Source Notes
Title:
Restoring the Forests.
Summary:
In December of 2000, an article entitled “Restoring the Forests”, by authors David Victor (Senior Fellow for Science and Technology at the Council on Foreign Relations) and Jesse Ausubel (Director of the Program for the Human Environment at Rockefeller University), addresses environmental issues, the prevalence of forest conservation, and a historical and future context to the “Great Restoration”.
Topic:
National forest restoration: historic understanding, environmental implications, and social constructs.
Academic.
What is it?
Online article.
Published by Ebsco/ Council on Foreign Affairs on December 15th, 2000.
David G. Victor and Jesse H. Ausubel.
www.ebscohost.com./ Business Search Premier.
Accessed:
February, 21, 2009.
Support:
Some analysts.
The Great Restoration.
Forest experts in Finland.
Satellite data.
New studies in tropical western Africa.
Some estimates.
World Resource Institute.
Times millennial Earth Day issue.
Paul Waggoner, author of the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station.
Champion America corn growers.
One estimate.
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Bruce Zobel of North Carolina State University.
Clark Binkley, former dean of the University of British Columbia’s School of Forestry.
A recent study compiled by the Wood Resources International, the World Bank, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Roger Sedjo at Resources for the Future.
Westvaco Corporation
Economist, environmentalists, and people who live in the wood.
Price-Waterhouse-Coppers Study.
“Restoring the Forests”, by David G. Victor and Jesse H. Ausubel, use sources to assert the “Great Restoration” idea. Originated by Teddy Roosevelt during the Great Depression, the “Great Restoration” sought to conserve America’s forests and wildlands. Fearing “timber famine”, Roosevelt established the Federal Forest Service and pushed landowners to start sustaining timber resources. Despite these precursors to today’s timber market, some experts “warn within decades, the remaining natural forests will disappear.” Since the 1950s, forest cover has increased. Studies in Finland reveal that “by the 1980s, wooded areas were increasing in all temperate and boreal forests.” Satellite data has “shown that tropical deforestation has slowed ten-percent in the last decade” and new studies in tropical western Africa reveal that deforestation is only one-third of the rate previously believed. By some estimates, “four-fifths of Brazil’s local wood consumption is illegally felled.” The World Resource Institute asserts that “frontier forests have not vanished.”
In discussion of Agriculture and logging, the Times “Earth Day” issue asserts that “agriculture is the world’s biggest cause of deforestation.” Research conducted by Paul Waggoner, entitled the “Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station”, has shown that, “with some extra effort, an increase in yield of two percent per year — a plausible goal — could spare a total of 400 million hectares” if farmers and logger focus on efficient practices. In discussion of wood farm production, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that “one-quarter of industrial wood already comes from such farms, and the share is poised to soar once recently planted forests mature. At likely planting rates, at least one billion cubic meters of wood — half the world’s supply — could come from plantations by the year 2050.” While commenting on geographic wood production in the United States, Bruce Zobel, of North Carolina State University, asserts that the American South “supplies 15 percent of the world’s industrial timber.” Illustrating viewpoints from other countries, “Clark Binkley, the former dean of the University of British Columbia’s School of Forestry, has argued that the province’s logging can remain competitive only by shrinking its footprint and raising yields to twice or three times the current average annual yield of 2.2 cubic meters per hectare.” “A recent study compiled by Wood Resources International, the World Bank, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) suggests that more than a fifth of the world’s virgin wood is already produced from forests with yields above 7 cubic meters per hectare.” Roger Sedjo at Resources for the Future has documented that economically competitive plantations in Brazil, Chile, and New Zealand can sustain yearly growth of more than 20 cubic meters per hectare with pine trees.
Economists, environmentalists, and individuals that live in or near forests of the United States have raised concerns about industrial logging. A study by Price-Waterhouse-Coppers found that “the 50 largest global forestry companies earned, on average, a paltry 4.1 percent return on capital investments. Over-capacity in the industry and vast potential supplies of wood from poorly regulated forests have undercut prices and hurt the performance of even the best-run firms.”
Audience & Agenda:
Ebsco database provides electronic journals, books, and is funded by subscription and private interest groups. This site reaches over 121,000 U.S. monthly people and appeals to a slightly female slanted, more educated, fairly wealthy, more youthful crowd.
Usefulness:
As a key citizen interview, Oregon logging companies will provide valuable counter arguments against my assertions. Anticipating their responses regarding forest conservation, this document will re-assert my argument against their claims. Despite counter-arguments of the timber industry, this document provides a clear and concise direction for sustainable agricultural practices.
Works cited:
www.quantcast.com
www.ebscohost.com/ Business Search Premier.
March 13, 2009 at 9:12 am |
[...] Academic: “Restoring the Forests.” [...]