Category Archives: Ecology News

The Great Bear Rainforest Part 5: Journey in the Making

Photo credit: Magdalena Angel

As the Pacific temperate rainforest’s sacred culture, lands, rivers, streams, and coastlines are threatened by Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project, opposition within the province and around the world is intensifying. According to West Coast Environmental Law’s executive director, Jessica Clog, polls show that nearly 80% of residents in BC are against tanker traffic on our coast.

Within this population of resistance to the oil sands project is a bright, young group of students from Quest University, who, along with youth in the Gitga’at First Nations, will paddle in a loop around Gil Island for 4-6 days during the first week of June 2012. Their paddle, said the project’s originator Magdalena Angel, is something she envisioned as a protest to the Enbridge pipeline, doubling as a way to engage youth and connect to the area’s environment and culture.

I spoke with Magdalena about the upcoming paddle, which has been a journey in the making, beginning with her longtime interests in social justice and environmental sustainability. Magdalena, who lives in Squamish, visited the Great Bear Rainforest’s Hartley Bay in 2009 as part of an ecology class. Love at first sight: she remembers being swept away by the wildlife, including humpback whales, bears, and eagles amongst a lush and verdant backdrop. She wanted to see a spirit bear, and went with a guide named Marvin. They waited eight hours near a stream and saw black bears feeding on salmon. She finally saw two white bears emerge upstream and will never forget the experience.

The students in her ecology class had planned to camp out at a local soccer field, but a high school teacher and community leader, Cameron Hill, generously invited all 18 students into his home to sleep! Cam, as well as Helen Clifton and other band leaders, taught Magdalena and other students about the area’s cultural history and ecology, including what issues they faced, especially concerns about the Enbridge’s Northern Gateway, and from there Magdalena’s interest piqued.

From that experience, Magdalena wanted to return to the Bay and jumped at the chance to do a volunteer stint later at the Cetacealab, also called Whale Point. When she returned to Hartley Bay, she said the first day was cold, foggy, and rainy, but the rest of her two and half weeks there were sunny and clear, perfect for observing and recording whale behavior. It was during this time that she learned even more about the Enbridge project and met folks who would inspire her.

Magdalena met photographers from the iLCP, who were working on what would become Spoil, a documentary that showed what a spectacular place the raincoast is. She also met four kayakers from the Pipe Dreams project, who were also filming a documentary, as well as Norm Hann, who did a 400km stand-up paddleboard journey for the First Nations and the rainforest. He also developed the Standup4Greatbear documentary.

Spoil is produced by EP Films and iLCP and tells the story of threats facing the Great Bear Rainforest as well as efforts by First Nations bands, scientists, and conservationists protecting the area.

Norm Hann completed a 400km stand-up paddleboard expedition along the proposed north coast oil tanker route in British Columbia.

After meeting these motivational folks, Magdalena dreamed of the Great Bear Rainforest Youth Paddle as an awareness-raising project, which will also be filmed. The paddle will consist of youth rowing a 20-man canoe around Gil Island. During their 4-6 day trip, they will stop at campsites that hold cultural significance for the First Nations in the area, including Kiel and Old Town.

Kiel is known for seaweed drying. According to a paper by Nancy J. Turner, “Those Women of Yesteryear: Woman and production of edible seaweed (Porphyra abbottiae) in Coastal British Columbia, Canada,” red laver seaweed has been a critically important food and condiment for the Coast Tsimshian of Hartley Bay, its harvest and processing the exclusive domain of women while men fished. In Kiel, the traditional spring camp (south of Gil Island on Princess Royal Island), the women harvested and worked with the seaweed. The group also plans to camp at Old Town, or Laxgal’tsap, known for its halibut and spring salmon.

Hartley Bay, where the canoe trip will start, is north of Gil Island, which is an isolated spot located west of Whale Channel and at the entrance of Douglas Channel. It is surrounded by many other islands east of the Hecate Straight, the waterway separating Haida Gwaii from the mainland. These channels are the same ones that tankers will need to navigate to get from the Straight to Kitimat and back, and include Gil, Campania, Farrant, Gribbell, Princess Royal, and Fin Islands, among others. Hartley Bay is home to the Gitga’at, members of the Tsimshian cultural group, a matrilineal society.

Photo credit: Magdalena Angel

I asked Magdalena about whether others her age seemed to understand the issues that the Great Bear is currently facing, and she said that she felt blessed to be in a school where students do care about both social and environmental justice. She said that the protest is multi-faceted, in that there are problems at various stages of oil sands production, including the resource-intensive mining to extract the oil, the increased CO₂ output of this kind of oil, harmful tailings pond and other refuse, the pipelines themselves—which will traverse ecologically sensitive and rare areas—and, of course, super tankers along the West Coast and into the channels up to Kitimat. Also, First Nations’ resistance to the Northern Gateway Project is growing, and their recent signing of the Save the Fraser Declaration shows several bands’ unity to not allow any tar sands projects to cross their lands, territories, and watersheds or the ocean migration routes of the Fraser River salmon. Magdalena’s main concerns are the overarching environmental impacts and disrespect to the First Nations whose land treaties would be disregarded if the Northern Gateway is built. Magdalena pointed out that the government is not looking out for Canadians’ public interest or our nation’s responsibility to reduce carbon emissions.

Two years ago, Magdalena participated in a global perspective class and saw that someone had written on a chalkboard:

Be the change you want to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi

This encouraged her to take on a personal challenge, and she is only at the beginning of the journey! She is working with a team of others, including Erica Benson, Caitlin Byrnes, Linden J. Fisher, Kirsty Graham, Olivia Morgan, Kelly Mcquade, Brianna Powrie, Net Nirachatswan, Tim Moss, and Julian Grant.

Visit Great Bear Rainforest Youth Paddle to find out more about the project and related events. To donate to this project, please see Indie Gogo or the Youth Paddle website.

See the project’s event page for past and upcoming events. On February 11 will be a “Voice for the Great Bear Rainforest” at The Wise Hall, 1882 Adanac Street, Vancouver. Doors open at 8:30, and a live art show and auction by Jay Peachy begins at 9:30. The evening will also feature music by No Sinner and Jasper Sloan Yip.

I want to thank Magdalena and her friends and colleagues for beginning this journey to help save the rainforest on our coast. Youth can have the strongest voice and most at stake—as they and their offspring are the generations who will be most affected by the loss of culturally significant rainforest and rare ecological habitat. I was very inspired by Magdalena’s story and genuinely honored to be able to tell it!

Posted in Great Bear Rainforest Part 5: The Youth Paddle |

Great Bear Rainforest

Discover the Great Bear Rainforest through our new, ongoing series:

Part 1: Oil Sands

Part 2: Ancient Realm

Part 3: The Spirit Bear

Part 4: Wolves Lost in Time

Part 5: A Journey in the Making

Posted in Ecology News |

Great Bear Rainforest Part 4: Wolves Lost in Time

Gray wolf licensed by canstock.com

Historically, the Great Bear Rainforest has been unaltered for the most part, and the wolves beneath its looming and mysterious green canopy can be thought of as “lost in time” because of their isolation and unique morphology and ecology. In the past few decades, however, there has been increased resource extraction from this rainforest—something that many scientists and activists want to prevent.

Coastal wolves have been called the last truly wild wolves anywhere in the world.

We should take note of the gray wolf being gone from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick and work to prevent a similar fate on BC’s west coast. As is, though the wolf had once escaped endangerment due to its isolation, the coastal wolf population has been reduced by at least 80%, according to conservation biologist Dr. Reese Halter.

Habitat of the wolves includes areas of the Heiltsuk, Kitasoo-Xaisxais, Nuxalk, Oweekeno, Hartley Bay, Haisla, and Gwa’Sala-’Nakwaxda’xw First Nations.

The Heiltsuk Territory has a creation story of the wolf:

A wolf fathers the first children of this group. One child remains a wolf and serves as a protector of the people. His siblings stay in their human form and create many of the gifts to the people including winter ceremonials, bighouses, and salmon. The mother marks the wolf father with ochre paint, giving him a reddish tinge that is still common to gray wolves of the area.

The raincoast wolves are red or salmon-colored and are a subspecies of gray wolves–genetically the most divergent population of wolves in North America. Dr. Halter notes that even the inner- and outer-coast wolves have separate DNA. According to The Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) of British Columbia’s Coastal Rainforests, by Chris T. Darimont and Paul C. Paquet, a new haplotype, or version of mitochondria, which can be thought of as a unit of variation within the genetic profile of a species, was discovered in these wolves.

Click here for a list of gray wolf subspecies.

White wolf on Vancouver Island (Wiki commons)

To the left is another subspecies of gray wolf, the Vancouver Island Wolf (Canis lupus crassodon).

These endemic gray wolves living among the coastal areas of the Great Bear Rainforest are unique in that they have adapted to the marine habitat, and their diets consist of food that comes from the sea. Some have jokingly called the inner-coast wolves marine mammals.

Nowhere else in the world have wolf diets adapted like the coast wolves’. According to the Rainforest Conservation Foundation, wolves in the Great Bear get more than 75% of their diet from salmon, beached whales, and seals (outer-coast packs, about 50%). These wolves’ territories are vast, and the animals swim up to islands in search of food, including intertidal crustaceans. Essentially they “island hop”.

According to a study by Darimont, Reimchen, and Paquet, coastal wolves approach their targeted salmon, plunge their muzzle into the water to capture the fish with their teeth, and trot to shore to consume it. About 70% of salmon are consumed on the grass near the stream or river, though sometimes a a wolf will run off into the forest with its prey.

Some fun facts, by Dr. Halter:

The wolves eat only salmon heads that are high in omega-3 fatty acids; they have not adapted to eating salmon stomachs, which have parasites.
The wolves of coastal BC travel across water like the way we cross streets; they can swim up to nine miles in icy water, regardless of strong currents and winds.
Their jaws are very strong, seven times greater than ours. They use their teeth to kill their prey.
Their sense of smell is one hundred and one million times more acute than ours.
Wolves can catch salmon with a 30% kill rate.
When the remains of wolf carcasses are dragged from streams into the forest, the result is up to 80% of the forest growth’s nitrogen.

Dr. Halter posted another fun memory on his blog:

One of the most remarkable mutually beneficial relationships I have ever observed in nature exists between wolves and ravens. On Pooley Island, I’ve seen ravens playing with pups by dive-bombing them! Ravens depend upon wolves as they scavenge left over kills. Wolves, on the other hand, rely upon raven alert calls to warn them of intruders. Wolves do not eat ravens.

Wolves are the largest members of the canine family, ancestors of our best friends: dogs. Wolves can be gray, reddish, white, black, or mixed and typically eat ungulates (large hoofed mammals), small game such as rabbits, and, of course, sometimes fish and other marine life. Wolves live and hunt in packs, which can vary in number between three and a couple dozen or more animals. The mother and father wolves are called the alphas, and they reside and travel with their pups and other younger or subordinate wolves. The alpha wolves are known as pack leaders.

Their communication ranges from barks, whines, snarls, yelps, and growls to howls. You may be familiar with the scene of a wolf howling beneath a full moon; typically wolves howl more when the night is lighter, such as when there’s a full moon. There is an old saying: the pack that howls together stays together. While howling is important for packs, there is a hierarchy, and sometimes low-ranking members may be punished for joining in the howl. Howling is a way for wolves to know where their packmates are, however. Howling also occurs when a hunting party of wolves returns to their pack. And then there is social howling, which is understood to bond a pack together, or even to celebrate a kill. Howling is also done to warn off predators, mark territory, and, sadly, when a wolf is lonely.

Wolves mate in early winter, gestate for 63 days, and have a litter of 4-7 pups. The pups are born blind but are cared for by the pack and the alphas until they mature, at about 10 months. Wolves can travel up to 125 miles in a day.

Wolves in the Great Bear, similar to salmon, bear, and other species, including old-growth trees, face threats every day, generally related to resource extraction (logging, hunting, and now the potential for the oil sands pipeline through the rainforest). Wolves also may be threatened by disease.

In North America, wolves were hunted to near extinction in the 1950s, but at least in BC, the wolf population has rebounded due to hunting restrictions. Recently, however, these restrictions were lifted by the provincial government–including regions west of the Fraser River on the Chilcotin Plateau. With wolf populations having come back, they are now preying on cattle and wild game, such as moose and caribou. The idea is to manage pack size and density, not to cull wolves. But, according to Dr. Parquet, who is somewhat understanding of concerns, since he is a hunter and grew up on a ranch, said:

We don’t really know what the wolf populations are, we don’t know the extent of predation compared with previous years, we don’t know at all if it’s having an effect on wild ungulates, deer and elk and moose. It harkens back to the days when wolves were hunted to extinction throughout most the United States and even threatened in Canada. This is what we were hearing in the 1950s and earlier and we’ve made a lot of progress since those days. I understand the kinds of concerns that ranchers have.

While the coastal areas are not home to many ranchers, humans are moving closer into the wolf territory there every year. Hunting is unchecked there too, fish farms may spread disease to wild salmon (which wolves eat), pollution drifting up to shore may infiltrate salmon and other marine animals that are eaten by the wolves, and overfishing is always a problem as well.

The threat of oil sands expansion is also dire. The Enbridge Northern Pipeline would cut across the Great Bear, crossing over a thousand salmon-bearing rivers and streams and gutting the sacred forest with twin pipes that would carry either oil or condensate–and, as they say, it’s not a matter of if a pipeline will erupt, but when. This pipeline would also result in 225 big crude oil tankers a year navigating the same waters the wolf hunts in for its prey. The balance of the Great Bear’s ecosystem is delicate; any oil extraction and transport would ruin it.

Here’s to hoping that the wolves that have quietly evolved on our beautiful coast are not truly lost in time, and will remain an integral part of our planet in the future.

Read more in the series:
Part 1: Oil Sands
Part 2: Ancient Realm
Part 3: The Spirit Bear

Posted in Great Bear Rainforest Part 4: Wolves Lost in Time |

Great Bear Rainforest Part 3: The Spirit Bear

Photographer: Liz Sperandeo

The spirit bear (Ursus americanus kermodei), of the Great Bear Rainforest, is also known as the moskgm’ol or moskam al, literally translating to “white bear” by the Tsimshian people of the Gitga’at Nation. Other terms are ghost bear, white bear, and Kermode bear. The spirit bear holds a mystical and legendary place in the culture of the the coastal rainforest.

The spirit bear also has a unique genetic makeup. It is not a polar bear or an albino, as its appearance might suggest, but a subspecies of black bear that gets its white fur from a double-recessive gene. When both of the bear’s parents contain a recessive gene, the result is their cubs having a white or creamy fur. Researchers, whose findings appear in the journal Current Biology, Vol 11 No 18, report that a single nucleotide replacement in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene (mc1r) is responsible for the white coat color of the Kermode bear, a color phase of the black bear found in rainforests along the north coast of British Columbia, including the islands. Their sample included 220 bears, 10% of which were white. Reports vary, but observations are that this number can go up to 20-30% depending on the region of the coast.

These bears were named after Frank Kermode, a zoologist of the Royal British Columbia Museum, who studied the bear’s origins. But the Kitasoo and Tsimishian Nations have their own legends and names for the bear. These legends date back to the ice age, over 10,000 years ago. When the world was vast and white, covered in glaciers, there was the creator: Raven.

In the Kitasoo story of Raven, he came out of the ice age and down from the sky to create “The Green”. But he missed his ancient snowy land and wanted something to remember the old world by, so he made one in ten black bears white. The sacredness of the animal to First Nations is pure, and mentioning the bear used to be nearly taboo–but now it needs to be discussed, due to logging threats and the proposed Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline by Enbridge.

According to Public Radio International and “Living on Earth,” journalist Bruce Barcott stated:

Contrary to popular belief the spirit bear is not a common figure in First Nation mythology. Rather, the bear’s existence has become a close-kept tribal secret for generations–aiding both the First Nation and the bear’s survival through colonists, fur trappers, logging companies and hopefully now the pipeline.

I think the First Nation is now interested in publicizing the spirit bear’s existence if only as a way to help protect the land and the water that both they and the spirit bear rely upon.

This new green world that Raven created contains a large habitat that spirit bears exist in, along with their black bear family. Their territory is about 7.2 million hectacres and includes the islands and parts of the mainland coast of British Columbia.

The bears share their habitat with old growth forests, marine-diet wolves, bald eagles, salmon, foxes, and other animals.

A couple years ago, BBC Earth News reported findings by a researchers who published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. The report noted that the the white color of the spirit bear may be a survival adaptation. The lighter color of the bear is less visible to fish than darker black bears, making them 30% more efficient at capturing salmon. However, black bears without the recessive allele camouflage better within forest habitats. At night, both colors of bear have similar chances of catching salmon, but the spirit bear with a lighter coat has better luck during the day. The spirit bears, research shows, are more dependent on their wild salmon diet than their black bear counterparts.

A young spirit bear weighs only half a pound when born but can grow up to 300 pounds as an adult, the males being larger; spirit bears live up to about 25 years. They grow up to a height of between four and six feet, and are omnivores, eating fish, berries, carrion, insects, nuts, fruits, mushrooms, plants, and sometimes small animals such as fawns, though usually these bears are not active predators. Their diet heavily depends on annual salmon spawns.

Because these bears have remained in isolated areas for thousands of years, they are reported to be gentle toward humans, but as with approaching any animal, it is not recommended that you disturb these bears, especially mothers with cubs. Many spirit bears are seen alone. It is recommended to make a noise such as speaking or whistling when walking in the forest, to warn them of your presence. If you do see a bear, he or she may stand on their back feet, bare their teeth, and growl. They usually do not attack unless they perceive that you are dangerous–again, mothers with cubs may attack.

I doubt you’ll be able to outrun the bear, though. They are reported to being able to run up to 55 km an hour.

Mating occurs during late spring and early summer, with gestation lasting about 220 days. When bears mate, they depend on their noses and scent to communicate. As females come into estrus, they release hormones through their urine and feces. These smells can be picked up from several kilometers away. The males will rub their mark on trees and other places. The couple eventually finds each other and may stay together for a few days or even a few weeks. Copulation can occur often, and males and females might also mate with others during this time. When estrus is over, so is all the romance, and the males and females part. Males do not make any further contribution to parenting.

Cubs are born during hibernation, usually in January or February, and are weaned at about eight months of age, long after their emergence into the big world from their cozy winter dens. Cubs usually stay with their mothers for a few months longer, until she is ready to mate again.

It is illegal to hunt spirit bears due to their rarity, but other threats, such as logging, have reduced their habitat. There are an estimated 500 to 1,200 white spirit bears, and black bears with the recessive gene, left on Earth. Fortunately, their habitat is difficult to get to, and most must get there by expensive float planes or boat.

Habitat of the black and spirit bears is found within the majestic and sacred rainforest, where old-growth trees, sandy beaches, alpine tundra, fjords, salt marshes, and kelp beds present a magical land of rain, fog, and mystery. The Sitka spruce, red cedar, Douglas fir, Pacific silver fir, and western hemlock loom hundreds of feet in the air to a green and brown canopy, and have grown for more than 1,500 years–having evolved since the Pleistocene glaciation.

First nations, scientists, environmentalists, and others have long been worried about the protection of the Great Bear Rainforest. In 2001, the government endorsed the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement to protect the coastal forests, but industrial logging continued. In 2002, environmental organizations found new evidence of clear-cutting, and in 2003 launched a campaign in China, which was, according to Forest Action Network (FAN), “the fastest-growing market for lumber clearcut from BC’s ancient forests.” In July of that year, FAN reported a new road being blasted into bear habitat on Princess Royal Island, and that companies such as Interfor, Western Forest Products, and Triumph Timber all had licenses to log in spirit bear territory. In 2004, three years after the agreement to protect the rainforest, FAN released a report that some progress had been made but that emerging threats continued to exist, including mining and industrial logging.

The protection of the area goes back earlier, too. In the early 1990s, a large-scale protection of the Great Bear was launched by environmentalist to protect the Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Nuu-chah-nulth people, including the northern Hesquiaht, the middle Ahousaht, and the southern Tla-o-Qui-Aht.

These early protests gave way to the coined name of the Great Bear Rainforest.

As early as 1984, Meares Island and Sulphur Pass had logging blockades, after the BC government decided to log most of the island. A legal application from the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation was granted, which halted the logging and imposed a legal injunction. In 1989, a sustainable development stakeholder process was set up to provide land use plans for Clayoquot, but this dissolved in 1992. In 1993, the Clayoquot Land Use Decision (CLUD) came about. According to Friends of Clayoquot Sound, this decision called for:

33% of land base of Clayoquot Sound protected (90,400 hectares)
(translates into 22% of productive ancient forest protected)
62% of land base open for logging
(translates into 74% of productive ancient forest open for logging)
5% of land base not included in decision
(District of Tofino; First Nations reserves; Meares Island – under court injunction and treaty negotiation)

However, this decision did not sit well, and later that year came Canada’s largest civil disobedience. 12,000 citizens attended a logging road blockade in Clayoquot Sound. 850 were arrested. See IISAAK (First Nation led forest service) for a timeline of CLUD protection and activism covering 1978-2008.

Photographer: Liz Sperandeo

Since 2000, Clayoquot Sound has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. These sites are established by countries in order to encourage ecological science and sustainable development in local communities. Biosphere reserves attempt to reconcile conservation of biological and cultural diversity, and economic and social development, through partnerships between people and and nature.

In 2006, 2007, and 2008, further agreements between coalitions of several organizations have called for continued protection and sustainable forest management. This includes implementation of an ecosystem-based management and “keeping the promise” by Greenpeace, Sierra Club of Canada, and ForestEthics in 2008.

However, the Sound and the entire Great Bear Rainforest are still threatened.

A new salmon farm near Plover Point is being proposed, which would threaten wild salmon habitat, a necessary food source for animals and people of the raincoast, when wild salmon numbers are already dwindling. The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project would also lay twin pipelines across the mainland temperate raincoast and bring more large tankers up this sensitive ecosystem area to Kitimat, BC.

Some organizations promote the idea of “no-go zones” for wild salmon rivers, where forests and other ecosystems dependent on a dwindling species, such as salmon, would be unavailable for mining. East of the Great Bear Rainforest are the three major wild salmon-bearing rivers. The Skeena, Stikine, and Nass are watersheds known as the Sacred Headwaters and make up the territory for the Tahltan First Nation.

Royal Dutch Shell, according to an article in the Vancouver Sun, wants to turn the Sacred Headwaters into a fracking production that would involve “an ugly maze of coal bed methane gas wells and roads.”

No doubt the Enbridge project, too, if it comes to reality, would further destroy the environment of British Columbia, from the twin pipelines–which would be laid from Alberta to the coast–and, some say worse, the potential for an oil leak or spill from an increased 225 oil supertankers along the coast per year, which would make their way in and out of Kitimat tidewaters and inlets, home to the Haisla First Nation, or “People of the Snow.”

The waters of this coast, and the delicate rainforest around it, are home to a treasure trove of biodiversity–some of the last great natural riches on our planet abiding in one of the largest, most intact temperate rainforests left on Earth. Not only are spirit bears and wild salmon dependent on this region but so are humpback, orca, and fin whales that feed there. Each organism in this rainforest, from the tiniest, most miniscule bacteria decomposing dead organic material on the forest floor to the tall conifers providing a canopy to the animals like spirit bears, it’s crucial that this environment not be impeded by anthropogenic impacts.

The spirit bear is only one inhabitant of the great rainforest, but it’s a prominent example of why the Pacific temperate rainforest must continue to be preserved and protected. From the Sacred Headwaters to the western coast and its islands, this great forest teems with life and beauty; truly nowhere else in the world can match its unique composition and raw and ancient power.

Posted in Great Bear Rainforest Part 3: The Spirit Bear |

100,000 Poets for Change Press Release

Vancouver to join historical 100,000 Poets for Change global event:
Poets in Vancouver to promote water stewardship

September 24, 2011: On September 24^th, poets around the world (including Vancouver!) will create the world’s largest poetry event—a movement so significant its “100 Thousand Poets for Change” website will be permanently archived by Stanford University’s LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program. Stanford University calls this the largest poetry event in history. Michael Rothenberg, of Big Bridge, is organizing this planet-wide happening, which includes 600 events in 450 cities and 95 countries.

100,000 Poets for Change is a positive movement, with voices calling for social, environmental, and political sustainability. This mass gathering, happening at once in 600 different places world-wide, is truly momentous in that it comes in a day and age when, despite our globally connected world, there are many dissenting voices. 100,000 Poets for Change attempts to join everyone together for one day to celebrate poetry, art, and music, with a message to work toward peace and affirmative change. We hope this one day will echo positively for days, weeks, months, and years to come.

Each city participating in this event is planning celebrations and actions unique to their own locale. In Vancouver, BC, we are celebrating our rich natural heritage and biodiversity. We have the rare privilege to live in one of the planet’s most beautiful cities. We live near one of the world’s largest and last intact temperate rainforests. We are surrounded by mountains, fjords, and salmon-bearing waterways. Among us are First Nations, who have occupied this region for thousands of years and bring to us great cultural lineage and wisdom.

At 1:00 on September 24th, Vancouver poets and other community members will honor the traditional and annual Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and BC Rivers Day by actively restoring the False Creek East shoreline—a coastal region within the city containing water with very high coliform counts and a history of dangerous chemicals in sediment samples, which Fraser Riverkeeper and environmental lawyer Doug Chapman will present. We discourage young children to attend this part of the event due to a rocky terrain and numerous medical debris found on this beach every year.

Later in the afternoon, as part of Vancouver’s annual book fair, the Word on the Street festival extends to three days and is helping to sponsor the 100,000 Poets for change readings. From 3:30 to 5:00, poets from Christine Leclerc’s Enpipe Line project will read at the Carnegie Centre on Main and Hastings in classroom 2 on the third floor. Note that seating is limited. September 24^th is also 350 Day, a call to reducing carbon dioxide emissions into our atmosphere. The Enpipe Line project is a collaborative effort by many poets to write more kilometers of poetry lines designed to engulf and overwhelm the structures that allow proposals like Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline to emerge. The Enpipe Line is now close to 50,000 kilometers long – far longer than the proposed twin pipeline project – and will be published by Creekstone Press. All afternoon and into the evening, the Carnegie Centre will have poetry readings, workshops, and an open mic session.

Local publisher Moon Willow Press, Word on the Street Vancouver, and non-profit Fraser Riverkeeper are sponsoring the local events.

Moon Willow Press’s Mary Woodbury, who is organizing this event with Christine Leclerc and Rita Wong, has worked collaboratively with Michael Rothenberg on several art and literary projects for more than a decade. She said, “I was excited to bring Michael’s vision of 100,000 poets to Vancouver, a great city that interacts with a long tradition of Canada’s envious natural resources and indigenous customs. Many of our natural resources are being direly threatened, including clean water, wild salmon and other fish, and our coastal rainforest. This poet event takes action to preserve probably the dirtiest shoreline in the city as well as promotes, very uniquely, resistance to the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project – one that would devastate our coasts and northern rainforest ecosystem as well as perpetuate the destruction already seen in the Athabasca region in the highly resource-intensive extraction of oil sands.”

A sampling of these poet events on the 24^th include:

Albuquerque, New Mexico: 24 hour drum circle
Morning ginko (haiku walk) in Nagoya, Japan
The mayor of Cájar will organize Granada, Spain’s event with a local musical choir
“Jazzoetry for Imagination” in the East Village, New York
Contra la Violencia (Against Violent Art) in Mexico City
Bar limericks in Limerick, Ireland
Keystone XL protest in Omaha, Nebraska
Free verse day in Kerala, India
Music by Mousikoi Ixnilates and poetry readings in Volos, Greece
Poet Michael McClure (one of Kerouac’s major characters) reading in Venice, Italy

Posted in 100,000 Poets for Change Press Release |

Great Bear Rainforest Part 2 — Ancient Realm

View Great Bear Rainforest in a larger map. Click areas to see their labels. The light green shaded area shows the Great Bear Rainforest. The red line shows the proposed pipelines’ routes to and from Kitimat and Bruderheim. The blue, yellow, and green lines show proposed tanker routes. All designations are approximate. Dark green areas along the Pacific Northwest Coast depict the Pacific temperate rainforest region.

In my series about the Great Bear Rainforest, I started out with an oil sands overview, because the rainforest is in dire threat at the moment from the proposed twin pipelines that would cross its salmon-bearing rivers and streams and bring potential oil spills to its delicate coastline. It’s not too late to act, to join in the movement with First Nations and others, and to speak up for the protection of the forest against the newly proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project by Enbridge. (An independent review process is underway now, referenced in the oil sands article linked above.)

With that out of the way, let’s look more closely at this ancient realm, truly part of one of the most beautiful, last, great, and important coastal and temperate rainforests left in the world. The Great Bear Rainforest is just one region in the temperate, coastal rainforest chain that extends from northern California to Alaska in what is known as the Pacific temperate rainforest region. The term “Great Bear Rainforest” was coined by environmental groups.

The Great Bear’s physical space is a strip of land in British Columbia between the northern end of Vancouver Island and southeastern Alaska. In the map above, I also included the Haida Gwaii, home to the Clayoquot Sound environmental campaign in the 90s, which eventually gave rise to the naming of the Great Bear Rainforest. I will discuss more on the Clayoquot Sound, First Nations groups, and environmental campaigns later in this series.

The rainforest is about 2 million hectares. Coastal rainforests are diminishing in our world but were always rare, covering less than 1/5 of 1% of the earth’s land surface. Other areas containing coastal temperate rainforests are found in the rest of the Pacific northwest coast, New Zealand, Tasmania, Chile, Argentina, and in even smaller coastal zones within Japan, northwest Europe, and the Black Sea. Of the few of these rainforests left in the world, over 60% have been destroyed due to logging and development. British Columbia contains one of the largest contiguous tracts left.

The rainforest, so named for the “Great Bears” that roam it, is home to grizzly, black, and Spirit bears. I will devote an entire article later in the series discussing the Spirit bear. Suffice to say for now it is a subspecies of the black bear, but has a lighter coat that can be described as white or cream. Its color is due to a recessive allele. The Spirit bear (also sometimes called the Kermode bear) has a place in mythology in the native people of the raincoast forest

The BC rainforest is truly the most amazing area in the world that I’ve ever seen. Living nearby is a reminder that there is little need to travel far, because heaven is right here. Marked by lots of rainfall, misty horizons, glacier-fed rivers and inland lakes, moss-laden forest floors, mature trees, fjords, and great biodiversity, the forest could be described as sacred. The area boasts some of the oldest and most mature trees on the planet, including Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, red cedar, and western hemlock. The fir and spruce can reach up to 300 feet tall. The western red cedar can grow 19 feet in diameter. Myriad species interact in this region–which combines freshwater, terrestrial, estuarine, and marine geography–including salmon, marine-diet wolves, black and grizzly bears, eagles, orcas, sitka deer, marbled murrelets, foxes, and, well, there are too many to list.

According to Wade Davis, author of Rainforest: Ancient Realm of the Pacific Northwest, in this forest, “a square meter of soil may support 2,000 earthworms, 40,000 insects, 120,000 mites, 12 million nematodes, and millions upon millions of protozoa and bacteria, all alive, moving through the earth, feeding, digesting, reproducing, and dying.” It’s important to remember that none of these species lives in isolation. Each system relies on those around it, below it, and above it.

The rainforest’s indigenous people, also called First Nations, consist of the Haida, Tsilhqot’in, Dakelh, Wet’suwet’en, Nisga’a, Gitxsan, Nuxalk, Heiltsuk, Kwakwaka’wakw, Tsimshian (including the Gitga’at, Kitasoo/Xai’xais, and others), Haisla, and Oweekeno. According to the Forest Action Network:

One of the earliest Northwest Coast villages identified by archaeologists is Namu, a 10,000-year-old site in Heiltsuk and Nuxalk Territory in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. The abundance of the region’s land and sea supported the emergence of highly sophisticated, organized cultures and an intricate trade network. These people lived without the aid of agriculture–one of the very few complex societies in the world to have done so–and developed a striking, intricate style of art admired worldwide. Industrial clearcut logging has threatened some of the core values of many of these First Nations.

Before 10,000 years ago, the Pleistocene Epoch and its last glacial periods shaped what was to become and carved the origins of the temperate rainforest in British Columbia. When the glaciers retreated, they left behind rocky terrain fairly devoid of life. Eventually, lichens grew and decayed, forming the first soil. Wind that blew dust, and water, helped to create the first plants and moss, which in turn led to more diverse soil types. This gradual ecological succession, called primary succession, led to more soils and plant types, including grasses. Small birds, animals, and insects arrived as did eventually more complex plants, including trees. With larger trees, some older plants like lichen and grasses could not compete, nor could survive in shaded areas. During each further stage of succession, some plants adapted, some died out, and some dominated the temperate rainforest. If left to natural evolution, these final forests as we know them today, also known as climax forests, are very stable for thousands of years and represent the finality of this region’s biome type.

Though forests may survive naturally for thousands of years, devastation can occur. Fires, for instance, can impact the composition of a forest. With temperate evergreen forests, many species of conifers are fire-resistant and may outlast other trees, even invasive deciduous trees. Fires can also aid in the forest’s regeneration by speeding up decomposition of conifer needles. Generally, the temperate rainforests are too moist for natural fires, though droughts can occur.

It seems like a climax forest would live forever. Even future glaciers, volcanoes, and other natural events cannot prevent the land from eventually returning to a forest again. However, when forests are clearcut and top-soil is destroyed for development, it can take thousands of years for the soil to become rich enough again to support a new climax forest. Soil evolution is the longest process in the primary succession of forest development, which is why it’s important to protect our forests, especially our old growth and mature trees.

Looking further back from the Pleistocene-Holocene era along the geologic time scale, where would we first come across the types of trees seen today in the temperate rainforests before our last glacial age? Though short, primitive vascular rhyniophytes were around during the Silurian between 418-443 million years ago, the first trees appeared during the upper Devonian time period (about 370 million years ago) and were called Archaeopteris, a fern-like tree that resembled, in shape, a Christmas tree. During the Carboniferous period were the first large primitive trees, or Lycopodiophyta, which also were some of the oldest vascular plants. Vascular plants then operated the way trees we know today do: they have lignified tissues that move water, minerals, and photosynthetic products throughout the plant. The Archaeopteris was known as a progymnosperm and gave way to the gymnosperms we know today that include conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and Gentales.

: (c) 1996 macrae@geo.ucalgary.ca, University of Calagary, Geoscience Department

Imagine these early trees forming before our landmasses separated from Pangaea, before beetles and flies evolved, before dinosaurs! By the Jurassic period, between 150-200 millions years ago, gymnosperms and ferns were common. We think the CO₂ levels are high now (and they are for the sustenance of human life), but back then atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were 4-5 times higher than they are today. However, by the time the Cretaceous period rolled around, the CO₂ levels were about what they are today. The early Paleogene era boasted a tropical climate, followed by the Oliogocene’s cooling climate and then the icehouse conditions of our Quaternary age. I have just gone through 200 million years in one paragraph. The present plant types found in the temperate forests of the northern hemisphere appeared during the Paleocene-Eocene transition, and these include the lowland deciduous and mountain conifers. Angiosperms first appeared during the Cretaceous period and dominate North American forests.

Some of the trees in the Great Bear Rainforest are a thousand years old, or more by some accounts. The ancient realm is put into perspective by millions of years prior with the evolution of rainforests. We should be so lucky as to live within the same period as these great temperate forests, and to have the chance to protect them from anthropogenic devastation.

Posted in Great Bear Rainforest Part 2: Ancient Realm |

Great Bear Rainforest Part 1 – Oil Sands

The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project is in the proposal stage, and would involve building parallel 1,172 km pipelines between Bruderheim, Alberta and Kitimat, BC. The eastbound pipeline would import natural gas condensate (the chemical/petroleum based mixture used to dilute tar sands), and the westbound pipeline would export crude oil extracted from the tar sands in Alberta. This project was proposed a few years ago, but was postponed a few times before it has finally settled in application to the National Energy Board. Good news right now, for those of you who don’t like it, you can do something about it. As of May 5, 2011, a hearing order was issued for the project, and you can:

Submit a letter of comment (deadline: March 13, 2012)
Make an oral statement (deadline: October 6, 2011)
Become an intervenor (deadline: July 14, 2011)
Become a government participant (deadline: July 14, 2011)

A project advisory team is available for assistance if you need it. Toll-free number: 1-866-582-1884. Or e-mail them at GatewayProcessAdvisor@ceaa-acee.gc.ca. An independent panel, the Joint Review Panel, will be providing an environmental assessment and a regulatory process. In January of this year, they requested more information from Enbridge.

Criticism of the project:

Laying these pipelines will disrupt over 1,000 streams and rivers in northern BC and call for big tankers on the west coast, which is already a delicate area due to industry, development, and dwindling numbers of salmon and other fish. The oil extracted from Alberta tar sands already serves the U.S. and southern Canada by way of inland pipes. The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline would specifically serve Asia, or PetroChina.

The process of tar sands oil extraction is a dirty one.

A couple autumns ago, on a nice cool evening in Burnaby, I headed to an evening speaker event at Burnaby’s Shadbolt Center, held by Andrew Nikiforuk, who wrote the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize winner, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, and Ian McAllister, who wrote The Great Bear Rainforest: Canada’s Forgotten Coast. Andrew presented the dirty oil side, while Ian spoke of his work in the Great Bear Rainforest, and how disruptive and negative the Enbridge proposal would be.

Andrew laid it out, and a sample chapter is available here, so you can read it for yourself. He gives a lot of figures, but the dirty process of extracting this oil is worrisome. The tar sands are found in quantity in Canada and Venezuela. They are known as oil sands or bitimunous sands, and contain sand, clay, water, and a particular viscous and heavy form of petroleum that looks like tar, and is called bitumen. Alberta’s oil sands are the biggest reserves of this type of oil in the world, an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of the stuff. The sands must be mined and processed in order to extract the bitumen, which is then refined into oil. This extraction is more complex than conventional pumping of lighter-weight oil due to the separation processes to get the bitumen from the sand and clay. And then this bitumen needs to be upgraded. Because it is naturally so heavy and thick, it must be diluted by lighter hydrocarbons in order to make it transportable through the pipelines. The process to create oil from the resource found in the sands is:

Open pit mining with hydraulic and electric shovels. For areas where the bitumen is too deep to mine, steam injection, solvent injection, and firefloods are used.
Tar sands are sent via large trucks generally to an extraction plant.
Hot water processes separate the bitumen from sand and clay. A process called conditioning separates the small pieces of oil sand.
This bitumen is upgraded to a lighter substance, when combined with warm water, to form a slurry. Large amounts of water and energy are used to extract the bitumen and condition it.
Leftover water from mining is stored in tailings ponds.

About TWO TONS of tar sands are used to make ONE BARREL of oil. About 75% of the bitumen can be recovered from the sand. Only 20% is recoverable by surface mining (less than 75m). Andrew Nikiforuk stated, “Each barrel of bitumen produces three times as much greenhouse gas as one barrel of oil. Getting it out of the ground (think sucking cold maple syrup through a straw) requires immense amounts of water, terribly destructive collection methods, and intensive alterations to the environment (through pollution, infrastructure, etc.).”

The Athabasca River, linked to oil sands mining, is already degraded, thanks to current tar sands processes. See this 2006 report about the shrinking glacier that feeds the river.

One of the tar sands in Canada is known as the Athabasca oil sands. Alberta researchers found unsafe and exceeding levels of cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver, and zinc, and other elements in water and snow near or downstream from the oil sands area. The researchers from the University of Alberta, Erin Kelly and David Schindler, designed a model to single out naturally occurring elements as opposed to elements coming from the tar sands area. Other researchers from Queens University in Ontario, and the Alaskan Oceana non-profit, contributed to the report. This report was published in the National Academy of Sciences last August.

About 65% of the water used in tar sands mining processes come from the Athabasca and its tributaries. 90% of this water cannot be returned to the river. Pollutants continue to contaminate the river. For every barrel of synthetic crude produced, between 2 and 4.5 barrels of water are needed. The existing tar sands projects are already allowed to withdraw 349 million cubic meters of water per year. Source: Connecting the Drops.

According to Energy Bulletin, oil sands use more water than the city of Calgary, there is an urgent need for water-sharing deals, and water is polluted in the extraction process. Just today, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that hydrocarbon chemicals known to be toxic to fish and suspected of causing cancer in humans, increased by 40% between 1999 and 2009. This report is from yesterday’s Environmental Science and Technology. In this article, ecologist Kevin Timoney found that “the more bitumen was mined, the more chemicals were likely to be found in the following year’s sediments.” He notes that the levels of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) found in sediments are already at levels that “can cause liver disease, reproductive impairment, and stunted growth in fish.”

Tankers on the coast

For a long time there has been a federal moratorium that has protected BC’s coast from crude oil tankers. Of course, if the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline Project goes through, this all will change. According to West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL), 525,000 barrels a day of crude oil would be shipped from Alberta to Kitimat, BC, resulting in 225 oil tankers a year on BC’s northern coast, at the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. Because these waters are difficult and dangerous to navigate, tanker accidents and spills are likely. WCEL stated that, according to a report from Simon Fraser University, BC would have the probability of many small spills each year and a catastrophic spill of over 10,000 barrels every 12 years. British Columbia would also be vulnerable to an oil spill disaster on the scale of Exxon Valdez, which would devastate the coast for generations.

Pipeline disrupting thousands of rivers and streams, and other ecology, in British Columbia

The two parallel pipelines, one carrying condensate to Alberta, and the other carrying crude oil to Kitimat, BC, would cross, or run parallel to, over 1,000 streams and rivers in BC. The Pembina Insitute’s report says that these rivers are major salmon rivers in the Upper Fraser, Skeena, and Kitimat watersheds. It’s not just salmon, but other fish, wildlife, bird species, plant life, and so on that would be affected. Salmon ecosystems are already stressed in British Columbia, as are forests. Spills and leaks from the pipes could be devastating. The Pembina report says:

The greatest impact on salmon during pipeline construction occurs when a pipeline is built across a stream or river. Runoff and discharge — from excavating and draining trenches, disposing of fill material, and testing pipes — can end up in rivers and streams. This raises water temperatures and results in increased levels of sediment, including pollutants such as total dissolved solids. Increased sediment in rivers and streams can reduce the availability of food, smother spawning habitat, and irritate the gills of fish, making it more difficult for them to breathe.

Generally, these problems are most severe during pipeline construction and can be minimized by scheduling construction during times when salmon may be less affected. However, the proposed pipelines would cross or run parallel to rivers and streams where millions of salmon fry and juvenile fish, such as coho, chinook and steelhead, reside year-round.

Pipelines fail due to erosion, stress, avalanches, mudslides, and other events. The National Energy Board found that there is an average of one rupture every 16 years for every 1,000 km of pipeline in Canada. A similar study by the Alberta Energy Utilities Board found that in 2005 there were 2.4 failures for every 1,000 km of pipeline in Alberta.

The Great Bear Rainforest area, which would be foremost effected, is a 2-million hectare home to thousands of species of birds, animals, and plants. The area is a beautiful one of mountains, fjords, rivers, streams, lakes, and forests. There are 1,000 year old cedar trees and tall old Sitka spruces. There are rich salmon streams and entire ecosystems surrounding not just salmon but the way of life, including orcas, eagles, black bears, grizzlies, the mysterious white Kermode (spirit) bear, and marine-diet wolves. This is one of that largest temperate rainforests in the world, a large carbon sink, and one of the last standing original coastal temperate rainforests, as close to 60% have been destroyed. Already there is stress due to clearcut logging, logging roads, and other development.

The oil sands project also uses a lot of water, as shown above. Water conservation is becoming more of an issue since supplies are limited and water quality is being degraded everywhere across the world. A recent article by David Suzuki on Cnews said:

The consequences of water shortages and contamination are severe and numerous. Many of us remember the tragedy in Walkerton, Ontario, in 2000, when seven people died and as many as 2,300 became ill after drinking from wells containing high levels of E. coli bacteria. It’s an issue that many First Nations people here have to deal with every day. In fact, around the world, water-related illness is one of the leading causes of death, mainly in the developing world. Health authorities estimate that unclean water kills three million people a year, including close to two million children who die of diarrhea because of bad water. Worldwide, researchers estimate that as many as half of the people in hospital are there because of waterborne diseases.

Water shortages also mean less is available for irrigation, which has a severe impact on our ability to grow food. University of Alberta ecology professor David Schindler has argued that “Water scarcity will become one of the most important economic and environmental issues of the 21st century in the western prairie provinces.” A Senate report last year concluded that summer flows in many Alberta rivers are already down by about 40 per cent from where they were a century ago.

We must also consider what will become of people as water becomes more scarce and contaminated. Along with the other issues around climate change, this could trigger massive refugee crises.

First Nations and the tar sands industry clash

There are at least 17 First Nations territories in the Great Bear Rainforest and the Haida Gwaii, according to Nature.org. The total population is estimated at 18,000 – 20,000, and many of them have homes that are accessible only by sea.

Last May, Chief Donny Testawich of the Duncan’s First Nation joined with a Horse Lake First Nation’s lawyer to present at the Supreme Court in the matter of the Carrier Sekani and the Rio Tinto case, which determines how Canada’s energy regulators are to deal with conflict between First Nations’ rights and major energy projects. Just recently, First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance representation warned CIC to not continue to finance the Enbridge project. It is clear that First Nations groups in Alberta are fighting against existing and potential Athabascan projects, and are also against the proposed Enbridge project.

With Stephen Harper’s recent election win and the hearing order, many are concerned about just where the pipeline is going. The Times Colonist reported yesterday that First Nations are hoping Harper follows through on some of his previous promises, especially with settling land claims, rights, and implementing treaties. “More than 80 First Nations have objected to the proposal, but the Conservatives, unlike other major political parties, do not want a tanker ban in areas such as Hecate Strait, Douglas Channel and Queen Charlotte Sound.”

U.S. Enbridge has already broken environmental laws or has caused environmental problems, harming wildlife and health of nearby residents.

In 2002, a cracked pipe in Wisconsin spilled 1,200 barrels of oil. In 2002, a rupture in Minnesota leaked 6,000 barrels. In 2009, 4,000 barrels spilled in Edmonton, Alberta. In July of 2010, there was an Enbridge pipeline break that spilled three million litres of crude oil in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to the a report by the Polaris Institute, between 1999 and 2009, there were 713 spills that released close to 134,000 barrels (21.3 million litres) of hydrocarbons into the environment.

In 2009, Enbridge agreed to pay 1.1 million in fines for violating Wisconsin’s waterway and wetland protection and stormwater laws. According to Oil Sands Review, there were numerous and widespread violations and Enbridge “was penalized for allowing more than 500 documented environmental violations including 282 wetland violations (soil mixing, rutting, unauthorized clearing, improper restoration), and 176 land disturbance and erosion control violations near navigable waters and wetlands.” These included sediments ending up in streams, unnecessary clearing of wooded wetlands, and disposal of trench soils in wetlands.

In 2008, 1,600 ducks died from complications arising out of landing in one of Syncrude’s tailings pond. Hundreds of other waterfowl have met similar catastrophe.

With their power, Enbridge has also been able to negotiate ROWs (right of way agreements) and MOUs (memorandums of understanding) with private landowners and First Nations. The Polaris Report lists their own lawsuits as well.

Corporate greed

I will only post a few numbers here, taken from the Polaris Institute report mentioned above.

President & Chief Executive Officer: 2009 salary was $6,021,930.
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Development: 2009 salary, $2,021,640.
Executive VP, Gas Transportation & International: 2009 salary, $2,345,343.

I think you get the idea, and doubt I need to say anything else about this subject.

Oil is not a sustainable energy

China would have to invest quite a bit in the Enbridge oil sands project, and it’s not really clear if that investment would be worth it financially, even if you don’t consider all the other negative impacts of the proposed pipeline. But you have to consider ecological effects because those are included in any long-term sustainable action that would produce such a heavy oil that costs more, both ecologically and economically, than the lighter oil found in other reserves, such as in Saudi Arabia (the first big oil reserve; the bitumen in Canada comes in second).

According to Green Energy Investors, the three main oil sands in Canada could supply total world needs for up to 15 years (this report is a few years old). The oil sands are already supplying the U.S. and parts of Canada. Recently, Shell announced that it would increase its Scotford expansion capacity from 100,000 barrels per day to 255,000. So, whether or not the new pipelines are built to BC, Canada’s got something that everyone wants.

However, most people realize that while there may be plenty of reserves of oil left in the world, the cheaper oil supplies have been or are being depleted. Drilling deep or mining/extracting from soil and sands are expensive methods of retrieving this resource that everyone’s dependent on. The oil that’s harder to get to, that’s getting attractive to some buyers, is called marginal oil, and as cheaper reserves run out, higher oil prices are here to stay, regardless of claims of “endless” resources in the oil sands or in deep-drilling.

This has led to researchers trying to find greener energy alternatives. If such resources take over in the future, it may not be a wise investment, strictly financially speaking, for China or any other country to invest in another oil sands pipeline project when newer and different energy sources must be found anyway.

I wrote this not to reach out to lawmakers, rich CEOs, or anyone else but the common reader, like me, who cares something for our planet and could feel empowered to make changes in their own lives so that the ecology of our world, of one of our last great temperate rainforests, isn’t damaged forever. Forever is one of those forever words. Meaning, once you screw it up enough, there’s no going back. How does that fare for our future generations? Let’s put the pocket book away. Let’s put our wagging fingers away. Let’s put for now the blame game away. As consumers and voters, we individually have the power to change the course of the future. It starts with us. Whether we stop driving so much, walk more, take transit, bicycle more, or become active in hearings within our communities — we are driving, pardon the pun, the way of the future. We can do something, bit by bit.

Other resources:

Royal Society of Canada report

Posted in Great Bear Rainforest Part I: Oil Sands |

The Green Publisher’s Toolkit

The Moon Willow Press Toolkit is available for download here. This toolkit also marks the first section in Moon Willow Press’s newest “Ecology News” blog — which will be a handy reference for publishers, authors, and others to find news about the state of the world’s forests and how we can protect them

Moon Willow Press Publishing Toolkit

by Mary Woodbury

Published in British Columbia, Canada by Moon Willow Press
Copyright © 2012 by Mary Woodbury
Fourth edition

Thank you for downloading this free e-book. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This

book may be distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book

remains in its complete original form and its cited links are contained.

ISBN: 978-0-9813924-6-2

Printing is not encouraged, but if you wish to print this toolkit, please do so only on post-consumer paper.

This document is a living document and will be updated with participation from other publishers and organizations. Please contact Mary Woodbury for inclusion of new findings and resources.

Photos © by Mary Woodbury. These photos are from Turkey Run State Park in Indiana and from British Columbia.

Author and Publisher Biography

Toolkit author Mary Woodbury is owner and publisher of Moon Willow Press, a small press focusing on celebrating the written word while helping to sustain natural forests.

Mary was born in Louisville, Kentucky, lived most of her life in the Midwest and in southern California, and currently lives in Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada. Mary obtained a BA in English and anthropology from Purdue University in 1993, and has been an editor and writer since, starting with Prentice-Hall in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mary is the editor of Jack Magazine, a decade-long web journal exploring the nature and ecology of several literary movements emanating from the Beat authors of the 1940s and 50s.

Mary works as Director of Operations for a Vancouver-based non-profit that helps to preserve, restore, and protect the Fraser River. She also writes a nature blog, Ecologue.

Introduction

This toolkit wouldn’t have been possible without many organizations’ online resources, which have provided a wealth of information, such as Eco-Libris, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Forest Ethics, Forest Stewardship Council, Green Press Initiative, Natural Resources Canada, and many others.

This document provides backgrounder information for Moon Willow Press’s publishing philosophy and offers tools for publishers to ensure responsible business practices for taking care of the natural resources we have left on the planet. Moon Willow Press’s byline is helping to sustain arboreal ecosystems while celebrating the written word.

This tagline takes into consideration that it isn’t just trees we’re worried about but tree environments in totality, including soil, water, air, fauna, flora, and all indigenous connections — including people — in forests around the planet.

The written word is seeped into our history, dating back to symbols used 30,000 years ago. Humans have written, drawn, carved, and incised glyphs and words onto stone, wood, shells, bones, metals, animal skins, and, of course, a wide variety of plant fiber, including hemp, bamboo, papyrus, palm trees, and other pulp. It seems we have a lot to say, and are driven to keep saying it. We document, inform, and entertain on a daily basis.

When I was little, my favorite past-time was sitting beneath a big tree, reading a book. I loved to soak up the big world around me, both imaginatively and intellectually. This picture leaves juxtaposition behind, however, in that nearly four billion trees worldwide are cut down each year for paper — the same paper used for those lovely books we read.

Combining my life-long love of reading and forests led to the nature of Moon Willow Press, with a vision to be able to continue to do both during an era when there are many endangered forests and irresponsible management of forest lands. Later in this guide is a list of tools showing how MWP plans to put forth the action to balance the loves of reading and trees, but for now I want to discuss the beauty of our planet’s forests and how they are threatened.

-Mary Woodbury

About Moon Willow Press

Moon Willow Press is a new Canadian small press. MWP has signed the Book Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing. Moon Willow uses only recycled and FSC-certified fiber and offers e-book alternatives. Moon Willow Press publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry books that explore science and nature. For non-fiction works, a high priority will be placed on publishing credible authors in their field of knowledge, with previous publications being an asset, though first-time authors are acceptable.

Moon Willow Press is a member of Green Press Initiative. We meet GPI’s environmental criteria and support their efforts to reduce the social and environmental impacts of book publishing.

Moon Willow Press is located in Port Moody, British Columbia. Mary Woodbury is the business owner and publisher of Moon Willow Press, a sole proprietorship business, license 84985 9467 BT 001. MWP is registered with Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) Canadian ISBN Service System (CISS), and archives its publications with LAC’s catalogue.

Mission

The world is changing, and we will change along with it, either by choice or circumstance. Publishers can help dramatically by making critical choices in using the right fiber in publishing. Using post-consumer fiber and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper helps to drastically reduce the quantity of greenhouse gasses, water, and trees used in publishing, while using only renewable resources (not old-growth or endangered forest lands). It is Moon Willow’s mission to follow the green model and to publish not only entertaining and quality reading, but also to promote books that help people of all ages understand, respect, and adapt to the changes in our natural world.

Values

Moon Willow Press’s values are twofold: a commitment to publishing quality works and to using an environmentally friendly model in the process.

Partners and Memberships

Moon Willow Press is a member of Eco-Libris and Green Press Initiative.

Book Industry Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing

Moon Willow Press has signed the Book Industry Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing and is a member of Green Press Initiative.

Paper Choices

To save paper, Moon Willow Press uses short-run print services, offers e-book alternatives, and prints only with FSC-certified and post-consumer fibers. Note that while FSC-certification isn’t required by publishers, publishers should commit to using FSC-certified fiber. For more on publishing toolkits and U.S. suppliers, see GPI’s Resources page.

Donations

Moon Willow Press is committed to donating a portion of profits to organizations that work in sustaining world forests.

Creativity in the Office

Being sole owner of a fledgling small press means being creative. For example, I designed and then printed my own business cards on paper made of 75% post-consumer and 25% hemp paper. This cost about $12.00 per 100 cards. Places like Green Field Paper Company are a great source for not just business cards but calendars and other stationery.

I also recently wanted to find some reasonably priced and healthy book fair props. I wondered what I could give away to people stopping by to visit my booth, and how not to print a lot of wasteful literature. I decided to hand out simple confetti. These trimmings are from Green Field Paper Company’s handmade seed papers, a byproduct of the company generating more cutting pieces than needed and offering the byproduct: cheap confetti. I trimmed these into bookmark-sized paper, and it was a hit among visitors to our booth at the Word on the Street Book Fair in Vancouver, BC. This type of booth handout represents trimming waste and doing something productive with it. This paper is embedded with wildflower seeds. According to an interview the company did with CBS:

“It’s embedded with an array of wildflowers, all non-invasive seeds that can be planted anywhere in the country,” Shari explained. “On the back it tells you how to do it. You take the card, rip it up, put it in the ground, put it in 1/2-inch deep soil and water it and watch it grow.”

I also plan to take my laptop to book fairs in order to show booth visitors the MWP website and samples of e-books. Instead of handing out brochures, I will just have a few mini-posters viewable by those passing by, which will be printed on recycled paper and in stands. The only literature available for taking will be the post-consumer/hemp-made business cards. It would be nice to take a live willow tree to a show, but we’ll have to see about that.

Short-Run Printing

Moon Willow Press will use short-run printing. Shorter print runs are more possible now than traditionally, due to publishers being able to choose digital printers instead of only lithographic printers.

In the past, offset printers had higher quality, but that is changing. Offset printing may still be cheaper for very large quantities of books, but short-run costs should be balancing that out with uniform costs regardless of quantity, lower storage costs, less pre-press error-fixing, and so on. The distribution costs and initial investment in large quantities of offset press can also be high. For a small press like Moon Willow, we plan to print short runs in order to save resources. There is no need to have unused or unsold books shelved and later in a landfill because they didn’t sell.

E-book Publishing

MWP plans to publish e-books as often as possible. E-book technology has come to a long way, with e-ink being perfected to the point people now enjoy reading on electronic devices. E-books make sense economically and environmentally, being completely paper-free. However, Eco-Libris has pointed out that the energy required to manufacture and dispose of an e-reader may be greater than that of a traditional book dependent on how many e-books a person reads per year. More studies need to be done on the e-book energy consumption and sustainability compared to that of a physical book. Yet, it is also common sense that paper consumption is vastly higher when printing a book and so if you’re worried about trees and fiber usage, it makes sense to adopt the policy of choosing printers and publishers who follow FSC standards when buying traditional books. The more e-books per year that you read, the less energy consumption overall of the e-reader compared to that of physical books.

World Forests

Forest lands comprise one of our greatest natural resources, covering one-third of our planet and providing materials for shelter, fuel, and food as well as giving us the fabric for information and entertainment material. Forests also provide a rich natural ecosystem, help to keep our climate in check, protect against erosion, assist in filtering air pollution, help safeguard our water resources and coasts, and shield from avalanches and storms.

Forests are naturally biologically diverse, allowing their species to continuously adapt to their surrounding ecosystems; this multiplicity takes into account natural genetic diversity, ecological roles, and the variety of life forms within forest ecosystems. When there is little or no disturbance of native forest lands, these are known as primary forests. Size and variety of species, along with how those forests are managed, vary and help to define the health and state of a forest.

Canadian Forests

Many sources in this toolkit reference U.S. figures instead of Canadian ones, though the U.S. has logging interests in Canada’s forests as well. Of the estimated 2.5 million acres cut down each year just from the Boreal forest, about 65% of that is used for paper publishing, and 80% of that goes to U.S. consumers (source: Green Press Initiative).

Scenic Canada boasts over a third of the world’s Boreal forest, a fifth of the world’s temperate rainforest, and a tenth of the total global forest canopy. Boreal forests comprise a biome characterized by coniferous forests, whereas temperate forest biomes contain mostly deciduous trees.

Source: Natural Resources Canada. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2010, and the courtesy of the Canadian Forest Service.

According to Canopy Planet, Canada’s Boreal region is one of the last and largest intact forests left in the world, at 1.4 billion acres. Boreal forests account for 20% of the world’s remaining closed canopy forests, store 30% of the carbon in the world’s land ecosystems, and cover 35% of Canada’s land mass — not to mention housing an estimated 1.5 million lakes and containing the largest expanse of freshwater wetlands in the world. Add to this breathtaking picture, the Boreal region is also home to some of the largest remaining herds of woodland caribou in the world, numerous migratory waterfowl and land birds, black bears, wolves, lynx, fish, insects, plants, and old-growth lichen and trees.

Land ownership in Canada is mostly Crown land, including over 90% of Boreal forests. Less than 8% of the Boreal forests are protected.

Forestry is Canada’s largest export-based resource. However, there are many threats to Canadian forests, including logging and development, forest fragmentation by roads, hydropower, mining, oil and gas development, disruption of wildlife, degradation of the natural “water treatment” for rivers and lakes, seismic lines disruption, displacement of indigenous peoples and their economic and spiritual connections to the Boreal, and destruction driven by U.S. consumption (mostly from a demand of paper products but also hydropower).

The following photo shows the forested regions of Canada. (Zoom in to read the legend.)

Source: Natural Resources Canada. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2010, and the courtesy of the Canadian Forest Service.

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

History

Canadian forests have been around for thousands of years; the Boreal forest in its current form began to surface at the end of the last Ice Age. In the last 5,000 years, the region began to show similar species composition and biodiversity as what it currently exhibits. The Boreal forests of North America occupy 35% of total Canadian land area and 77% of Canada’s total forest land, stretching between the northern tundra and southern grassland and mixed hardwood trees (source: Natural Resources Canada).

More history from Natural Resources Canada:

20,000 – 5,000 years ago: Wisconsin glaciation (last Ice Age) receded, and forest cover regenerated across Canada.
Native cultures established themselves across Boreal forest; controlled fires were often set.
1670-1870: The fur trade brought European influence to Boreal forest.
Mid 1880s: Demand for lumber and depletion of forests pushed forestry activities in the southern areas of the Boreal.
Late 1880s-early 1990s: Growth of literacy and consumer spending spurred the demand for paper, and the first pulp and paper mills were established in the Boreal.
Post- WWII: Existing pulp and paper mills were expanded, and new ones built.
1950s: Power saws replaced hand axes and cutting.
1970s: Mechanical skidders replaced horses for hauling, and trucking began to replace seasonal water transportation.
1980s: Improved harvesting equipment increased cutting efficiency.
1990s: New technologies and development of new products improved utilization of tree and wood waste, and enabled the use of previously unused species.
Recyclable material usage increased.

A good timeline is available at the BC Forest Service. The government website Forest Management in Canada also has some interesting historical and current forest data. Forest management across Canada is mostly implemented by provincial departments.

Canada’s vast forests were delightful visions to fur traders, settlers, and explorers, though many lands were cut and cleared to make room for homes and economic development. Many pioneers had the conservationist forethought to protect what were back then seemingly endless forest regions, and these people should be respected and admired today, as forests in Canada and the rest of the world are faced with forest mismanagement and industry demands. The Canadian Encyclopedia has a great article titled Environmental and Conservation Movements.

Over thousands of years, native people have evolved close and efficient interaction with the land, making use of a large variety of trees, shrubs, herbs, moss and fungi for everything from food, medicine, clothing, and building materials to ceremonial materials (source: Senate Subcommittee on the Boreal Forest, 1999, Chapter 3, Aboriginal Realities).

In an article titled Paradise Lost: Climate Change, Boreal Forests, and Environmental History, Nancy Langston, president of the American Society for Environmental History, said that twentieth century foresters portrayed Boreal regions as naturally unhealthy and in need of rescue. Since those times, modern ecologists and environmentalists have challenged that view by introducing a new metaphor: instead of a place of sickness and ill health, Boreal forests are the lungs of a world imperiled by global warmingand worth protecting because they make up one of the world’s largest carbon sinks.

Threats to Forest Lands

Deforestation

Like many natural resources, forests are constantly endangered by humankind. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, “Deforestation, mainly conversion of forests to agricultural land, continues at an alarmingly high rate — about 13 million hectares per year. ” Their findings show that restoration, planting, and natural expansion of forests have slowed the net loss.

The largest reduction in forest lands is caused by deforestation for agriculture or other development and by natural disasters, such as fires. Many countries practice afforestation, or planting on lands that were not previously forested. And of course, some natural regeneration occurs as well.

According to the FAO, even though forest plantations are increasing, they still account for less than 5% of total forest areas: 78% of these are for wood and fiber production, and the remaining 22% are instituted for soil and water conservation.

According to Canopy Planet, “Deforestation accounts for an estimated 20% of global carbon emissions — that’s higher than emissions from transportation, aviation, and IT industries.”

Climate Change

Forests are natural carbon sinks in that they amass carbon chemical compounds for an indefinite time period. When forests expand, atmospheric carbon is decreased and absorbed in trees and soil. When forests are destroyed, this carbon is released into the atmosphere, representing the finality of the cycle of forests. Growing stock and carbon stock help to measure carbon contained in forests: growing stock measures the volume of stem wood and gauges the amount of carbon contained; carbon stock is a measurement of how much carbon is stored in the all the world’s forest ecosystems, including soil and biomass as well as somewhat in dead wood and non-living organic debris on the forest floor. According to Greenfacts.org, “Overall, the world’s forest ecosystems are estimated to store some 638 Gt (638 billion tonnes) of carbon, which is more than the amount of carbon in the entire atmosphere. Because of large data gaps for soil carbon in the major Boreal forests, this figure probably underestimates the total amount of carbon stored in forest ecosystems.” In short, forests can affect the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide, helping keep warming in balance. Trends in carbon stocks and forest biomass between 1990 and 2005 are shown here.

Though climate change discussions are often broiled in political and religious flames, and often times too much attention is paid to a few trees instead of the entire forest (excuse the pun), there is plenty of evidence for glaciers receding, sea levels rising, and Arctic sea ice disappearing. The precise numbers on how much the earth has warmed or might warm, dependent on data collection methods and climate models, may still be under debate, but there’s no doubt that our planet is warming. This will call for a degree of understanding and adaptation among us all.

According to the David Suzuki Foundation and Natural Resources Canada, climate change may result in the following:

Forest dispersion and shifting due to rising temperatures and changes in rain and snowfall, which will lead to a decrease in soil moisture and some vulnerable species extinction (such as the white spruce).
Forest fires, due to hotter and drier summers.
Rising treelines, which is determined by the temperatures of the growing season; as global temperatures increase, the predicted treeline behavior will advance upslope, shrinking the alpine ecology.
Forest disease and pests: warmer temperatures are expected to make conditions favorable for the survival rates of invasive species.

Canopy Planet reports that the Boreal forests of Canada and Russia together are the world’s largest and most important storehouses, holding 22% of the total carbon stored on the earth’s land surface.

Endangered Forests

Endangered forests are termed so for protective reasons because they contain a large amount of the world’s remaining old-growth, primary, and ancient forests — and because harm done to their outstanding ecological significance could be irrevocable. Frontier forest generally refers to a forest that is large enough to retain its biodiversity and is relatively intact and undisturbed, has viable species populations, is dominated by native species, and has a mix of tree types and tree ages.

The Green Press Initiative lists the Canadian Boreal forest, Indonesia’s tropical forests, Southeast U.S.’s forests, and South American forests as some of the most endangered forests in the world.

According to Greenfacts.org, “An estimated 13 million km² of forest, a little more than a third of the world’s forest area, are considered primary forest. Nearly half of all primary forest is found in South America, a quarter in North and Central America, and nearly a fifth in the Russian Federation alone.

A number of countries reported that they have no primary forests left. These were mostly countries in Europe and in the arid zones of Africa and Western Asia.

Though primary forests still represent a little more than a third of the world’s forest area (36.4%), in absolute terms, the area of primary forest has been shrinking by about 60 000 km² per year over the last 15 years. While the loss has been slowing down in some regions, it has been increasing in South America and some other regions. Brazil and Indonesia alone accounted for a loss of 49 000 km² per year during the period 2000–2005.”

Forest Ethics lists four types of endangered forests: intact forest landscape mosaics, naturally rare forest types, forest types that have been made rare due to human activity, and other forests that are ecologically critical for the protection of biological diversity. Intact forest landscapes may be under threat and have become fragmented. Rare forest types may be rare due to naturally small amounts on the landscape or because of human activity. Forests with high diversity have many species and endemism. Other forests may include those not fitting with in other categories and can also be remnant natural forests in landscapes that are otherwise highly degraded by such things as logging.

Cultural Impacts

Many indigenous and forest-local peoples’ entire economic and social lives are threatened and, worse, completely taken away when arboreal balances are broken. All over the world are native peoples who have relied on forests to support their livelihood for thousands of years. Traditional lands such as these require natural balance and protection. Though some reservation lands are protected, many times treaties are not enforced and native protests are often ignored or have violent repercussions. Industry and agriculture are usually responsible for pushing unsustainable forest practices.

Further reference:

ForestEthic’s work with Great Bear Rainforest First Nations, Communities in the Sierra, Downstream from the Tar Sands, and Sustainable Local Economies.

Green Press Initiative’s Social Impact Fact Sheet give some worst practice scenarios, including the conflicts in Espírito Santo, Brazil; Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario; and Indonesia’s logging and its Kuntu village.
Eco-Libris’ planting partnerships and programs.
Rainforest Alliance’s worldwide forestry programs in Africa, Asia and Oceana, Europe, Mesoamerica, North America, and South America.
Rainforest Mongobay’s People of the Congo Rainforest.
WWF’s review of the Amazon.

Reforestation Programs

Appendix A shows reforestation programs around the world, but this listing is not exhaustive. There are many organizations, small and large, that focus on offsetting land deforested for mining, agriculture, paper products, and development with reforestation efforts. According to the BC government site, British Columbia has almost as much forest as it did 150 years ago, with about 3% of those being converted from forest to other uses. By law, all harvested areas must be replanted to mirror the diversity of natural forests. About 20% of these forests regenerate naturally, and the rest are replanted (timber licensees pays for the cost of reforestation). Seeds come from seed orchards or select seed from healthy trees.

Not all countries have such protective laws, which is where reforestation or afforestation programs work to either reestablish forests or plant them anew. Afforestation establishes new forests in areas that were not forests previously.

Publishing Industry

The paper publishing industry contributes to forest ecosystem loss. The following are a number of paper facts:

Nearly 4 billion trees worldwide are cut down each year for paper, representing about 35% of all trees (source: Ecology.com).
More than 30 million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper for the production of books in the U.S. Some facts about the book publishing industry are here (source: Eco-Libris).
Paper publishing is the fourth largest industrial source of greenhouse emissions in the U.S (source: Green Press Initiative).
Paper accounts for 25% of landfill waste and one third of municipal landfill waste (source: The Daily Green).
The U.S. book industry uses less than 10% recycled fiber, the newspaper industry about 35%, and over 40% industrialized wood is used to make paper (source: Green Press Initiative).
The paper industry emits the fourth highest level of carbon dioxide among manufacturers; the printing and writer sector uses about 95% virgin fiber (source: Green Press Initiative).
The average American uses nearly 700 pounds of paper each year, a doubling in per-capita consumption since 1960 (source: Environmental Defense Fund).
The FAO estimates that deforestation accounts for 25% of the annual emissions of carbon used by human activity (source: Green Press Initiative).
Paper comprises 40% of landfill materials, and decomposition of it produces methane, which traps heat 21 times more than carbon dioxide (source: Green Press Initiative).
Compared to using virgin wood, paper made with 100% recycled content uses 44% less energy and produces 38% less greenhouse gas emissions, 41% less particulate emissions, 50% less wastewater, 49% less solid waste and — of course — 100% less wood (source: The Daily Green).
Post-consumer, recycled fiber requires 30-40% less energy and conserves 2,000-3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide for each ton of virgin fiber it replaces (source: Green Press Initiative).
Book paper in the Southeastern U.S. is one of the top 10 paper products and represents 6-10% of all regional paper production (source: Green Press Initiative).
Social impacts include indigenous communities being displaced and losing traditional-use lands to paper companies (source: Green Press Initiative).

Tools for Publishing Responsibly

With all those impacts our industry is guilty of, it’s time we own up to some responsibility as authors, publishers, book-sellers, and printers. We can go as little or far as we want with some of these tools, but the further, the better. A wise old man once said, “God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” That man was John Muir.

Forest Stewardship Council Resources

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization internationally known for promoting responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC has a certification system that provides “internationally recognized standard-setting, trademark assurance and accreditation services to companies, organizations, and communities interested in responsible forestry.”

Environmental Paper Network Calculator

The Environmental Paper Network Calculator is a great tool for helping you make better paper choices, and showing what your impacts will be when doing so, contributing to the saving of wood, water, and energy, and helping to cut pollution and solid waste.

Digital vs. Offset Printing (and Printing on Demand) Research

Digital printing makes more sense economically usually, since the setup of the book is a one-time only task, pre-press errors are easy to fix, very short runs are more cost-effective, revisions and updates are easy to make, and the printing itself is very fast.

Offset printing has traditionally offered higher quality imaging due to the plates and inks it uses, and can be more affordable with very large orders. On the downside, it takes a while to burn, mount, and register plates, and even more time to get the color right and print the first page. Printing fewer than 1,000 sheets isn’t desirable for offset printing, and is where digital printing comes in handy.

Many printing companies offer both offset and digital printing.

Offset printers can be improved by using 100% vegetable and biodegradable inks, minimized energy for distribution, and recycled aluminum plates. Buyers may demand that printers use totally chlorine-free (TCF) processes. But according to A Comparative Study of the Environmental Aspects of Lithographic and Digital Printing Processes, developed by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), significant environmental issues remain, including chemicals leading to the formation of smog, dust, and emissions resulting from press and platemaking being dangerous to workers’ health, wastewater chemical discharge leading to groundwater contamination, and solid waste contributing to landfills.

Digital printing does not use inks, but printers might use non-toxic toners, which should be disposed for recycling. Digital printers also do not use water like offset printers do, and use less power.

Both types of printers should have management who make good choices about paper, energy, chemicals, and recycling of materials.

The RIT study concluded that there is more room for comprehensive studies, but based on the two presses compared, the digital press showed overall lower resource consumption, waste generation, and environmental impact.

Printing on demand (PoD)–a digital option wherein books are printed only when ordered–minimizes waste even further by never producing unwanted copies. However, PoD businesses may charge an overly high rate to publish on demand, so the business model is not currently sustainable for publishing houses. The PoD technology is aimed toward those who self-publish a few books and don’t mind paying a high fee to do so.

Publishing E-books

While the verdict might not yet be out on the impact of e-readers (they are still relatively new on the market), a study by Cleantech suggested that “the carbon emitted in the lifecycle of a Kindle is fully offset after the first year of use.”

However, Eco-Libris lists several studies and discusses the Cleantech study here, suggesting that it’s too early to declare the Kindle a clear winner above physical books. There are other e-readers, and nowadays Kindle is also available for free on mobile phones. To date, there is no study to show that the carbon footprint of any e-reader is less than that of a physical book. Most studies suggest that if a reader stores more than the average number of books read per year onto their e-reader rather than buying physical books from a bookstore, e-reading is more sustainable. However, studies also point out that currently most people who buy e-books continue to buy physical books.

E-ink technology is interesting and has been used not only in the Kindle but in the Sony Reader, iLiad, Cybook Gen3, and the Barnes & Noble nook. E-ink technology is comprised of a fusion of chemistry, physics, and electronics, and according to the E-ink website, “The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. In one incarnation, each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid.”

Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use

The Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use is published by the Green Press Initiative. It states goals of addressing climate change, protecting endangered and highest value forests, supporting best practices in forest management, reducing production impacts, recycling, reducing consumption, and supporting human rights. By following the guidelines in this paper, you can commit to your part in the book industry with the stated overall goals.

The Green Press Initiative offers other toolkits as well.

Canopy’s Book Kit

Canopy Planet offers an amazing toolkit for book publishers, including tips, a glossary, links, and paper types. Also see their trend reports and good reasons to choose Ancient Forest Friendly™ paper.

Canopy’s Ecopaper Database

Canopy Planet offers a large database of North American Ancient Forest Friendly™ and other environmentally preferred papers. This database is a worksheet that can be filtered by brand name, paper type, paper step, grade, minimum recycled content, web rolls or sheets, certifications, Ancient Forest Friendliness, and coated/uncoated types. Ancient Forest Friendly™ refers to paper that is 100% recycled or FSC-certified.

Convention on Biological Diversity’s Guide

The CBD put together a guide for conservation and sustainable use of forests in regards biological diversity. This is a good tool for getting an overall look at good practices in forest management that deal with biodiversity, agroforestry, forest landscape restoration, forest protected areas, and unsustainable and unregulated harvesting.

Paper Grades and Pulp

The website PaperOnWeb is a vast resource of paper information, including grades of paper, waste paper, and pulp; basis weight; paper ISO sizes; paper density; wood, paper, and pulp properties; and chemical information.

Paper Suppliers and Printers

Here are some items to question and research before making decisions about paper suppliers and printers:

1. Do they operate in compliance with federal, provincial, and state guidelines?

2. Do they manage their lands in a manner that protects and conserves water, soil, forests, air, and other parts of an arboreal system?

3. Do they actively keep up-to-date with practices used in forest management, environmental studies, and so forth?

4. Do they collaborate with outside parties who are active in forest conservation?

5. Does their conservation methodology account for biodiversity?

6. Do they follow FSC or other certification?

7. Do all aspects of manufacturing (i.e. not just wood but energy, chemicals used in inks, etc.) comply with good practices for responsible paper use?

FSC Printers and Suppliers

When printing on paper, choose FSC-certified paper, which comes from forests that aren’t primary, old growth, or ancient forests but from well-managed sustained and renewable forests — or print on post-consumer (recycled) paper or other fibers.

Printing Costs

According to Eco-Libris, a study compared printing a 220-page book on both recycled and non-recycled paper. For 100 books, it cost $25.00 less to print on non-recycled paper, for 500 books it cost $150.00 less to print on non-recycled paper, and for 5,000 books it cost $500.00 less to print on non-recycled paper. Though the costs is slightly higher for recycled paper, we may see this trend changing in the upcoming years due to more publishers demanding responsible paper choices. Of course, the overall true savings lies in air, water, soil, trees, and energy.

Office and Personal Toolkit

1. Use post-consumer paper only for office and personal needs.

2. Recycle paper on your own and in your business. Make sure that a clearly marked bin is set up in your office or home, and enforce people to use it.

3. Reduce paper waste by not printing e-mails and other items that can be read online, printing double-sided, printing on scrap paper, and setting up an electronic-only business conduction.

4. Reduce the weight and quality of paper that is being printed in the office.

5. Use a paperless trail when possible and be sure to electronically back up data, reports, and other correspondence.

6. Use libraries instead of buying new books. Donate old books to libraries or charities.

7. Most magazines and newspapers have online issues; some are still fee-based, but many are free. Cancel print subscriptions and read online instead.

8. Use seed and other treeless paper as an alternative to small press office needs, such as for business cards, thank-you notes, and brochures.

9. If you’ve done all this and still have paper waste, think about composting. Moon Willow Press shows how you can use paper for making compost.

Appendix A: Resources

The following are references to further your understanding of forestry, whether you are a logger, conservationist, printer, publisher, forester, etc. This listing is by no means comprehensive, and is really a skeletal framework for a much larger scope of resources. I invite you to contact me with references you feel should be included.

These listings are provided for reference only, and Moon Willow Press cannot attest to the validity of each link, but most seem to be good resources for further study.

Alliances, Associations, and Listings

About.com’s Listings

Association of BC Forestry Professionals

Australia’s Sustainable Forest Management

Canadian Forestry Association

Canadian Forestry Links

Commonwealth Forestry Association

National Alliance of Forest Owners

National Association of State Foresters

Nepal Forestry Organizations

Nordic Forest Owners’ Associations

Planet Friendly’s Listings

Rainforest Links

Russian Forest Club of NGOs

State Forestry Association Listing

Urban Forestry South NGOs

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Forestry Listings

WorkSafe BC

Certification and Models

Book Industry Environmental Council

Canadian Standards Association (CSA)

Ecologo

Forest Stewardship Council (Canada)

Green Press Initiative (with a new certification for publishers)

Greenseal

Smartwood Certification

Forest Management

Forest Management in Canada (Government of Canada Depository Services Program)

Forestry Commission (UK)

US Forest Management

General Reference

ConservaTree

Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005

Jack Magazine: Trees

Moon Willow Press: Great Bear Rainforest Series

Natural Resources Defense Council: The Canadian Boreal Forest

Paper Planet Blog

Pulpwatch.org

The Straight Dope

Waste Reduction Facts

Webecoist

Historical Information

Canada’s Forests (book)

Western Forest Insect Work Conference

Paper Alternatives and Green Paper Products

Note that continued research in the future should explore the environmental friendliness of alternative papers. The manufacture and development of these fibers should also be managed well, just like tree fiber.

ConservaTree

Eco-Libris’ Article on Wheat Straw

Ecology.com

Ecomall: Earth-friendly paper

Fibers for Paper, Cordage, and Textiles

Green Living

Hemp Paper

Kenaf Paper

Living Tree Paper FAQ

Making Paper without Trees

WiseGeek’s Alternatives to Wrapping Paper

Paper Recycling

Alberni Environmental Coalition Library

Baled Waste Paper

Better Paper

EarthCare Recycling FAQs

Natural Resources Canada

Obvious.com’s Guide

Paper Fiber

Paper Recycling Association in Canada

Paper Recycling Online

Recycle America

RecycleMore (UK)

RecycleNet

Recycle Now

U.S. Statistics (Green Living)

Research

Canadian Council of Forest Ministers

Center for International Research

Climate for Ideas

Conservation Biology Institute

Forests.org

Forest Shop (books)

Global Forest Watch

International Union of Forest Research Organizations

Masswoods

Questia’s Forest Conservation

Student Guide to Tropical Rainforest Conservation

Sustainable Forestry and Conservation

Ancient Forest Alliance

American Forests

Canada Boreal Initiative

Canopy Planet

Coast Forest Conservation Initiative

Convention on Biological Diversity

CPAWS (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society)

Dogwood Initiative

Forest Ethics

Environmental Paper Network

Global Forest Coalition

Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry

International Forestry Group (UK)

International Institute for Environment and Development

Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation

National Wildlife Federation

Native Forest Network (Wild West Institute)

North American Association for Environmental Education

International Tropical Timber Organization

Rainforest Alliance

Rainforest Relief

Sustainable Forests Partnership

Tanzania Forest Conservation Group

Trust for Sustainable Forestry

WWF

Tree Planting and Reforestation

Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR)

Billion Tree Campaign

Monteverde Conservation League

Planeterra

Ripple Africa

Sudan Reforestation Project

Sustainable Harvest International

Tree Nation

Tree Planting Programs (listing)

White Light Global Group

World Reforestation Foundation

Posted in Forests and Publishing |

Composting Guide

Composting

Though Moon Willow Press prints on FSC or post-consumer paper only, it is inevitable that in the publishing process some paper will be up for reusing, such as the paper used in packaging materials. MWP uses c-flute from General Fasteners (GF) in Vancouver, a paper that has some post-consumer material in it and which is 100% recyclable. That means you can recycle it via your city or get creative in reusing this paper. One idea is using this packing material in your compost.

What is compost?

Compost is decomposed organic material recycled into fertilizer and soil additions. Because of its recycled nature, making compost is environmentally sound. And it’s beneficial for your garden because it enriches soil.

Note: Compost materials are comprised of about 2/3 carbon-based and 1/3 nitrogen-based matter. Carbon is the brown material such as wood pieces, dried leaves, fruit peels, egg shells, pine needles, coffee filters, paper, sawdust pellets, and hay. Nitrogen is the “green” material such as manure, green leaves, and food scraps.

Warning: Your compost could stink or attract pests. Here’s how to deal with those things. Make sure fruit and vegetable matter is covered with at least an inch or two of clippings, or try calcium or lime, to keep fruit flies out. If you have problems with raccoons, make sure you have a hinged lid on your bin. If your compost starts to stink, make sure that a) you have not added bones or meat products and b) cover new layers with dry grass clippings or mulch. You can also add lime, calcium, or more carbon-rich matter.

What not to compost: Cat and dog feces, disposable diapers, meat/fish/dairy products, cooked food, plastics, anything treated with chemicals, diseased organics (plants/leaves with mildew, dark spots, rust), soil in large quantities, big roots and roots of plants that will regrow (like bindweed and dandelions), and cuttings and other plant parts that haven’t been cut down finely or shredded.

How to compost?

1. Make sure you have an outdoor space in which to make compost. You can use a heap right on the ground to build a compost pile or, for smaller compost projects, use an enclosed bin with 1.5cm aeration holes in rows about 15-cm around the bin. You can also build or buy wire mesh, snow-fence, wood and wire boxes, or wormeries. These can be static or turning. Realize that compost, though it can take as little as 6-8 weeks to be ready, could take a year. When the composting process is complete—when the compost is dark brown and earthy smelling—it should mature for another month or two. The compost should be somewhat fine, though you might have some lumps and stringy material. Large pieces of lumpy compost can be used for your next batch.

2. Have the materials for composting. These can be any organic materials not listed in the warning above, but don’t forget that corrugated packaging your book came in!

3. Before using paper in your compost material, ensure that the paper has no gloss or colored inks.

4. Shred the paper first. It may be too thick for an office type of shredder, or you may not have a shredder. In this case, you can cut up the cardboard finely with your hands or scissors.

5. Start your compost outside, on bare earth or in an aerated bin, to allow aeration by worms and other organisms.

6. The first level is a drainage level. You can use twigs or straw.

7. The second level is your shredded compost material, in this case the paper. You should also add to the mix: leaves, wood ashes, sawdust pellets, straw, seaweed, food scraps not listed in the warning above, and tea bags. Mix the dry and moist materials. Layer thinly.

8. The third level is the activation level. You can use any nitrogen source, including buckwheat, wheat grass, comfrey leaves, grass clippings, young weeds, clover, or manure.

9. The final level is a cover. Use home materials: wood, carpet scraps, and anything that can keep the compost from becoming too wet.

10. Keep the compost moist (but not too wet), and turned and aerated (with a rake or shovel).

11. See step 1 for the length of time the compost will take to mature. Use compost as an addition to your garden. Use it with soil, not alone.

Happy composting.

Posted in Composting |

Moon Willow Press Publishing Toolkit

The Moon Willow Press Publishing Toolkit (Ed. 4) provides backgrounder information for Moon Willow Press’s publishing philosophy and offers tools for authors, publishers, printers, and others who want to follow responsible practices when using materials from the planet’s remaining forest resources. In the fourth edition is more information about world reforestation organizations and some clarification from Eco-Libris on the environmental friendliness of e-books vs. printed books.

This document is completely free, and I encourage you to download it and share this link with friends and colleagues. This kit, complete with beautiful images of North American trees, may take a moment to download. You will need the free Adobe Reader to open the PDF. After the document loads, feel free to save it to your hard drive, though check back for future revisions.

The MWP toolkit gives a brief overview of the world’s forests, particularly Canadian forests and history, and provides general information about threats to forest lands, including deforestation, climate change, endangered forests issues, and impacts on indigenous peoples.

The kit looks particularly at the publishing industry’s impacts, and gives resources and tools for making paper, printer, supplier, and other choices, including:

Forest Stewardship Council resources
Environmental Defense Paper Calculator
A look at “A Comparative Study of the Environmental Aspects of Lithographic and Digital Printing Processes” research done by Rochester Institute of Technology
E-reader technology and studies
Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use guide from Green Press Initiative
Canopy Planet’s ecopaper database, paper futures forum, and book kit
Convention on Biological Diversity’s guide to conservation
Paper grades and pulp resources
Paper suppliers and printers (including the recommended lists from FSC)
Brief on printing costs between recycled and non-recycled paper
Office and personal tips

An appendix at the end of the toolkit has a long listing of online references to find more information about forestry listings and associations, certification and models, forest management, general reference, historical information, paper alternatives, recycling, research, sustainable forestry and conservation organizations, and tree planting; this list is not completely comprehensive, just a start. You’re invited to contact me with links to be added to future revisions of the toolkit.

Posted in Moon Willow Press Toolkit |

Category Archives: Ecology News

Moon Willow Press Publishing Toolkit

Author and Publisher Biography

Introduction

About Moon Willow Press

Mission

Values

Partners and Memberships

Book Industry Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing

Paper Choices

Donations

Creativity in the Office

Short-Run Printing

E-book Publishing

World Forests

Canadian Forests

History

Threats to Forest Lands

Deforestation

Climate Change

Endangered Forests

Cultural Impacts

Reforestation Programs

Publishing Industry

Tools for Publishing Responsibly

Forest Stewardship Council Resources

Environmental Paper Network Calculator

Digital vs. Offset Printing (and Printing on Demand) Research

Publishing E-books

Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use

Canopy’s Book Kit

Canopy’s Ecopaper Database

Convention on Biological Diversity’s Guide

Paper Grades and Pulp

Paper Suppliers and Printers

FSC Printers and Suppliers

Printing Costs

Office and Personal Toolkit

Appendix A: Resources

Alliances, Associations, and Listings

Certification and Models

Forest Management

General Reference

Historical Information

Paper Alternatives and Green Paper Products

Paper Recycling

Research

Sustainable Forestry and Conservation

Tree Planting and Reforestation

Great Bear Rainforest Series

Book Catalogue

Ecologue, a nature blog

Great Road Novels

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