MAGICAL RAINFOREST TOUR.

CAN YOU VOLUNTEERS USE A SCHOOL BUS TO SAVE A DISAPPEARING RAINFOREST?

When you get on the school bus in the morning, you expect to arrive at school. This school bus takes you to the rainforest! Just step aboard and you're surrounded by lush, exotic evergreen bushes, carpets of moss, and decaying logs that line a wooden walkway. Watch your step! You might fall into the salmon stream or squash a banana slug.

"The diversity of rainforest species is incredible," says David Ashurst, 23, a volunteer at the Sierra Student Coalition of British Columbia (BC), Canada. Two summers ago, Ashurst and a group of young activists known as the E-Team (or Environmental Youth Team) created the Rainforest Bus, a traveling exhibit that publicizes BC's Great Bear Rainforest--a forest in peril.

The Great Bear is one of the world's last remaining temperate rainforests (see map, p. 17). Unlike the steamy tropical rainforests of Central and South America, temperate rainforests enjoy moderate temperatures all year long. Rain clouds drench the mossy landscape with five meters (15 feet) of rain a year. Sitka spruce and Douglas fir trees--some reaching 20 stories high--grow for as long as 1,600 years.

Disappearing Act

Now the trees' long lives may be cut short. "The forest is disappearing fast," says Ashurst. Loggers clear-cut (remove each and every tree from vast areas) at rate of 15 truckloads an hour. Logging companies sell half the ancient timber to the U.S. for lumber, paper, and other uses (see pie chart, above).

[Chart OMITTED]

More than trees are at risk. The Great Bear shelters an intertwined web of life. The trees provide a shady canopy (cover of branches) that cools the forest's pristine streams. Five species of salmon spawn (lay their eggs) there, while grizzly and black bears feast on the salmon. Thousands of insect species feed on salmon leftovers and help restore nutrients to the forest floor. In addition, 350 kinds of birds nest in the trees, while 3,000 species of mushroom sprout on decaying trees, called nurse logs.

What's more, scientists recently discovered more than 200 medicinal rainforest plants, including potential antibiotic remedies. Yet the clear-cutting continues.

Faced with the threat of clear-cutting, the E-Team set a goal to protect the forest. But how? While the group was brainstorming, a volunteer entered the Sierra Club office and offered them a school bus for the summer. Eureka! If the volunteers couldn't bring the people to the rainforest, why not bring the rainforest to the people?

The E-Team painted murals, collected live specimens, and created realistic models of rainforest plants and animals. They divided the bus into three sections. The first displays the rainforest teeming with life--including a huge, synthetic grizzly bear.

As you continue down the boardwalk, you enter a clear-cut forest. "You might as well be in the desert," Ashurst says. Wooden stumps and fallen branches litter the path. The fake stream water is cloudy and devoid of salmon.

Finally, the back of the bus presents solutions to clear-cutting. One solution: ecoforestry, or removing only a few trees at a time and building roads in a way that protects the forest habitat.

The last two summers, the Rainforest Bus toured Canada. "Kids love to learn about wildlife and discover that we have this globally significant treasure in British Columbia," says Merran Smith of the Sierra Club. "People were also shocked to learn that when we use forest products, we're all part of the problem."

This April and May, the bus will hit the U.S., "transporting" the rainforest to New England states.

For a Rainforest Bus schedule, call the Sierra Student Coalition at 1-888-JOIN-SSC.

Take Action

Here's how you can help:

[check] Use alternative paper made from tree-free fibers, such as hemp, flax, cereal straw, cotton, even old money! Check your local stationery store.

[check] Encourage people in your community to purchase "good wood," lumber that hasn't been forested by clearcutting practices. For a directory of companies that sell "good wood," check out: www.certifiedwood.org

[check] Start a letter-writing campaign to help save the Great Bear Rainforest:

Premier Glen Clark
c/o Sierra Club of BC
1525 Amelia St.
Victoria, BC V8W2K1

[check] For more information, visit these Web sites: www.ran.org www.rainforest-alliance.org