause PL to lose more than half of their permitted harvest, putting tremendous pressure on their ability to service their debt.
Katrina turned lush forests into wastelands
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/2005-09-13-katrina-timber_x.htm
9/14/2005 Julie Schmit and Elliot Blair Smith, USA TODAY
USA Today reports more than 2.4 billion dollars in timber lost to Hurricane Katrina, according the the Mississippi Forestry Commission, damaging about 1.3 million acres, or nearly half of Mississippi’s timber. Timber is a major industry, the poorest state in the country. Sixty percent of the land is in forest, a lot of it in private hands with about 100 acres an average holding. While the salvage is ready to go, many problems including closed roads and lack of power are getting things off to a slow start. Another problem is the blue stain mold, which makes wood products less desirable but does not affect the soundness of the wood. Tom Harris, publisher of the Timber Mart-South price-reporting service, and a professor at University of Georgia, said overwhelming demand has not caused the bue stain timber to be used in the past. He says if the crushing need makes it acceptable to use it will be the first time. “Harris predicts that the glut of fallen timber will benefit mill owners at the timber ranchers' expense, depressing the raw materials' price. At the retail level, he says, the effect is "almost reverse. Huge demand for lumber and plywood will drive up (retail) prices."