Brazil Farmers Urged To Plant Trees

Brazil’s leading agriculture lobby is recommending that farmers in the world’s emerging bread basket plant trees as a way to boost financial returns while offsetting carbon emissions, according to a report it released Dec. 6. Parts of Brazil’s agricultural sector have come under fierce criticism from the country’s international competitors for allegedly expanding output at

Responsibility Begins At Home

JOHN MORRISS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR It’s painful to look at the images of birds and other wildlife dead or dying from being coated in oil from the U. S. Gulf oil blowout. That makes it easy to lay blame, as we’re now seeing in the U. S. The government is blaming British Petroleum for lax safety


U. S. Farm Group Wants To Save Tropical Forests

Stopping global deforestation would boost U. S. agricultural revenue by $190 billion to $270 billion through 2030 by cutting unfair competition, a U. S. farm group and a nonprofit focused on climate change argued May 26. Deforestation accounts for about a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, chiefly from the destruction of tropical forests. Proponents

Will It Stay The Same After You Are Gone?

Have you ever wondered what your place will look like long after you are gone? Well, that thought crossed the minds of Shirley and Ted Ross and they decided not to leave anything to chance. “There is quite diverse wildlife and plant life on our property,” said Shirley, a landowner near Roseisle. “We didn’t like

Doing It Right, The Small-Scale Way

“It’s just a matter of putting the four bunks down, putting the rails in, and then just levelling it.” – DARYL NEUSTATER There’s a trick to every trade, so they say. For low-impact logging, that’s especially true. Put a chainsaw into the hands of the average Canadian, and depending upon how much he or she


Willow Rings, Poplars Offer A Clean Energy Alternative

“This biobaler will handle stems up to six inches in diameter, so it will actually take down fairly nice-size aspen as well.” – BILL SCHROEDER Good King Wenceslas may have called for his servant to “bring me pine logs hither” to fend off the winter’s chill, but for common folk in the Middle Ages, the

Money Grows On Trees

By actively managing about 100 acres of hardwood forest, David Pogson figures he and his brother Barry’s sawmill sideline might eventually account for about one-third of their farm income within a decade. Out of the seven-acre plot from which they are doing a managed harvest, they have already removed 30 cords of firewood in the

A Rural Champion

A few years back, as the list of rural responsibilities assigned to one cabinet minister in a particular federal government grew longer than could be comfortably stated without pausing to breathe, reporters took to unofficially referring to him as the “minister for everything in between the big cities.” In some ways, it was symbolic of



Brazil’s Amazon plan sounds bold, but doubts abound

“Ten years is a long time out there and a lot of deforestation will have occurred by then.” – TOM LOVEJOY, HEINZ CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT With its bold pledge to halve the rate of Amazon deforestation, Brazil wants to boost its international environmental credentials. But it may lack the conviction and resources