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Ketchikan: Alaska's yellow cedar considered for endangered species protection By MARY KAUFFMAN - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that Alaska yellow cedar trees may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act because of ongoing threats from climate change and logging.

Yellow cedar cones and foliage. Also known as Calliptropsis nootkatensis. Behind are subalpine fir trees.
Photo By Walter Siegmund, Courtesy Center for Biological Diversity

If listed, yellow cedar would be the first Alaska tree species, and only the second plant in the state, protected by the Endangered Species Act. According to an earlier U.S. Forest Service Report, yellow cedars (Calliptropsis nootkatensis) are killed as the climate changes, with spring temperatures warming and snow cover being more frequently insufficient to protect the roots. A lack of snow exposes this species’ shallow, fragile roots to freezing temperatures that can kill them.

Yellow cedars are found from southeast Alaska to Northern California and are most common in the Tongass, in Alaska and British Columbia. These trees are a central part of the region’s forests, historically greatly valued by Alaska natives for carving, medicinal and ceremonial purposes; they are also an important food source for Sitka black-tailed deer and brown bears.

Conservationists say that despite the trees’ decline, timber sales in the Tongass National Forest selectively target remaining living yellow cedars because of the wood’s unusual qualities and its exceptionally high market value. They hold massive amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, and their extinction would be a devastating loss say conservationists.

Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “Yellow cedars have joined the long line of species headed for extinction because of the climate crisis.” Nobli said, “These trees are tough and have survived where others can’t, but all their unique defenses are useless against a warming climate. The Fish and Wildlife Service must protect yellow cedars immediately so we can turn this around.”

Ketchikan resident Owen Graham, the Executive Director of the Alaska Forest Association told SitNews the USFS silviculture people in Alaska have explained that yellow cedar decline is an intermittent phenomenon that occurs on some bog-like sites sporadically every 20-years or so.

Owen said, "We know of no researcher who has used the word ‘extinction’ for the current or even future yellow-cedar health or viability issue in Alaska."

He added, "Through selective thinning and occasionally planting, we actively manage for yellow-cedar on lands we’ve harvested in the past where yellow-cedar occurs. As a result, yellow-cedar is thriving in many of our managed stands."

Owen explained that the decline occurs in very poor, wet sites where the trees are barely surviving to start with. The hypothesis is that the roots are killed by cold weather during low snow years. It does not seem to affect yellow cedar in the majority of the forest and it does not usually kill all the trees in the affected sites. Also, the new growth in the affected sites seems to be growing normally.

According to Owen, since the decline affects only a very small percentage of the forest a small percentage of the time and since most of the forest is doing well, there is no reason to consider the yellow cedar as threatened. Owne provided documents from the the Journal of Forestry and from the U.S. Forest Service making this same comment. (See Below to download).

Southeast Alaska is at the current northern extreme of the yellow cedar range, said Owen, but that range has been trending northward since the glaciers receded thousands of years ago. Most species at the fringe of their range typically are less abundant and trees at the fringe of their range typically have trouble competing with other trees.

"The hypothesis that climate change or global warming might exacerbate the yellow cedar decline is speculative," said Owen. In any case the majority of the forest will probably grow faster if the climate continues to warm, particularly if the amount of carbon dioxide in the air increases as some expect he said.

"I'm not worried about the yellow cedar and I certainly don't support any restrictions on activities in the forest simply based on a hypothesis that might temporarily affect such a tiny percentage of the forest," said Owen the Executive Director of the Alaska Forest Association which has been a Statewide Association since 1957.

Greenpeace forest campaigner Larry Edwards has a different opinion. Sitka-based Edwards said, “A Forest Service report acknowledges that Tongass timber sale planners select project areas with a higher than average cedar component and plan timber projects that extract cedar at a higher rate than its occurrence in the project areas.” Edwards said, “For example, while yellow cedar is 9.5 percent of the growing stock on the south Tongass, it is 17 percent of the timber volume in the controversial Big Thorne project.”

Conservationists say Vast swaths of yellow cedars have died off in the past century, with more than 70 percent of these long-lived, beautiful trees now dead in many areas of Alaska.

“There is a double perverse incentive for the Forest Service to log yellow cedar disproportionately to its natural occurrence — that is, to high-grade it,” said David Beebe, president of the Greater Southeast Alaska Conservation Community. “First, this species has exceptionally high market and stumpage values. Also, by law the agency cannot offer timber sales that appraise to a negative sale value, and boosting the proportion of high-value cedar in a timber sale is a way to overcome that.” - More...
Saturday PM - April 11, 2015

Alaska: More Than Half of Students Have Completed the Alaska Measures of Progress - As of the morning of April 10, 54.7% of students statewide had completed the Alaska Measures of Progress, the state’s new assessments in language arts and math. Another 9.6% had completed at least one of the sections. The five-week testing window runs from March 30 to May 1. About 73,265 students are expected to be tested.

The computer-based tests provide built-in tools for students to use while they take the test, such as a highlighter, calculator, or sticky note. Students also can listen to the test directions being read aloud on the computer. Further tools are available for students with a demonstrated need. Paper tests are available if computer-based tests aren’t feasible.

Students adapted smoothly to the computer-based tests, said Robert Boyle, superintendent of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District. “We find students almost eager to test.”

Principals and teachers in Metlakatla said testing went smoothly with few glitches, said Eugene Avey, superintendent of the Annette Island School District. The older the student, the more easily he or she adjusted to the computer-based test, he said. Students varied in preferring a paper test or a computer-based test.


“Overall, kids seem to be adjusting to the test smoothly,” said Theresa Hamilton, the technology integration facilitator for the Bering Strait School District, which serves students in 15 communities in Northwest Alaska. Younger students said that testing is more fun on a computer than on paper, she said. Some middle school students had mixed reactions to the test but they didn’t want to go back to a paper test next year, Hamilton said.

In the first two days of testing there were some connectivity issues at a few schools but they were resolved quickly, said Kristen Mashiana, coordinator of assessment for the Bering Strait School District. “By day three we seem to have worked out the kinks,” she said.

“Anchorage is thrilled about how the first week of AMP testing has progressed,” said Jane Stuart, director of assessment and evaluation for the Anchorage School District. “Our technology performance has been outstanding and the support plans utilized are efficient for school staff. Students and staff are overwhelmingly positive about the new testing experience. We are excited to continue testing the next grade-levels.”

Starting this year, Alaska reduced the number of its grade 3-10 language arts and math assessments from three to two, and reduced the total number of test questions. Districts can break down each assessment into four sections and give one section a day of 15 to 25 questions. The tests are untimed but many students will complete each test in 2 to 3 hours.

Students’ AMP scores do not affect graduation, classroom grades, or grade promotion. Instead, the tests help identify students who need additional support to improve their learning. Students don’t pass or fail the tests. Rather, their score places them in one of four levels of achievement. - More...
Saturday PM - April 11, 2015