VARDAMAN VIRTUAL FORESTRY COMPANY

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Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company

FRIDAY REPORT OF 10/14/05

The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy

“THE EVERGLADES
WATER, BIRD AND MAN”

Our title and quotes are from THE ECONOMIST print edition of 10/06/05:

“At its south-east corner, America peters out into something that is neither land nor sea, but a subtropical swamp in between…This is the Everglades, a place once so rich in wildlife that America’s greatest bird painter, John James Audubon, described the sun blotted out for minutes at a time by the great flocks of herons and egrets flying past. Now, the Everglades is the site of America’s largest civil-engineering project and the world’s most expensive environmental clean-up…

“Restoring the Everglades matters for its own sake. But it also matters because, after Hurricane Katrina, the balance between protecting people from nature, and protecting nature from people, has become an urgent matter of public policy – and this is the place where that policy has been most exhaustively thrashed out. As in New Orleans, the Everglades saw a disastrous flood (in 1928) when a levee broke and thousands died. As in the Everglades, the Louisiana bayou could not absorb the storm surge in part because its natural environment had been degraded by flood-control measures and housing, and could no longer act like a sponge. The Everglades project is a test of whether it is possible to restore a whole ecosystem, while still allowing cities to keep on growing nearby…

“The whole of south Florida was once one enormous hydrological system, stretching from Orlando to Key West. Abundant rainfall was channeled down the winding Kissimmee river into Lake Okeechobee. From there, water lapped over the southern edge and spread south in a vast curve, moving 100 feet (30 metres) a day, in a sheet flow inches deep but 50 miles (80km) wide…

“But in the 1930s, the Army Corps of Engineers (at the behest of the federal and state governments) built a new levee around Lake Okeechobee to dam the southward flood. In the 1940s, it drained the area to the south to create vast sugar fields. In the 1950s, the corps diverted the river, allowing Miami and Fort Lauderdale to grow on the old river bed…

“About half the old Everglades has been taken for cities and farms. If all the rain that falls on southern Florida were channeled into the remaining half, there would be floods. So 1.7 billion gallons a day is pumped from Lake Okeechobee east and west to the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico (where the fresh water duly wrecks the marine environment). And because less water reaches the south of the Everglades National Park, the sea and mangrove swamps are advancing inland at the rate of 12 feet a year.

“The old sheet flow has stopped. So the water that remains has to be pumped around in ways that change water levels more abruptly than the vegetation can respond to. Plants that depend on a subtle ebb and flow are dying. The great flocks of waders are gone. Invasive species are appearing, including tropical fish and pythons, which have spectacular fights with alligators…

“But it is already clear that the Everglades project is falling well short of what was first envisaged. A few projects will go ahead, thanks to Governor Bush’s intervention – at an unknown cost. Much of the rest of CERP [Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan] risks falling into limbo.

“And the main reason for the disappointment is one that holds an uncomfortable lesson for New Orleans: you need both the federal and state governments if restoration is to work properly. However awkward it is to have squabbling interest groups, a single, biased paymaster is worse. The implication for Louisiana is that the federal government cannot do everything. The implication for the Everglades is that the federal government needs to do more to keep its share of the original bargain by authorising more projects and providing the cash it promised.

“And it needs to do so soon…The pressure to build is relentless: Fort Myers and Naples have been America’s third and sixth fastest-growing cities over the past 25 years…

“This is…a once-in-a-lifetime chance to save the remaining Everglades and show that huge clean-ups are possible…After that, it may be too late.”

http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=4484300

“A VICTORY AGAINST THE TERROR CELLS”

Our title and quotes below are from an article posted on the 10/07/05 THE ECONOMIST GLOBAL AGENDA:

“…This week Merck, an American drug company, announced what should amount to a significant advance in the battle against cervical cancer…

“Cancer, the result of an uncontrolled multiplication of mutant cells in the body, claims some 7m lives around the world each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and about 10m new cases are diagnosed. Some 300,000 deaths a year are attributable to cervical cancer. But the results of a clinical trial of Merck’s Gardasil vaccine showed that it was 100% effective against the two strains of human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted virus, that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases. Versions of the virus for both men and women could be commercially available within a year. Future improvements to the treatment could make it effective against 87% of cervical cancers, according to the study’s leaders…

“Better pharmaceuticals are also helping. The first wave of ‘targeted’ drugs is currently hitting the market, and more are being developed. These attack cancerous cells only, rather than all rapidly dividing cells in the body, most of which are normal. These new therapies will help to diminish the unpleasant side-effects of current cancer drugs, such as nausea and a weakened immune system. But cancers often comprise a clutch of different cell mutations so a combination of drugs may be required for effective treatment – and some drug companies are reluctant to test products alongside those of their competitors…

“Despite the many bits of good news from the front, the broad statistics of the war on cancer make bleak reading. Cancer is the world’s second-biggest killer after heart disease and the number of people dying from the illness is growing…

“Cancer has a variety of causes. As well as a genetic predisposition to the disease, the chances of getting it are connected to diet, lifestyle and other social and economic factors. Americans and others in rich countries are increasingly sedentary, which has contributed to steady growth in the number of overweight and obese adults. Apart from heightening the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, obesity is thought to increase the likelihood of developing certain types of cancer…”

To read the complete article, click on http://www.economist.com/agenda/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=4504790

“SPECKLES MAKE BIRD EGGS STRONGER, STUDY FINDS”
by John Pickrell in England

Our quotes are from the 10/11/05 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS:

“Now British ornithologists, or bird zoologists, have shown that speckling may be a unique solution to the engineering problem of how to strengthen unusually fragile shells. A new study shows that pigment chemicals that create the speckles may act as a kind of glue, supporting thin areas of shells and protecting them from breakage during incubation in the nest…

“…Most perching birds lay eggs that are mostly white except for a ring of reddish spots around the blunt end. These spots are caused by compounds called protoporphyrins, which are known to be strong and flexible…”

“The team carried out meticulous studies of the birds’ eggshells to show that speckled areas of shells are significantly thinner than unpigmented patches. Also, heavily speckled eggs are lighter, and therefore thinner, than their less spotty counterparts laid in the same broods…”

To read the entire article and examine the photos, click on http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1011_051011_speckled_eggs.html

IF YOU ARE NOT A TIME SUBSCRIBER, BUY A 10/17/05 ISSUE

It contains an exclusive excerpt from HEALTHY AGING by Dr. Andrew Weil, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona. Although you may not agree with his prescriptions, they are worth thinking about. To read more about the book, click on http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1115695,00.html

BOOK SALES

We offer for sale all books listed at http://www.vardaman.com/booksale.php.

NEW SYSTEM FOR BUYING OR SELLING LAND OR TIMBER

For the details, click on http://www.vardaman.com and then on the red horizontal bar “Buy/Sell Land/Timber.” You can offer to buy or sell timber or land. You must post the general area of your interest; be sure to include the state. You must also post your E-MAIL ADDRESS and the URL of your Internet site. Our tracking report will not report the number of visitors UNLESS you enter your URL. If you are selling, you should post the name of the tract. When you have entered all details, click on “Submit,” and what you just entered will appear on our Internet site at the bottom of the page under the red horizontal bar “Buy/Sell Land/Timber.” Be sure to check for and correct errors.

For each tract posted after 05/12/05 and whose owner posted his URL, we charge $0.25 for each visit his ad receives. On each Friday at 0900 Central Time, we will e-mail him a bill for $0.25 for each visit his ad received during the week just ended. You can pay us by e-mailing the money to “Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company” at PayPal or mailing it to P.O. Box 12293, Jackson, MS 39236. We will delete your ad when your payments cease. The new fee schedule does not apply to tracts marked with asterisks::

SELL LAND OR TIMBER

For 107-A. tract in GA, send e-mail to slaseter@comcast.net

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