See the McKenzie with Tim

More logging on the McKenzie River in Oregon? Come see for yourself the true state of things in the forest.

Sign up for the Native Forest Council’s
See the McKenzie Giveaway  

It’s not just salmon or owls, but forests and humans that are further endangered by all additional logging of our already overcut Commonwealth forests and watersheds

Check out the lawsuit’s narrow legal arguments. It raises few if any of the fundamental and crucial underlying real reasons this logging is antithetical to forest management and stewardship. Why is that? Is this belated lawsuit just a face-saving smoke screen or is it serious? Logging damages, degrades, destroys and desecrates our Endangered Forests. – TGH  

Good “Waste not, want not” community org effort, NYTimes

At Amsterdam’s first Repair Cafe, an event originally held in a theater’s foyer, then in a rented room in a former hotel and now in a community center a couple of times a month, people can bring in whatever they want to have repaired, at no cost, by volunteers who just like to fix things.

Conceived of as a way to help people reduce waste, the Repair Cafe concept has taken off since its debut two and a half years ago. The Repair Cafe Foundation has raised about $525,000 through a grant from the Dutch government, support from foundations and small donations, all of which pay for staffing, marketing and even a Repair Cafe bus.  

More industry propaganda and BS: “Our too-thirsty forests” | Miami Herald

The conclusions of this industry-biased article are bogus. Forests attract water and then store it up both in the trees themselves and in the ground for release during the hotter drier months. Logging forests leaves them, hotter, drier and more flammable not the opposite as this proven to be dishonest industry claims.  

The New Wall Street Racket Looting Your City, One Block at a Time

Here is how the “infrastructure trust” works: the city pays for upgrades to its roads, rail or schools with dollars pooled by Emanuel’s friends from the banking and investment world. Meanwhile, the city retains “ownership” of the infrastructure, though this comes at the cost of having to ensure a revenue stream for the fund. Emanuel’s favorite example is his $225 million pet project to green-retrofit some of the city’s older buildings. The savings on energy usage stemming from the renovations are then extracted and used to pay off investors. Of course, the city could also sell municipal bonds to raise necessary funds, and then use the savings in energy costs to pay the loan back at a much lower cost to taxpayers. But then Emanuel’s friends (and campaign donors) would not be the richer for it.  

Globe & Mail: Ottawa should halt its smear campaign against pipeline detractors, Toronto

Environment Minister Peter Kent’s unsupported accusations of “money laundering” involving foreign and Canadian environmental charities are part of an apparent campaign of the Conservative government to smear and intimidate groups opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline.  

Ten years after: the Biscuit fire revisited, Medford, OR

Research by Dan Donato of OSU established that where burned forests were left alone (rather than logged) conifer recovery was robust and fire hazard has decreased. Further studies have confirmed natural conifer recovery is exceeding expectations and that leaves from sprouting hardwoods are building soils while dead snags are contributing nutrients to the next forest. Despite the many heartaches associated with Biscuit, the rebirth of these resilient forests is an inspiring and fitting new chapter that will continue to unfold throughout the coming decades.