National Forest Products Week on October, 2024: Why is Green Mountain a National Forest?

National Forest Products Week 2024. National Forest Products Week: October 17-23, 2010 National Forest Products Week:

Green Mountain is a NATIONAL FOREST NOT a NATIONAL PARK.

As a national forest, it is managed to provide people with a wide variety of services and commodities, including lumber, cattle grazing, mineral products and recreation with and without vehicles (i.e., multiple use). US national forests are managed by forest rangers with the US Forest Service (USFS) under the Department of Agriculture.

Were it a national park, the emphasis would be on strict preservation of pristine areas. The focus is upon protecting natural and historic features plus light-on-the-land recreation. The ultimate goal is to preserve resources "unimpaired for future generations." Park rangers work for the National Park Service (NPS) under the Department of the Interior.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service recently celebrated the centennial of a landmark environmental law that led to the creation of nearly 20 million acres of national forest lands in the eastern US. The Weeks Act, authored by U.S. Senator John W. Weeks of New Hampshire, provided for the creation of national forests in the East. The Act also established cooperation among states, tribes, and individuals to protect forests and watersheds from fire, flooding, deforestation, and other threats. About one-fifth of the nation’s clean drinking water has its origins in national forests established under the Weeks Act.

In Vermont, the Weeks Act has been the legislative vehicle used to conserve and protect the roughly 400,000 acres known to Vermonters and visitors as the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF). Many conservationists view the Weeks Act as one of the most significant achievements of the 20th century. While the Weeks Act was originally passed by Congress in 1911, it is still being used to provide Americans access to broad sections of federal land in Vermont and elsewhere.

Vermont is not without a national park: The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park near Woodstock, Vermont.

The links below will provide you with verification and additional information, particularly about Green Mountain National Forest and the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park:

Good luck!

one week in thailand?

There are a lot of interesting places in my beloved country, Thailand, due to its rich history, unspoiled and beautiful nature and vivid nightlife which are exactly what tourists need. Among those that I would like to recommend are as follows :

If you are a beach lover, following places will be worth visiting :

1) Phuket, the paradise island of Thailand

It is one of the most beautiful island with its magnificent scene. It is indeed the mountainous island with crystal clear blue sky and more than a dozen glorious white sand beaches.

Phuket will captivate you from the moment you arrive. Whatever your pleasure, Phuket is yours to enjoy.

Come and enjoy the pleasant atmosphere of Phuket!

2) Koh Samui, a nice holiday destination

It is a charming island with great beaches; i.e. the snow-white sand beaches shaded by towering palms which are very beautiful. The water is incredibly clear, so calm and good for swimming almost the whole year.

You will certainly enjoy and love the natural beauties at this hilly island.

3) Krabi, your best travel destination

It is one of the most attractive travel destination due to its white sandy beaches, fascinating coral reefs, forest with cave and waterfall, etc.

It is an invitation to relax and enjoy life as you never have relaxed and enjoyed before.

If you are a mountain lover, I would recommend :

Chaing Mai, Thailand Dream Destination

It is the largest and most culturally significant city in the north of Thailand.

There are a lot of ancient temples that all make Chiang Mai the perfect holiday choice; i.e. Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, Wat Phra Singh, etc.

There are some interesting and famous national parks in Chiang Mai; i.e. Doi Inthanon, Doi Suthep, Dokmai Garden, Elephant Natural Park, Hill-tribe tourism and trekking, etc.

Chiang Mai has a large and famous nightly bazaar for arts and handicrafts and counterfeit products of all description.

We can say that Chiang Mai is the place where is so much to see and so many memories to bring back with you.

Another one place that I would recommend is :

Kanchanaburi, Thailand Tourist Destination

It is very famous place with the beautiful virgin jungle with a lot of wildlife, mountains and wild rivers. These charming and beautiful natures are combined to make Kanchanaburi one of the most Thailand Tourist Destination for nature lovers and sportsmen.

You can feel the spirit of tranquillity during your stay in Kanchanaburi. Come and see it by yourself. Your dream may come true there.

You are always welcome to Thailand and have a good time in Thailand.

Ethanol fuel ??

it will be known as the total DESTRUCTION

because this is causing more deforestation and exstinction than anything we have seen ever before ,

They are gonna pass a bill in congress which will result in wholesale destruction of indigenous forrest and the death of millions of species of plants and animals ,And it will be Americas fault.

Forrests are being replaced for monoculture planting which means no animals exept plagues of insects ,which they will combat with chemicals

also killing the soil as well as all fauna

The irony here is that the growing eagerness to slow climate change by using biofuels and planting millions of trees for carbon credits has resulted in new major causes of deforestation, say activists. And that is making climate change worse because deforestation puts far more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire world's fleet of cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined.

"Biofuels are rapidly becoming the main cause of deforestation in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil," said Simone Lovera, managing coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition, an environmental NGO based in Asunción, Paraguay. "We call it 'deforestation diesel'," Lovera told IPS.

Oil from African palm trees is considered to be one of the best and cheapest sources of biodiesel and energy companies are investing billions into acquiring or developing oil-palm plantations in developing countries. Vast tracts of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries have been cleared to grow oil palms. Oil palm has become the world's number one fruit crop, well ahead of bananas.

Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum, including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm. Getting accurate numbers on how much forest is being lost is very difficult.

The FAO's State of the World's Forests 2007 released last week reports that globally, net forest loss is 20,000 hectares per day -- equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris. However, that number includes plantation forests, which masks the actual extent of tropical deforestation, about 40,000 hectares (ha) per day, says Matti Palo, a forest economics expert who is affiliated with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.

"The half a million ha per year deforestation of Mexico is covered by the increase of forests in the U.S., for example," Palo told IPS.

National governments provide all the statistics, and countries like Canada do not produce anything reliable, he said. Canada has claimed no net change in its forests for 15 years despite being the largest producer of pulp and paper. "Canada has a moral responsibility to tell the rest of the world what kind of changes have taken place there," he said.

Plantation forests are nothing like natural or native forests. More akin to a field of maize, plantation forests are hostile environments to nearly every animal, bird and even insects. Such forests have been shown to have a negative impact on the water cycle because non-native, fast-growing trees use high volumes of water. Pesticides are also commonly used to suppress competing growth from other plants and to prevent disease outbreaks, also impacting water quality.

Plantation forests also offer very few employment opportunities, resulting in a net loss of jobs. "Plantation forests are a tremendous disaster for biodiversity and local people," Lovera said. Even if farmland or savanna are only used for oil palm or other plantations, it often forces the local people off the land and into nearby forests, including national parks, which they clear to grow crops, pasture animals and collect firewood. That has been the pattern with pulp and timber plantation forests in much of the world, says Lovera.

Ethanol is other major biofuel, which is made from maize, sugar cane or other crops. As prices for biofuels climb, more land is cleared to grow the crops. U.S. farmers are switching from soy to maize to meet the ethanol demand. That is having a knock on effect of pushing up soy prices, which is driving the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into soy, she says. Meanwhile rich countries are starting to plant trees to offset their emissions of carbon dioxide, called carbon sequestration. Most of this planting is taking place in the South in the form of plantations, which are just the latest threat to existing forests. "Europe's carbon credit market could be disastrous," Lovera said.

The multi-billion-euro European carbon market does not permit the use of reforestation projects for carbon credits. But there has been a tremendous surge in private companies offering such credits for tree planting projects. Very little of this money goes to small land holders, she says. Plantation forests also contain much less carbon, notes Palo, citing a recent study that showed carbon content of plantation forests in some Asian tropical countries was only 45 percent of that in the respective natural forests. Nor has the world community been able to properly account for the value of the enormous volumes of carbon stored in existing forests.

One recent estimate found that the northern Boreal forest provided 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services such as absorbing carbon emissions from the atmosphere and cleaning water. The good news is that deforestation, even in remote areas, is easily stopped. All it takes is access to some low-cost satellite imagery and governments that actually want to slow or halt deforestation. Costa Rica has nearly eliminated deforestation by making it illegal to convert forest into farmland, says Lovera.

Paraguay enacted similar laws in 2004, and then regularly checked satellite images of its forests, sending forestry officials and police to enforce the law where it was being violated. "Deforestation has been reduced by 85 percent in less than two years in the eastern part of the country," Lovera noted. The other part of the solution is to give control over forests to the local people. This community or model forest concept has proved to be sustainable in many parts of the world. India recently passed a bill returning the bulk of its forests back to local communities for management, she said.

However, economic interests pushing deforestation in countries like Brazil and Indonesia are so powerful, there may eventually be little natural forest left. "Governments are beginning to realize that their natural forests have enormous value left standing," Lovera said. "A moratorium or ban on deforestation is the only way to stop this."

This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists.

© 2007 IPS - Inter Press Service

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