Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Claire Colegrove, Alaska Representative

©Flickr/Tdawg

When picturing our national forests, it is most common to think of endless expanses of trees and other vegetation dotted by lakes, rivers and staggering mountain peaks. We picture iconic North American wildlife like bears and deer inhabiting these expanses. The Chugach National Forest is a stark contrast to this more familiar image. The Chugach is the northernmost coastal forest – over a third of its nearly 7 million acres is made up of rock and ice. Visitors coming to this area expect to see salmon, orca and a wide variety of sea and shorebirds. A majority of the Chugach’s 500,000 annual visitors are heading to the Kenai Peninsula, the Copper River Delta or Prince William Sound, all places known for their coastal and marine recreation opportunities. This is a forest with strong ties to ice and the ocean, both for its dominant ecosystems and for human use.

In the spring of 2012, the United States Forest Service released their new planning regulations in accordance with the National Forest Management Act. This new planning rule represented a significant shift in federal forest policy. Most important to Defenders is the Service’s new approach to managing for biodiversity: they plan to look at the entire ecosystem as a whole. The Service’s new planning rule uses what is called a “coarse filter” method, which examines the overall ecosystem integrity. Ecosystem integrity is essential if you want to maintain a healthy and diverse population of plants and animals in a forest like the Chugach, especially in light of the continuing impacts of a changing climate.

Sea lions in Prince William Sound, © Flickr/J. Stephen Conn

The Forest Service selected eight “early adopter” forests throughout the country to lead the way, and the Chugach National Forest is one of them. Though the Chugach is equal in size to the state of New Hampshire, it has only 90 miles of Forest Service roads. The Chugach National Forest is commonly referred to as a “custodial forest” meaning the Forest Service’s management of it is largely for recreation and conservation purposes rather than timber harvest.

The management plan is executed in three phases: assessment, revision and monitoring. The Chugach Forest Service staff is currently in their assessment phase, collecting and examining the best available information on the current forest condition and how the forest is used. Next, they will revise their management plan over the next two years, and then set up a monitoring process to study how effective the new management practices are.

In the first phase, Defenders is working with the Service to determine how vulnerable the forest is to climate change, which will help determine the Service’s long-term plans for addressing it. We are trying to identify what areas of the forest will be most impacted by climate change, and what those impacts will look like both for the forest’s plant and animals species, and for the people who rely on them. This is called a climate vulnerability assessment. I will be leading the climate vulnerability assessment chapter examining the effects of climate change on the coasts and seascapes.

Short-billed dowhitcher, one of many species that rely on the tidal flats in Chugach NF © Flickr/Melissa Gabrielson, USFWS

In a coastal forest like the Chugach, there are a lot of ways climate change can affect the ecosystem, including sea level rise, glaciers and snow and ice melt, habitat composition changes and ocean acidification. All these factors have the potential to greatly impact habitat and wildlife survival, as well as human use of the forest. Sea level rise can increase habitat for some species and diminish it for others. Low-lying tidal flats along the Chugach comprise important nesting habitat for a large number of shore and seabirds, which means that even slight sea level shifts could have vast impacts on these species. As glaciers melt, they alter the composition of and access to the land. For example when a glacier melts, it not only exposes habitat previously covered by snow and ice, but it also causes the terrain that was compressed to rebound or rise up, which diminishes the effects of subsequent sea level rise. Ocean acidification can inhibit the ability of creatures like mollusks to form shells, which diminishes food for larger species (click here for more on this climate change impact). These are just a few examples of the many changes occurring in the Chugach that require us to put in place the best possible forward-thinking management practices and monitoring procedures so that we can know how wildlife in the Chugach is being affected, and what might be done to help them adapt.

The Forest Service is slated to complete their assessment phase late this summer. Once that is complete, they will begin a two-year plan revision process to update their 2002 management plan. We are looking forward to working with the Forest Service throughout this process to ensure the Chugach remains a thriving habitat for wildlife.

Juan Carlos Cantu, Mexico Program Manager

Illegally-logged rosewood in Madagascar (c)Erik Patel

Whenever you buy tropical hardwoods, chances are that it comes with a far higher cost than you know. Tropical tree species in Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America are being logged out of existence, and precious endangered tropical woods like rosewood and ebony are the target of one of the largest growing economies in the world: China.

About 90 percent of all tropical timber harvested is illegal and has many negative effects. Valuable natural resources are ransacked, habitat for hundreds of species of wildlife is lost, and foreign criminals enter local communities and national parks, creating an environment of violence and corruption. In addition to all this, the terrible reality of illegal logging is that it is one of the bloodiest industries in the international wildlife and plant trade. People die – loggers, forest owners trying to defend the trees, and law enforcement officials fighting loggers and crime syndicates. All of this is why the recent victory for tropical trees at the latest meeting of the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was a fantastic step towards halting this vicious cycle.

In Cambodia, the high profits earned from illegal rosewood have led loggers to cut down most of their country’s rosewood trees. Now they are focusing their criminal activities on Thailand, crossing the border to log forests and national parks. Thailand has lost 70 percent of their rosewood population to illegal logging in just six years. The same thing is happening in Laos and Vietnam, which have seen their forests dwindle by 50 to 60 percent and are serving as points of entry for illegal logs destined for China. Belize has also been the focus of illegal loggers, which in the past five years have cut down 30 percent of the country’s rosewood trees for export to China.

Lemurs, like this silky sifaka, are heavily impacted by illegal logging (c) Simponafotsy

Earlier this year, in an action reminiscent of Kenya’s burning of illegal ivory, Belize’s Environment Ministry burned 700 logs of confiscated rosewood to send a message to illegal loggers that enough is enough, Belize will not let them profit from their crime. And they aren’t the only ones fed up with seeing their native forests plundered. In October of 2012, Mexico seized a shipping container in the port of Manzanillo filled with illegal rosewood logs headed for China. In Nicaragua, eco-battalions have been formed to defend the forests from illegal loggers. And Guatemala has announced a crackdown on illegal logging and confiscated several shipments destined for China.

If CITES deals with regulated trade, and the biggest problem here is with illegal trade, then how can CITES help? As boring as it initially might sound, it all comes down to paperwork. When a CITES trade authorization permit is not required (they are issued only for CITES-listed species), customs officers generally have to accept any document accompanying a given shipment. These documents can come in many languages and forms, which customs officers generally are forced to accept either because they can’t read them, or, if they are forged, because they have absolutely no way of determining their validity on the ground. When species are listed under CITES, however, every single shipment needs to be accompanied by the exact same paperwork in order to be traded: a valid CITES export permit. All importing countries, including China, will have to reject any shipment that has not been validated by CITES authorities, and the customs officers in all 178 member countries will be able to readily identify illegal shipments if they try to enter their country without a CITES permit. Chinese customs officers will not be able to play dumb anymore when faced with an illegal shipment of ebony or rosewood.

Juan Carlos testifies during the proposal for Rosewood species.

This year at the CITES Conference of the Parties, several countries presented proposals to list tree species in Appendix II of CITES. Madagascar presented proposals for all their endemic species of ebony and rosewood (a total of 121 species!); Thailand and Vietnam presented a proposal to list the Siamese rosewood, which also inhabits Cambodia and Laos; and Belize presented a proposal for another three species of rosewood from Central America.

As chair of the Tree Working Group of the Species Survival Network, I coordinated the effort of Defenders and several other NGOs to lobby for support for these proposals before and during the CITES conference. Everyone worked unbelievably hard, and it helped to achieve a historic result: ALL of the tree proposals were adopted by consensus! In fact, it was the largest number of tree species entering Appendix II during any CITES meeting since its creation. While the proposals were presented and discussed during the Conference, China’s delegation observed quietly. When the vote came, China didn’t support the proposals, but for the first time they did not oppose them. Their silence spoke volumes, and we believe it signaled a hopeful change for the future of these endangered tree species and the wildlife that rely on them in their native forests.

2012 is ramping up to break more extreme weather records than 2011.

As described in Defenders’ most recent publication “Harnessing Nature,” last year saw no fewer than 14 extreme weather related events. This past weekend the Eastern U.S. was swept up in a powerful storm and currently the Western U.S is still trying to extinguish a ferocious fire and most of the country is boiling from extreme heat.

Breaking records across the country, this heat spell is proving to be one of the most severe in recorded history. From Denver to Nashville, cities saw temperatures soar past 100 degrees, shattering previous records. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1,884 daily high records have been broken in the last seven days.

Climate change will mean more frequent and intense droughts and forest fires. Photo courtesy USDA

The prolonged heat hasn’t helped matters in the western part of the country. Wildfires still rage in Colorado. Over 32,000 people have been evacuated from their homes as the fires raced towards one of the state’s second most populated city, Colorado Spring.

Having already killed two and destroyed hundreds of homes, this is one fearsome blaze. As of today, the fire is reported to be about 17,000 square acres, with the threat of growth listed as “extreme”.

The Eastern half of the U.S. got blasted by extreme storms last week. Leaving millions without of power and killing at least 18, this set of storms also left people without air conditioning and some without running water. Power is not expected to return to some until Friday, forcing many to endure extreme temperatures in the 90s and higher for days to come.

In a recent poll from Yale University, many Americans are making the link between extreme weather and climate change. People are looking for ways to cope as weather appears to be getting worse.

Extreme heat and no power can make for a deadly combination. Experts recommend remaining indoors when possible. Drinking lots of non-alcoholic fluids and wearing light-weight, light-colored clothing helps beat the heat. If going outside is unavoidable, limit activities to mornings and evenings, and sticking to the shade when possible.

To learn more about the links between climate change and extreme weather visit Science Daily News.

To learn how you can help stop climate change, visit the Earth Institute at Columbia University.