Financing A Forest
Oregon appears set to lead the way in an innovative approach to protecting forestlands. A new state law allows local governments to form "forest authorities," which can purchase forests using government bonds. The authority retires the bond with the revenue generated by sustainable-yield timber cutting and perhaps even recreation fees. The upshot is that local governments can preserve both timber jobs and forests, rather than losing them to sprawling development. It's not surprising that the first forest authority will be near Bend, where population is booming and development is rampant.
Conservationists in Washington tried the same tactic a few years back when the Evergreen Forest Trust attempted to purchase 100,000 acres of Weyerhauser forest in King County. The attempt ultimately sputtered out because Congress dragged its feet on approving tax-exempt bonds (which are more attractive to investors) for conservation measures. But Oregon's Republican Senator Gordon Smith is going to try again.
The Eugene Register-Guard has the full story.
The Big Bad... Elk
More evidence of ecological restoration via the wolf, this time in Canada's Banff National Park. Researchers there found that when wolves disappeared from areas with heavy human presence, elk populations spiked and the ecosystem changed:
Willow trees, river-loving birds called willow warblers and American redstarts, and beaver dams once were common in Bow Valley and surrounding areas. But in the areas where wolves remained scarce and elk populations mushroomed, these plants and animals were less common.
Researchers in Yellowstone National Park, have found much the same thing. The return of the wolf in the mid-1990s meant a return to more natural conditions.
And in an ironic twist on the mythology of the wolf as a dangerous maneater, it turns out that elk in the park are actually more dangerous to humans than wolves. According to the lead scientist, in Banff National Park alone:
"Seven people are sent to hospitals every year on average by getting into a fight with an elk. They are 250 kg (550 pounds) on average so you don't want to get into a fight with one."
Human injuries or death from wild wolves are exceedingly uncommon. In fact, in the entire 20th century not a single person in North America was killed by a wolf.
UPDATE 8/5/05: A great article in today's Globe and Mail on the wolves of Banff National Park and their ripple effect.
