#unlicensed forestry

[deathbypunches]

Fig 1: A boxelder

How to Guerilla Trees (in CALGARY)

In my region of Southern Alberta, there are a few trees worth planting in order to enhance the urban forest. Granted, these trees are partially or completely removed from their ecological context half the time, but they still provide some services- shade, carbon storage, habitat for birds or certain insects. The list goes on.

The species I'd recommend here are Acer negundo, Fraxinus pennsylvannica, Populus balsamifera, Populus deltoides occidentalis, and Salix sp. for their ease of cultivation... In some cases I think Prunus sp. can be a decent choice... I'll use common names from here on... boxelder/Manitoba maple, ash, cottonwood / poplar, willow. Maybe cherry, maybe "moutain ash" or Rowan (sorbus sp).

What is a microhabitat?

This tree here is a boxelder on the third summer of it's little life. It is in a small depression in the soil that collects slightly more water than the surrounding. It is protected by stones, a ribbon, and stakes. This tree is watered every week or two in the heat of summer, if it hasn't rained. I believe it has a good future ahead of it.

You might notice that small trees sprout quite often along the shade of fences, or between a fence and a shed, etc. These places are sheltered from trampling and mowing, and the soil stays more moist and cool in the heat of the summer.

You may also notice that ash and Russian elms particularily can grow in cracks on the sidewalk. Growing out of the concrete isn't as bad as it appears, because there is much less competition for the soil beneath a concrete slab, especially for a plant that can grow a large root system like a tree does. Even if the soil doesn't get rained on directly, water percolates through the soil from the surroundings.

Also, the direction of a slope can significantly affect the amount of direct sunlight the soil recieves, or the amount of water that collects there. The bottom of ravines, and north slopes are the most moist. The top of a ridge or a south facing slope is the driest.

Boxelder and Ash

Boxelder and to a lesser extend ash are very hardy trees that can hold their own in this climate without having to be watered once established. These trees grow reasonably fast and are native at least to the great plains of North America. They are well adapted to growing in sites disturbed by human activities, and can also be found as far south as Texas or Arizona along sheltered streams- so their ability to survive the changing climate seems pretty certain. I also have a hunch that before the last glaciation, the range of these species probably extended further north than it does now, along with perhaps oaks and elms. Boxelder is considered a low value tree, and maybe I'll change my mind someday, but for now, it is useful because it is so easy to grow. These trees are partially tolerant of shade when they are young - and ash seedlings in particular can be found growing underneath spruce trees.

It is easy to source seedlings of boxelder, ash, and cherry. If they are in a spot that isn't exactly a good long term site for a tree, and you can either pot them or plant them somewhere else right away. Sometimes vacant lots can have dozens of tree seedlings. You have to be careful digging up even a small tree as the taproot can be a lot longer than you would expect even for a seedling that is barely 10 cm tall. I think it is better to pot them and keep them for at least a season so that they get large enough to be conspicuous.

There are multiple reasons to prefer growing a tree to conspicuous size-

1- You can find them again. You ought to mark a tree with a stake anyway, though.

2- Once a tree is 2 feet tall, it might be safe from public mowing because it has crossed the threshold of looking like nothing or a little weed to looking like a little tree.

3- you can be sure that it didn't die from being dug up.

4- A tree that is around 2 feet tall can graduate from significant competition with weeds

I choose a microhabitat where there is a depression in the land, or at the base of a slope, or especially on a north or east facing slope. These places will dry out the least.

It is also easy to collect and sprout boxelder and ash from seed en mass - you can collect kilograms of seed in the fall and winter. The seeds probably have less than a 1 in 1000 chance of surviving their first year on barren soil, but they provide mulch for their own germination. Barren soil is good enough to get them started anywhere that isn't likely to be mowed. Ravines and north or east slopes are better, as they can have a hard time getting enough water. They probably will need some water in hot stretches from July through September to survive the first 2 summers, unless they are in a particularly good site.

It helps to mark them with stakes, to mulch them. The mulch legitimizes the planting as "intentional and human," along with helping reduce competition from weeds and maintaining soil moisture. In places with mowing risk, mark them with a ring of large stones. They aren't as prized as the poplars for their bark but they can be fodder for rodents and could benefit from some protection.

Cherry and Rowan

There are native species in both the genus Prunus and Sorbus, but neither of these native species are popular or even common within urban habitats compared to the horticultural cultivars- the native cherry is scrubby, but common in grassland habitats - it can be difficult to identify with certainty, but P. virginiana (the native variety) has shorter racemes with sparser, slightly larger flowers and fruits , and has a less tree-like shape. The native rowan are very small trees or scawny shrubs and a very minor component of cooler forests habitats.

Both of these genera are popular flowering trees and decently hardy, and they provide a lot of food for birds.

Willow and Poplar-Staking

These trees can be grown from seed, but they typically reproce vegetatively- and are easy to produce with "cuttings." You can take a branch that is about thumb-diameter, cut it into about 30-60 cm stakes, and stick them into wet soil. You'll get pretty decent survival rate as long as they stay moist and are not girdled by rodents. You can keep them in a pot for the first year, or stick them into mud near permanent sources of water. . .

This willow was not watered at all- I put a dozen stakes into the mud on a seep along a south-facing slope.

Poplar

There are four species in the bow-river valley and 3 of them are in the "cottonwood" subgenera (if that's valid) that appear to have a more recent ancestor with each other than with the aspens (which is the 4th species). The cottonwoods are easier to grow because they can be started from stakes like willow. Trees in this genus tree NEED full sun, and will create a quite open canopy forest with a very rich understory.

Poplar is the best tree in the bow river valley, as they are a keystone species that supports pretty much the entire ecosystem. Forests of cottonwoods create an extremely diverse patchwork of sub-habitats for a variety of shrubs and wildflowers, and they are food for a huge number of insects. They also have the handy habit of growing extremely quickly and volunteering in turfgrass. The easiest tree to grow is a volunteer poplar- I put a stake on either side of the sucker when it is around 1m tall, surround the base with a 1m ring of softball sized stones, and weed everything within that ring, and place mulch within that ring. The tree should be safe from mowing, but nothing is guaranteed. They can easily become taller than a person by their second complete growing season, and from then on, you don't have to care for them, really.

The deep rooting system and the support of their parent tree (which they are connected to underground) means a volunteer poplar doesn't have to be watered.

The bark can be food for rodents and the leaves are a favorite of aphids, so they might benefit from some protection- a cage of chicken wire, or a wrap around the trunk to protect the bark. I don't do anything about aphids personally, as they are the "base of the food chain," but if I was to do something to control them, maybe wiping them off of the leaves would help reduce the damage.

Aspen

Although aspen is ecologically important, it takes extra effort to grow. You can try to protect a sucker in the same way, but they do not grow quite as quickly (less than 1m per year). Aspen cannot grow roots from a branch cutting easily (but allegedly can be done), allegedly they can be grown from a root cutting, or suckers can be dug up. The seeds can be started from the cottony fluff in late spring if the soil is kept perpetually moist and not too HOT. The seedlings are a little bit fragile and a favorite food of rabbits and rodents, so they have to be protected until they are probably about a meter high, and even then the bark is vulnerable to gnawing until they are probably thicker than a thumb.

As of this writing, my only aspen have been eaten by rodents. Some of them roasted in the late summer sun. These trees need some care when they are young.

Conifers

I've tried digging up and transplanting tiny saplings of spruce, sowing spruce, and marking and protecting small spruce saplings. They grow quite slowly and can have a hard time getting established without shade. These trees are later successional and really benefit from a forested environment- at least in the Calgary metropolitan area, they don't do extremely well without care - besides, the most common spruce in city limits is the non-native Colorado blue spruce. The Alberta white spruce (p. glauca) definitely needs to keep it's feet in the shade- north facing slopes and ravines only- but it does well growing behind fences, in the shade of other trees, between houses, etc.

Pines are not native to the Calgary area, or at least are very rare in natural environments. The lodgepole pine benefits from a slightly cooler climate. The Ponderosa pine is the second closest to being a native species and it may be a decent choice here in the future, but they seem to come from places with much milder winters.

Birch

Birch is sensitive to heat and drought. The seeds can be collected en mass and sown on moist barren soil. I haven't grown birch. I think the paper birch is at its limit for heat tolerance as the climate changes beyond the 21st century in Calgary', and it probably will not compete well with boxelder or ash or the elms in the future. I'm sure it could be grown if it has shaded soil- the north side of a house, behind a fence, etc. The scrubby Betula occidentalis is a common large shrub in the communities of plants along natural water bodies. Collecting and sowing seeds seems easy enough if there is disturbed soil along the margins of a creek. They need constant supply of moisture. I have not cared for a sapling of birch.

Elm

Elms are not native to Alberta, but they are found to the East and the South. They are river valley trees. The American elm is a lovely tree but it doesn't reproduce easily naturally in Calgary, probably because it isn't a great climate for the sensitive seedlings. The russian elm is hardier and can be found naturalized in Montana. It probably will become more common in the future. I do not plant elms. I do not plant oaks either. There is a species of oak native to places East of here. It is possible that in the distant past, Alberta was home to elms and oaks.

Happy sprouting. Wear an orange vest so people know you are doing important work, and I don't recommend digging with a full sized shovel within the city because of underground wires, and because it's super illegal.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The Brazilian forestry giant striking a blow for sustainability

Pulp and paper company Suzano is aiming to raise environmental standards — and is outspoken in calling on others to follow suit

For a company that makes billions of dollars from cutting down and pulping trees in Brazil, Suzano has a surprising following among some environmentalists.

“Suzano has been playing a sustainable leadership role,” says Mauricio Voivodic, executive director of WWF Brazil, a conservation organisation. “Suzano sets a good benchmark for other companies.”

SOS Mata Atlântica, another environmental group, describes both Suzano and its Brazilian sector peers as models. The company also features on the registry of organisations that have committed to advance the UN’s sustainable development goals.

The explanation for this apparent contradiction is that Suzano uses only sustainably grown wood from eucalyptus plantations. One of the world’s biggest pulp and paper companies, it has also set aside a vast area of natural forest, some 900,000 hectares, for permanent conservation, and is reforesting thousands of hectares more, a task in which it is partnering with WWF Brazil.

Some environmentalists, however, still argue that plantations growing one species of tree to make single-use products are not a sound model. They claim the result is reduced biodiversity, high water consumption and soil erosion, and say such plantations are poor carbon sinks compared with native forests. The Global Forest Coalition, an alliance of campaign groups, believes that planted forests should be excluded from the definition of forests and denied climate finance. Proponents counter that as long as the world needs toilet tissue, paper and disposable nappies, there will be a demand for pulp and paper, which is much better satisfied by sustainably grown wood than by unlicensed timber of dubious provenance.

Continue reading.

[phgq]

Sarangani Bay ops net 1.8K fishery law violators, crime suspects

#PHnews: Sarangani Bay ops net 1.8K fishery law violators, crime suspects

GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Maritime police units arrested a total of 1,852 violators of various fishery regulations and criminal elements this year in a series of law enforcement and security operations in parts of the Sarangani Bay. Lt. Col. Harry Domingo, acting chief of the Philippine National Police Regional Maritime Unit (RMU)-12, said Monday that most of the violators were caught during their patrol operations from January to September in the coastal waters of this city and nearby localities. A total of 1,744 persons were nabbed for violating local fishery ordinances and 108 others for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, Domingo said. “Most of the violations involved the encroachment of unregistered fishing vessels weighing 3.1 gross tons and below within the protected zones and municipal waters of localities within the Sarangani Bay, which is a declared protected seascape,” he said in an interview. IUU fishing, as provided for in Republic Act (RA) 10654 or the amended Fisheries Code, involves the use of unlicensed boats, fishing in a closed area, fishing with prohibited gear, fishing over a quota, and the fishing of prohibited species. The official said the maritime police also arrested 10 suspects for violation of RA 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act, three suspects for violation of Presidential Decree (PD) 705 or the Forestry Code, and one for Republic Act 9175 or the Chainsaw Act. The arrests resulted in the collection of PHP711,465 in fines by local government units in the area. He said the RMU-12 also assisted in the enforcement and processing of the violations related to the grounding last May of fishing vessels FB Mark Anthony 17 and FB Vient that led to the payment of PHP3.8 million in fines and indemnification to the Protected Area Management Office of the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape. Domingo said 180 persons were also nabbed for violation of local ordinances, 148 for crimes under the Revised Penal Code and other special laws, 62 for violation of RA 9165 or the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, and 10 persons for violation of RA 10591 or the Firearms Law. Three wanted persons were also arrested during the period, with two of them allegedly involved in the ambush of maritime police personnel in the coastal waters here on Nov. 28, 2019. The incident resulted in the killing of a maritime policeman. From January to December this year, the RMU-12 logged a total of 1,184 operational accomplishments, increasing by 1,077 when compared to the 107 in the entire 2019. Based on its accomplishment report, the unit conducted 510 operations against IUU fishing, with 495 involving violations of local fishery ordinances and 15 for violation of RA 10654. The unit filed a total of 26 cases in various courts, with 15 involving violations of RA 10654, one for violation of the Tariff and Customs Code, four for violation of PD 705, and six for other crimes. Domingo said they also assisted the enforcement of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) protocols as well as other local ordinances. In this city, he said their units conducted 180 operations related to the implementation of the smoking ban and Covid-19 measures such as the wearing of face masks and the observance of safe physical distancing. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Sarangani Bay ops net 1.8K fishery law violators, crime suspects." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1125320 (accessed December 22, 2020 at 12:15AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Sarangani Bay ops net 1.8K fishery law violators, crime suspects." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1125320 (archived).

[growlegalweed-blog]

Legal Weed Resources

Check out... https://legalweed.gq/420/turkey-plots-cannabis-revival-as-government-reveals-plan-to-boost-hemp-farming/

Turkey Plots Cannabis Revival As Government Reveals Plan To Boost Hemp Farming

Western observers of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan usually take the authoritarian’s statements on industry with an industrial dosage of salt, and eyebrows have been raised again following his recent calls to make the country a major global cannabis player.

Erdogan, who leads the heavily anti-drug Islamist government, has a habit of toying with the media, and will change the nature of his speeches on a whim. It was therefore a total surprise to local media that he used a recent address to pitch the revival of Turkey’s industrial hemp manufacturing trade through a review of agricultural laws.

At a separate address a few days later, during a visit to an armoured vehicles factory in the north-western province of Sakarya, he repeated his goal of a new Turkish agricultural sector.

“I am calling out to my nation; let’s start the process to cultivate industrial hemp,” he told local reporters. “We will see that industrial hemp has many different benefits in many different areas.”

Erdogan’s pitch to his conservative Islamist base put the blame on Western forces for the implosion of Turkey’s lucrative cannabis industry in the past.

“We destroyed cannabis in this country because of some enemies who were disguised as friends,” Erdogan said.

In 1971, the Turkish military overthrew the government headed by late President Süleyman Demirel, who was unwilling to reduce cannabis production despite pressure from the US administration. Turkey was one of the largest producers in the world at the time.

As a reminder: Turkey has been in a state of emergency since a failed coup attempt in 2016, and last year, Erdogan gave himself much greater powers in a controversial and widely contested constitutional referendum.

Members of the press are routinely arrested and tortured in Turkey, and the European Union has refused to let it become a member, as the country’s economy continues to spiral downward.

Existing Turkish legislation outlaws cannabis cultivation, but a legal loophole allows its fiber, stem and seed to be used. The new laws will allegedly allow fresh types of cannabis with minimized THC levels to be cultivated.

The upper THC limit for industrial cannabis in Canada is set at 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent in the European Union, the latter being the more likely figure Turkey would stick to given its current political approach.

The legal principles for a cultivation permit, necessary regulation, and other procedures to be implemented in unlicensed cultivation have been drawn up, local press has reported.

The move was hailed by producers and farmers, and government agencies were quick to jump on the news and roll out announcements.

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli later fleshed out more detail and said the government will take steps to increase cannabis production, which is currently allowed in 19 of 81 provinces in the country, per a 2016 rule in the Official Gazette.

Outside of these 19 districts, all forms of cannabis cultivation are banned, which resulted in a huge drop in cultivation numbers from 42,000 acres in 1989 to merely 200 last year, statistics show.

The head of the Cannabis Institute of the Center for Eurasian Strategic Studies (ASAM) on Thursday, January 17, put the magic numbers on the potential boost to the economy.

“Extrapolating from the cannabis leaf’s price of €15m [$17m] per ton, we could earn €1.5bn [$1.7bn] by exporting 100 tons of [cannabis] oil,” he said.

The country could use the cannabis plant to produce textile materials and paper, he said, and also produce new biodiesel, electricity, biodegradable polymers, and all types of plastics.

“Cannabis has 85 types of cellulose and it can be recycled eight times,” he said, name dropping several other countries worldwide already produce cannabis, including France, the Netherlands, Canada, and the US. “The US expects $71bn in income from cannabis by 2025,” he said.

The reaction domestically has been fairly positivewith media coming out in support of the plan, and investors will be hoping Erdogan’s taste for misdirection does not extend to using the hemp industry for political point-scoring.

  If you wish to use this story please do so with following Accreditation

AUTHOR: MARK TAYLOR

PUBLISHER:  CANNABIS LAW REPORT

[phonaesthemes]

Around 3 a.m., police directed a man driving a truck without a licence to pull into an adjacent parking lot.

Instead, police said the man drove away and abandoned his truck in another parking lot nearby.

RCMP say the Truro police canine unit was called in to help find the driver who was later discovered hiding on the bank of Salmon River.

Police say when they started to approach the man, he jumped into the river and began swimming to the other side.

RCMP say local fire departments, East Hants ground search and rescue and Nova Scotia's Department of Land and Forestry were called to help.

Although the man hasn't been found, police say they've confirmed that he made it out of the water safely.

[hildegard-von-bingen]

"The python has been nearly extinct in China in the wild since the 1980s and much of this is because of the demand for python skins in the music industry," said Xu Hongfa, a wildlife trade expert for TRAFFIC East Asia, a group that monitors the trafficking in endangered species.

"Since then, the wild populations in Southeast Asia have begun to fall and the smuggling of python skins from Southeast Asia into China has grown."

A relish for python meat in southern China, he said, has also played a role in the demise of the snake that thrives in a jungle setting and can grow to up to 6m long.

After ratifying the UN Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), China passed its Law on the Protection of Endangered Species in 1988, effectively making the unlicensed use and trade in pythons illegal, Xu said.

But implementation of the law has not been easy, prompting TRAFFIC East Asia and other environmental groups to work with the State Forestry Administration to set up a certification process between python skin sellers in Southeast Asia and musical instrument factories in China.

New regulations that went into effect on Jan. 1 also require that all erhus have a certificate from the administration, which certify that the erhu python skin is not made with wild pythons, but from farm-raised pythons, he said.

Individuals are now only allowed to take two erhus out of China when travelling, while commercial buyers also need additional export certificates.

(Article from 2005, when the new policy was implemented.)

[ellath]

Officers raid woodwork shops

Officers raid woodwork shops

Source : Khmer Times

Authorities are inspecting woodwork shops to ensure they are operating legally.

Anti-economic crime officers from Kampong Speu provincial police and Thporng district forces have uncovered eight unlicensed wood workshops as part of an effort to clamp down on forestry crime.

District police chief Hun Sok Hon said the crackdown would be ongoing throughout his district until all…

[elitehomespro]

Ayder Plateau Protection Croquis Was Created!

The Ministry of Environment and Urbanism acted for the protection of Ayder Plateau. The ministry, which issued the croquis of the region, completed detailed sketch procurement, geological and geotechnical survey reports with field studies on the spring.

Samples Are Being Reviewed

The ministry, which also conducts surveys in the region, examines different practices that have been passed on abroad for improvements to be made in Ayder Plateau while identifying unlicensed buildings on the one hand. The ministry officials underline that the most important point to be observed in the work carried out is to preserve the natural beauty of the region.

While the end of the work carried out with the protocol signed between the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning, Mass Housing Administration, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications, Governorate of Rize and Çamlıhemşin Municipality approached Ayder Plateau and the results report writing and preliminary urban design studies began. Ministry officials continue their analysis studies to find solutions to property problems in the region. The ministry officials, who will determine whether the buildings constructed in accordance with the traditional architecture in question are healthy, will determine the intervention methods for the rehabilitation of structures with traditional architecture that must be protected.

Workshop To Be Held

Workshops will be held for the improvements to be made in Ayder Plateau in the upcoming days and work will be carried out on solutions for property problems, feasibility and modeling approaches, natural and sociologically sustainable tourism issues. Consultations with the citizens will be held in line with the decisions taken at the workshop.

from Istanbul Real Estate http://ift.tt/2C9RfP1 via IFTTT