|
 ForestNorth America’s Forests: Page 6 The problem of illegal logging is growing in the national forests, and a recent threat is the invasion of forests by drug growers. These people have entered roadless federal lands in the West and are seldom detected because of the remoteness and size of many of these tracts. In Los Padres National Forest, they destroyed large sections of forest in 1995 and 1996 to plant marijuana. After cutting trees, they cleared brush with herbicides which killed native plants, many of which are rare and protected. They also diverted scarce water from streams to irrigate their plants, which eliminated native plants dependent on that water. The drug growers put out poison to kill animals, such as deer, they feared might eat the marijuana. This situation presents a major threat to many species of wildlife, and especially to California Condors, who have been reintroduced to Los Padres National Forest and feed on carrion.
Ancient old-growth pine forests covered much of northern Mexico until a few decades ago. Large-scale logging has been felling these great trees, and what reserves have been set aside to protect the remaining patches of old growth are not carefully patrolled to guard against illegal logging. The Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), the world's largest woodpecker and one of the most beautiful, declined to extinction as a result of failure by both the Mexican government and private conservation organizations to preserve its habitat. Its decline began from hunting, and logging removed its feeding and nesting habitat during the first half of the 20th century. Several of these birds were sighted in the 1990s, but because no emergency action took place to preserve these birds in their last retreat, they disappeared. Each pair of Imperial Woodpeckers required a habitat of at least 25 square kilometers, and no area of old-growth forest this large now remains in the Sierra Madre Occidental (Lammertink 1996). Only a few fragments of old growth survive in this huge area, and even these are in imminent danger of being logged.
Mexican logging companies offered local people $2,000 per household for permission to log, and this may have been the deciding factor that led to the end of Mexico's old-growth forests. All that remains of the Imperial Woodpecker are museum specimens. A photograph of three specimens was recently published in the article, "The Lost Empire of the Imperial Woodpecker," in World Birdwatch (Lammertink 1996). Martjan Lammertink concluded after his field survey that if the Imperial Woodpecker still exists, no breeding habitat remains and, at most, one or two solitary birds may be left who must fly over huge areas to find food (Lammertink 1996).
A courageous defender of the Sierra Madre forests, Mexican activist Edwin Bustillos has risked his life to fight the drug lords who have taken over large areas in these forests for cultivation of drug plants. In several incidents, Bustillos had five ribs and his arm broken and spent a month in the hospital from injuries sustained when attacked by drug dealers. In 1996, he received the Goldman Environmental Award for his long-term efforts on behalf of these endangered forests.
A beautiful parrot also inhabits these same pine forests. The Thick-billed Parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) once flew in large flocks in search of pine seeds, but its populations have declined from loss of old-growth forests and illegal shooting. The species is listed on the US Endangered Species Act, as endangered by the 2000 IUCN Red List Species, and on CITES Appendix I, which bans all commercial trade. These large green parrots have red feathers on their foreheads, shoulders and thighs, and bare skin surrounding their yellow eyes. Their large hooked beaks aid them in prying open pine cones. Native to Sierra Madre Occidental of eastern Mexico and, originally, pine forests in Arizona, Thick-billed Parrots live mainly above 2,000 meters. Heavy logging of old-growth pine forests has destroyed 99 percent of its habitat and removed the huge, old trees it needed for nesting (BI 2000, Collar et al. 1994). A field survey in 1994 in southern Chihuahua uncovered massive forest destruction and the penetration into its habitat of drug-growers, cattle and loggers (Collar et al. 1994). Populations have declined from flocks of thousands seen in the 1950s (Lammertink 1996) to about 5,000 in 1992 and only 1,000 to 4,000 in 1995 (BI 2000). Reintroductions into Arizona of captive-bred birds have not been successful because the birds did not know how to avoid predators or forage for pine seeds (BI 2000).
|
|
