Imagine a world in which farmers and ranchers were paid to generate … ecosystem services such as water filtration, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat. Imagine a world in which carbon and water-quality credits traded on a commodities exchange alongside oat and wheat futures. Sound crazy? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) doesn’t think so. In fact, a number of announcements in the final week of January 2007 brought the brave new world described above one huge step closer to reality. When Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns unveiled the USDA’s plans for the 2007 Farm Bill on January 31, 2007, it was hard to miss the new focus on incentive-based conservation in many of the 65 proposals.

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[Tennessee] International Paper (NYSE: IP) has completed the sale of 13 lumber mills to West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. for approximately $325 million. The sale was announced in November 2006. The transaction includes lumber mills in Citronelle, Maplesville and Opelika, Ala.; Leola, Ark.; McDavid and Whitehouse, Fla.; Augusta and Folkston, Ga.; Armour and Seaboard, N.C.; Newberry, S.C.; and New Boston and Henderson, Texas. The mills employ approximately 2,200 people and have a combined production capacity of approximately 1.8 billion board feet.

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Statement by Appalachian Voices Executive Director Mary Anne Hitt

In electing to permit a new 800-megawatt coal-burning power plant at Duke Energy’s Cliffside facility, the NC Utilities Commission has missed an opportunity to take the state in the right direction. While rightly denying Duke’s massive initial 1,600-megawatt proposal, the NCUC’s decision amounts to a half step in the wrong direction.

While the impact of one 800-megawatt plant will be half that of the proposed 1,600-megawatt facility, there are still tremendous risks associated with this coal-fired power plant, including significant levels of global warming pollution and increased demand for coal from the region where mountaintop removal coal mining is devastating communities and the environment. Ratepayers also face significant financial risks from sky-rocketing plant construction costs and rising coal prices.

In a letter addressed to the Utilities Commission, 18 North Carolina legislators called for more transparency in Duke’s models and assumptions about future energy demands and coal prices. According to the legislators,

“The lack of transparency in the proposal by Duke Energy to build two conventional, 800-megawatt coal-fired units at its existing Cliffside Steam Station in Rutherford and Cleveland counties is a source of great concern to the undersigned…it is our belief that information that was not made publicly available regarding the Cliffside project could pose substantial financial risks to North Carolina’s ratepayers.”

In their deliberations, we believe the Utilities Commission did not adequately consider opportunities to meet future energy needs through clean alternatives, especially conservation and efficiency measures and renewable energy. Appalachian Voices is committed to continuing to work towards a clean energy future and a fair, transparent permitting process for the hundreds of citizens and small business members represented by Appalachian Voices.

While conservation easements were initially used to address the most commonly perceived threat – land development – there is now a rising interest in creating easements to promote a range of ecological, recreational, and economic values. This report is about working forest conservation easements (WFCEs) in the Northeast and how they can be designed to ensure sustainable forestry and safeguard important public values.

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The state Utilities Commission is thought to be close to a decision on Duke Energy Co.’s request to build two new coal-fired power plants west of Charlotte. But a proposal by a growing number of legislators that the decision be delayed makes sense.

State Reps. Jennifer Weiss of Cary and Paul Luebke of Durham, among others, want the General Assembly to consider setting a requirement for energy produced by alternative modes — solar, wind and the like — before the commission decides on the Duke project. That’s a logical sequence, because such a requirement could well bear on the need for the new plants at Duke’s
Cliffside station.

Progressive-minded lawmakers have pressed for North Carolina to join several
states that set a minimum amount of electricity to be generated from alternative energy sources. The figure usually mentioned for North Carolina is 10
percent, and a recent study said that is a feasible goal. Power generated from alternatives may cost more in general, but authors of the study say electricity customers still would come out ahead as far as the size of their monthly power bills.

It’s possible that with a floor in place for alternative generation, the Duke project could be scaled back or deferred. It’s true that the new coal plants would be cleaner-burning than the four old plants they would replace.
But they still would emit an estimated 11.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, the equivalent of nearly a million cars. Scientists link carbon
dioxide to the global warming threat.

James Rogers, president of Duke Energy, argued in these pages last week that
the new plants would be equipped to capture carbon dioxide, once the
technology is perfected. That’s worth cheering. But a report in yesterday’s New York
Times raises serious doubts about when, or whether, such technology will be achieved.
And other pollutants from coal-fired plants harm human health.

Legislators, who on the public’s behalf pay the burgeoning health-care bills for many North Carolinians and also are stewards of
the state’s environment, clearly have a proper role in the debate over power
generation. The Utilities Commission has good reason to take the input it’s getting from
Jones Street as another sign of where the public interest lies.

[Wall St Journal] Landowners who place conservation easements on their scenic, environmentally sensitive or historic properties have long been able to get tax breaks from the federal government, and some states have also begun offering tax incentives. Now, a little-noticed provision in the wide-ranging pension law Congress passed last summer has made the federal tax breaks even more generous. Here’s how it works: A landowner typically donates a conservation easement to a land trust, a type of non-profit organization that helps put together the easement and monitors its restrictions over time. The value of the donation for income-tax purposes generally is the difference between the land’s unrestricted value and its new value with limited development or usage rights.
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[Oregon] Logging on private land that muddied drinking water for this small Coast Range town has raised concerns about rules to protect that water. City workers had to shut off the intake to the water treatment plant to prevent clogging its filters or sending dirty water through faucets, and the reservoir that holds the drinking water for roughly 1,000 residents was drawn down over eight days. The state forestry agency investigation didn’t find any logging violations. But regulators and environmentalists say the incident shows logging rules fail to protect sources of drinking water and need to be strengthened.

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The change will allow contractors to invest in gear and train workers
[Oregon] A top Bush administration forestry official announced Wednesday that the Forest Service will try a new business model for contract work in federal forests to help prevent worker abuse and encourage investment in rural communities. The goal is to make forest management projects into long-term projects stretching as long as 10 years to allow contractors to invest in equipment and training for workers, and to allow them to build stronger ties to the community, Rey and other federal officials said. “What we’re trying to do with this new business model is see if we can respond to some of the problems that the current contracting system creates in terms of making it more difficult for local communities to participate,” Rey said.

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[Washington, DC] The Administration’s proposed federal budget for Fiscal Year 2008, released Feb. 5, deeply cuts funding for land conservation programs and further threatens this country’s decades-long commitment to protecting public lands. Despite…enormous need, the Administration’s FY 2008 budget proposed only $29 million for 14 Forest Legacy projects…a cut of more than 50% from the president’s request last year ($61.5 million)… Despite the president’s earlier pledges to “fully fund” the highly popular and effective Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the budget released today further accelerates a trend of deep cuts to the program.
Not available online. For more info, contact Mark Shelly, Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, 828-252-9223

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The Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center (EFETAC) released a new interactive website that offers consolidated information on a variety of threats facing forest land. The website provides information for landowners, researchers, land managers and policy makers on topics such as invasive species, diseases, wildland fire, loss of open space, and severe weather. The Threat Center provides science and technology for early detection and assessment of environmental threats on eastern forests with a focus on modeling, remote sensing and other early warning techniques.

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[Vermont] For some, a fungus success story means nothing is growing at the back of their refrigerator. But for Costa, research assistant professor of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont, and Grassano, his graduate student, the vigorous growth in their laboratory of this fungus, a strain called Lecanicillium mucarium, means a hopeful new chapter in the otherwise bleak tale of the eastern hemlock tree. From Georgia to Maine, this once-mighty conifer is now succumbing to an exotic pest, hemlock woolly adelgid. While the adelgid, originally from Japan and China, appears to have no successful predators in North America, some native fungi—like the one Costa and Grassano have growing on branches in their laboratory—kill the pest.

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[Maine] Acid rain is still a threat to more than one-third of Maine’s forestland, according to a new study presented Tuesday in Portland. While not the urgent and unregulated threat it was in the 1980s, enough acidic pollutants are settling across the landscape today to gradually weaken forests in sensitive areas, the study found. “Acid rain is still very much an issue in Maine and New England,” said David Littell, commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The report does not include evidence of slowing forest growth or weakened and diseased trees, but it warns that sensitive areas eventually could face such problems at the current rate of acidification.

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