Global Forest Science's newsletter, The Leaflet is published three times a year. Stay up to date on the latest news about our forest research, children's education programs and what's new at the Global Forest Science headquarters.

Hi! My name is Thomas Budd, the new Ambassador for GF Awesome. I am 10 years old and in 4th grade. I am very excited to be a part of Global Forest. I would like to thank Dr. Reese and his team for giving me the opportunity to work with them. Once I found out about Dr. Reese, I was fascinated by what he was doing. I went to visit him at Global Forest headquarters and we talked. After a while, he asked me if I would like to become the Ambassador for GF-Awesome and be part of the Global Forest organization. I was so surprised I jumped out of my seat and said, "I would be honored." Since I was 5 years old I wanted to become a scientist and help save the trees and animals that are in danger of disappearing forever. Now I have the chance.

The planet depends on us kids. As Ambassador, my mission is to represent GF Awesome by encouraging kids from all over the world to join our club so when they grow up they will have the knowledge they need to become stewards of the wild forests. My goal is to bring kids together, and together we will change the future. The planet is our friend! It needs health and support to grow. If we help the planet it will be here for a long, long time to come.

Hands-on state of the art science equipment supplied by Global Forest enabled children to accurately determine what went wrong with the California Department of Forestry's fire plan. Students at Jacoby Creek School in Bayside, California, recently used their Global Forest weather station to explain why a controlled burn by the California Department of Forestry jumped its barriers and ran out of control. The instruments and software of the weather station at the school allowed the students to track weather patterns over time and to predict a wind shift that caused the fire to change direction. The students found that the wind was consistent and shifted 180 degrees in direction almost every afternoon over a period of the last seven months. They were able to see the direct effect of this local wind pattern when the fire also changed direction and started to burn out of control.

The kids at Jacoby Creek sent a letter to CDF offering their data and in return, two officials from CDF went to the school to talk about the uncontrolled fire. Here's an excerpt from Jacoby Creek's weekly weather report found on www.gfawesome.org: "It was really interesting to hear about how they plan a burn and how important weather is, especially wind and humidity. They brought a portable weather station to show us they how they get weather data at a fire site. Their data is sent to a satellite and then to the Internet, which is cool because ours is too (not the satellite part, but the Internet part). They thought our weather station was outstanding, and congratulated us for putting it to good use."

Global Forest's scientists Drs. Steve Sillet and Michael Camaan have discovered relatives of the lobster high in the redwood trees. These creatures, which are only 250 microns in diameter (one quarter of a millimeter), are normally found in streams and lakes.
To get into the tops of these trees, these crustaceans swim and crawl hundreds of meters to the base of the tree, and then go 65 meters (200 feet) straight up some of the tallest trees on the planet.

Very little is known about these creatures, and Sillett, Camaan and their research teams are hoping to discover what role they play in the redwood ecosystem.

The slow, but certain, genetic extermination of the East Kootenay region's indigenous Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WCT) has earned the popular sport fish a place on British Columbia's Blue List of species at risk of extinction. The Blue List includes any indigenous species or subspecies in British Columbia considered vulnerable and particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events. The British Columbia Ministry of Environment listed the threatened WCT on 17 Jan. 2001 but only after a two-year campaign by Global Forest scientists.

Pete Corbett, Eric Taylor, Don McPhail and Emily Rubidge (4 Global Forest scientists) discovered that widespread mating with non-indigenous Rainbow Trout is exterminating southeastern British Columbia's pure WCT populations. There are still a number of critical questions to address about the mechanization and ecology of hybridization between the species, and research in the Kootenay Watershed is continuing in order to determine an effective conservation strategy.
Global Forest, the Moore Family Foundation, the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program and The Columbia/Kootenay Fisheries Renewal Partnership have contributed to funding the study to date.

More information on the Westslope Cutthroat Trout Project

The month of February was extremely exciting. I traveled and visited 9 Global Forest weather stations in West Vancouver, Seattle, Arcata California, Minneapolis, Denver, Dallas, Bogart Geogia, Toronto and Winnipeg. In addition to meeting over 1500 grade 6, 7 and 8s who were directly involved with Global Forest's Worldwide Weather program, I also read my book Forest Adventures with Bruni the Bear to about 1000 students from grade 1 through 4. I was humbled and amazed by the enthusiasm of the kids and the level of their questions about trees, nature and our environment. These children are our future; and I believe that Global Forest's commitment to their education is helping to ensure that they will become better stewards of our Earth than all previous generations.

Some ground breaking basic research in the late 1980s, by Professor Doug Larson's laboratory at University of Guelph, found an ancient forest of eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) growing on cliff faces of the Niagara Escarpment in southern Ontario. There are living trees over 700 years old and several dead individuals over a thousand years old. These trees are in fact some of the oldest trees east of the Rocky Mountains. Until recently very little was known about the location and maximum ages of living trees on these cliffs, even though some of these cliffs are situated in the most densely populated region of Canada and are extremely vulnerable to human disturbance, especially recreational rock climbing.

The Niagara Escarpment Ancient Tree Atlas Project was started in 1998 to locate the oldest living trees at several cliff sites along the Niagara Escarpment. Potentially old trees at each site are first scouted from the talus at the base of the cliff. Ropes and technical climbing equipment are then carefully used to access the cliff-face trees from the cliff edge. Increment borers (tree aging devices) are used to obtain tree-ring records for age determination. (This technique does not harm the tree in any way.) In addition, a large number of measurements are made of tree morphology (shape) and the nature of immediate growth environment. Trees are tagged, sketched, photographed and their locations are accurately recorded using a Global Positioning System.
Our work is important in assisting landowners in making informed land use decisions. Moreover, this work will begin to enable scientists to understand how these trees have lived for so long. Once the escarpment and its ancient trees are mapped, the trees will be protected. We are also collaborating with scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York by using eastern white cedar tree-ring data to understand the effects of past and present global climate change.

282 trees have been included in the project along the southern portion of the Niagara Escarpment (nearest to urban sprawl). At least 35 cliff-face eastern white cedars were discovered in 2001 that are over 500 years old, including 12 trees over 700 years in age. This is a very exciting and essential project that would not have been supported in 2001 if not for Global Forest funding.

Last November, Global Forest Press released its first book! Dr. Reese Halter has written a children's storybook entitled, Forest Adventures with Bruni the Bear. The book is designed to capture the imaginations of four to six year olds and teach them (and you) a thing or two about trees. Since November 1800 books have already made it into stores. If the trend continues, we're well on our way to a Canadian Best Seller!

Thanks are extended to Barbara Calvert as she has left Global Forest for a long term position with the government of British Columbia.

Welcome to the following new staff: Ambassador Thomas Budd, Kate Smith (Special Projects Coordinator), Minty Thompson (Communications Coordinator).

Thank you to the staff and our team of consultants for the success of the North American Weather Station and Book Tour, and all the developments over the last three months. We look forward to visiting Australia in April and continued fundraising growth in the months to come.

Global Forest wishes to express our gratitude to Drs. Edwin and Julia Levy of the Illahie Foundation of Vancouver, BC for their donation to our Subalpine Research Program in southeastern BC.

We would also like to thank Mr. Norm Krannitz of Aldergrove, BC for his very generous individual financial contribution to Global Forest's research exploring the value of non-timber forest products.

Since the last Leaflet, Global Forest's web sites have been growing and changing! GFAwesome.org now has a set of lessons for lower school students, and a reorganized teacher's section. We've also added to the list of Gruesomes to the Funscience section so keep on coming back!

Additions to the globalforestscience.org site include a new media center, and information on Global Forest Press, including how to order Reese's new book Forest Adventures with Bruni the Bear . In April, hats, T-shirts and stickers will be available on the site in our brand new on-line Gift Shop. All proceeds from the sale of books and GF merchandise will go to the project of your choice, so let's hear from you!

Urban Stewards, the joint program with Stanley Park Ecology Society and Global Forest is encouraging grade 5 to 7 students from five Vancouver Schools to help their urban environment. Students are learning about their local environment, its plants and animals. They are writing proactive newspaper articles and creating informative posters to enlighten their local communities. Stay tuned for the next update.

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television set for three hours.