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1 3.4 Russian plane crashes en route to Syria; all 92 presumed dead

(10.99/11) A Russian plane en route to Syria crashed in the Black Sea near Sochi, with all 92 passengers presumed dead, including the country's official choir. 2016-12-25 09:41 3KB www.upi.com

2 0.0 Tragedy-hit Red Army Choir a fabled symbol of USSR and Russia The acclaimed Red Army Choir, which lost 64 members in a plane crash Sunday, has (1.00/11) been a potent symbol for projecting Moscow's military and artistic prowess to millions across the globe. 2016-12-25 09:30 4KB www.digitaljournal.com

3 2.7 16 Photos Of Presidents, First Families And Santa Through the years, first families have done plenty with Santa — from singing and dancing (Obama) to reading (Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton) to a celebrity kiss or two (Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush). 2016-12-25 07:00 9KB www.npr.org

4 2.6 Searching for redemption, a former gang member struggles to outrun his past In an open blue coffin draped in a sheer veil, Carl Betts was greeted by friends and family. 2016-12-25 07:00 9KB www.latimes.com

5 1.6 World's last wild frankincense forests are under threat ERIGAVO, Somalia (AP) -- In a tradition dating to Biblical times, men rise at dawn in the rugged Cal Madow mountains of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa to 2016-12-25 06:02 4KB mynorthwest.com Articles

DC5m United States music in english 5 articles, created at 2016-12-25 18:03

1 /5 3.4 Russian plane crashes en route to Syria; all 92 presumed dead (10.99/11) SOCHI, Russia, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- A Russian military plane en route to Syria crashed in the Black Sea near Sochi, with 92 passengers presumed dead, including the country's official choir, Russian's Defense Ministry said Sunday.

The Defense Ministry said wreckage from the Tu-154 was found in the Black Sea one mile from Sochi, according to state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Parts of the plane and an oily spot were found 3.7 miles from the coast," a source told state-run news agency TASS.

The Tu-154, carrying 84 passengers and a crew of eight, disappeared form radar Sunday morning after departing from Adler airport near Sochi.

The plane first took off from Moscow and headed to the Russian Hmeymim airbase in Latakia, Syria, for a concert ahead of New Year's Eve. The plane first landed in Sochi for refueling, the Defense Ministry's press office said via Russia's Interfax news agency.

Four ships and five helicopters were dispatched to search the crash site.

No major weather patterns were present when the plane disappeared, CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense affairs committee at the upper house of the Russian parliament, "totally excludes" terrorism as a possible cause of the crash.

He speculated it could have crashed because of a technical malfunction or pilot error.

On board were 64 members of the renowned Alexandrov Ensemble, the Russian army's official choir, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Valery Kahlilov, the ensemble's conductor, was a passenger. Also on the plane were nine journalists, including three reporters with Star TV, and eight military members, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry.

The Alexandrov Ensemble formed in 1928 and was dubbed "Russia's singing weapon" in world tours. They were to entertain troops at Russia's Hmeymim air base.

"The orchestra did not fly because [the choir] was supposed to use pre-recorded music," a singer in the choir Sergei Khlopnikov, who didn't make the trip because his daughter was sick, told the Interfax news agency. A few dancers were also onboard along with Elizaveta Glinka, a prominent charity activist and humanitarian worker best known by her blogger nickname "Doctor Liza. "

The plane was built in 1983 and had 6,689 hours of flight. The last repair was on Dec. 29, 2014, and it underwent scheduled maintenance last September, the Defense Ministry said.

The pilot was identified as Roman Volkov with more than 3,000 hours of flying, the Defense Ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to lead an investigation of the crash, the Kremlin said.

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2016-12-25 09:41 www.upi.com

2 /5 0.0 Tragedy-hit Red Army Choir a fabled symbol of USSR and Russia (1.00/11) The acclaimed Red Army Choir, which lost 64 members in a plane crash Sunday, has been a potent symbol for projecting Moscow's military and artistic prowess to millions across the globe.

Founded in 1928, the military Alexandrov Ensemble, more widely known as the Red Army Choir, has for decades showcased its repertoire of famed Russian folksongs and spiritual music on the global stage. The booming baritones and melodies of the all-male choir -- performing in their pristine army uniforms -- presented a human face to many beyond the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union's fearsome Red Army that swept across Europe as part of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

During the Cold War period, when the USSR and the West were locked in a nuclear standoff, the group was one of the rare Soviet ensembles to tour beyond the Eastern bloc, playing a prominent role in the Kremlin's attempts to portray itself to the rest of the world.

Along with ballerinas from the world-renowned Bolshoi theatre and the orchestra of Saint Petersburg's Mariinsky theatre, for many beyond the country the military ensemble - which has some 200 members -- came to be synonomous with Soviet culture.

The ensemble was directed for its first 18 years by Alexander Alexandrov, after whom the group is named, a legendary Communist-era composer who wrote the music for the stirring Soviet national anthem, which was revived as Russia's anthem by President Vladimir Putin.

After Alexandrov's death the ensemble was taken over by his son Boris.

The current head of the choir Valery Khalilov, who was only handed the baton earlier this year, was one of the members aboard the ill-fated military jet that crashed into the Black Sea Sunday on its way to Syria where the ensemble was due to perform a New Year's concert for Russian soldiers serving in the war-torn country.

- 'Calling card for Russian culture' -

In the wake of the crash, officials and cultural luminaries in the shocked nation poured praise on Khalilov and the Red Army Choir performers.

Khalilov "made a huge contribution in contemporary culture above being the head of the orchestra and a composer", Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets told the TASS news agency, adding that his death was an "irreplaceable loss".

"It is an enormous injustice," said pianist Denis Matsuyev, calling Khalilov a "remarkable maestro".

"The Alexandrov ensemble is a calling card for Russian culture," he told RIA Novosti news agency.

The group's travels have often coincided with the tumultuous flux of history as the Soviet Union stamped its authority as a superpower on the globe, before later collapsing and seeing modern Russia emerge from its ashes.

Concerts have taken them not only from the ruins of post-WWII Europe but also to Afghanistan during the disastrous Soviet intervention and later to Chechnya, where Moscow has fought two brutal separatist conflicts over the past 20 years.

The latest trip to Syria comes as Russia under Putin has thrust itself back into the centre of the international arena by launching a bombing campaign last year to back up ally President Bashar al-Assad.

Sunday's plane crash casts a grim shadow over what should have been a time of celebration for the Kremlin after the recapture of Syria's second city of Aleppo handed Assad his biggest victory in more than five years of bloody combat.

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev bemoaned the loss of the performers.

"They were going to Syria on a very good mission, on a mission of peace," he said.

"It is impossible to accept this loss. "

'No survivors' as Syria- bound Russian jet crashes digitaljournal.com

2016-12-25 09:30 www.digitaljournal.com

3 /5 2.7 16 Photos Of Presidents, First Families And Santa Domenico Montanaro

It's Christmas, and Santa Claus just completed his annual, almost unbelievable, trip around the world to drop off presents for children everywhere.

But on his way, he's stopped off through the years to hang out with the first family — sometimes, perhaps, there was some mistletoe around.

On at least two photographed occasions, first ladies have planted a smooch on Santa's cheek.

Here was Barbara Bush (as hubby George H. W. looks on):

Barbara Bush kisses Santa on Dec. 20, 1988, as her husband, President George H. W. Bush, watches.

Doug Mills/AP hide caption

Barbara Bush kisses Santa on Dec. 20, 1988, as her husband, President George H. W. Bush, watches. Nancy Reagan seemed to have a particular fondness for celebrity Santas. Here she is on the lap of Mr. T, from A-Team days...

First lady Nancy Reagan sits on the knee of Mr. T, dressed as Santa Claus, and gives him a peck on the head, as he joined her for a preview of the White House Christmas decor in 1983.

Ira Schwarz/AP hide caption

First lady Nancy Reagan sits on the knee of Mr. T, dressed as Santa Claus, and gives him a peck on the head, as he joined her for a preview of the White House Christmas decor in 1983.

... and under the arm of Larry Hagman, the actor who played J. R. Ewing of 1980s Dallas fame:

First lady Nancy Reagan holds Rex the dog and looks up at Larry Hagman, the actor who played J. R. Ewing on the hit 1980s show Dallas and who is dressed as Santa at the White House, Dec. 9, 1985.

Bob Daugherty/AP hide caption

First lady Nancy Reagan holds Rex the dog and looks up at Larry Hagman, the actor who played J. R. Ewing on the hit 1980s show Dallas and who is dressed as Santa at the White House, Dec. 9, 1985.

Even President Obama looked like he was about to get in on a Santa smooch a couple of years ago:

President Obama hugs Santa — and maybe braces for a kiss on the cheek — at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in 2013.

Charles Dharapak/AP hide caption

President Obama hugs Santa — and maybe braces for a kiss on the cheek — at the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in 2013.

Encounters with Santa are not always so ... sassy. Sometimes, they're just plain goofy. Sometimes presidents sing...

President Obama sings "Jingle Bells" with Santa, James Taylor, Eva Longoria, and Garth Brooks during the lighting ceremony for the 2016 National Christmas Tree.

Alex Brandon/AP hide caption

President Obama sings "Jingle Bells" with Santa, James Taylor, Eva Longoria, and Garth Brooks during the lighting ceremony for the 2016 National Christmas Tree. ... and dance with Santa ...

President Obama dances onstage with Santa and members of Fifth Harmony during the National Christmas Tree Lighting in 2014.

Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption

President Obama dances onstage with Santa and members of Fifth Harmony during the National Christmas Tree Lighting in 2014.

And George W. Bush, who loved to festively sing and dance...

... got in on the act with Santa in 2006:

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush sing a Christmas carol with Cathy Rigby and Santa Claus after lighting the National Christmas Tree in 2006.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush sing a Christmas carol with Cathy Rigby and Santa Claus after lighting the National Christmas Tree in 2006.

Sometimes, though, the first families try to bring some seriousness. They're always trying to make Santa read to kids:

Santa gestures toward first lady Michelle Obama as she reads The Night Before Christmas in 2011 at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

Santa gestures toward first lady Michelle Obama as she reads The Night Before Christmas in 2011 at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

More reading:

President Clinton reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas to children at the White House in 1995, as Santa looks on.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

President Clinton reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas to children at the White House in 1995, as Santa looks on.

Don't they know the kids just want the presents — or to see Rudolph? President Clinton with then first lady Hillary Clinton, Santa and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on Dec. 22, 1994.

Joe Marquette/AP hide caption

President Clinton with then first lady Hillary Clinton, Santa and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on Dec. 22, 1994.

Presidential Santa encounters go back a long way. Sometimes, presidents even dress their dogs as Santa, like Lyndon Johnson did with his presidential pup, Yuki in 1967:

President Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential pup, Yuki, sports a Santa Claus costume — a red- and-white hat and beard, as the dog waited for Johnson to light the National Christmas Tree, Dec. 15, 1967.

Anonymous/AP hide caption

Sometimes the encounters were kept on ice (before all this global warming talk, of course):

President Jimmy Carter joins Santa and ice skating star Peggy Fleming at a White House reception in 1980, where she and other skaters provided the entertainment.

Dennis Cook/AP hide caption

President Jimmy Carter joins Santa and ice skating star Peggy Fleming at a White House reception in 1980, where she and other skaters provided the entertainment.

Didn't know Santa could skate? Of course he can. He's from the North Pole.

Many may not remember or know that one man, for 41 years, entertained the first family as Santa — Robert George, a Southern Californian, who, as AP dubbed him, was "Santa Claus to six Presidents. " His "year-round Christmas display charmed thousands of disadvantaged and disabled children in Southern California but bedeviled some of his neighbors. "

Robert George, recognized as the official Santa to six presidents beginning in 1956, poses with photos of himself and past presidents in this Dec. 11, 1982, photo. He died in 1998.

Reed Saxon/AP hide caption

Robert George, recognized as the official Santa to six presidents beginning in 1956, poses with photos of himself and past presidents in this Dec. 11, 1982, photo. He died in 1998. It endeared George to President Eisenhower and each successive president until his death in 1998.

"Mr. George, a retired barber, became the nation's Santa Claus in 1956 when President Dwight D. Eisenhower heard about his display and invited him to the White House," AP noted in his obit. "He subsequently accepted similar invitations from Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush. Mr. George was scheduled to attend a photo session last October [1998] with President Clinton but was forced to cancel the trip because of illness. "

No one has taken George's place, but maybe it's one tradition worth bringing back. After all, this is the year of "Make America Great Again. "

Speaking of #MAGA, it's not clear what Trump has in store for Santa, but Santa did show up to a Trump event earlier this month, so...

Santa Claus attends a Trump thank you tour event in North Carolina on Dec. 6.

Andrew Harnik/AP hide caption

Santa Claus attends a Trump thank you tour event in North Carolina on Dec. 6.

He's also gotten in on the Santa (sort of) act in the past:

The Radio City Rockettes listen as Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to help The Salvation Army kick off its annual Christmas kettle effort at the Trump Tower Atrium Nov. 23, 2004.

Scott Gries/Getty Images hide caption

The Radio City Rockettes listen as Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony to help The Salvation Army kick off its annual Christmas kettle effort at the Trump Tower Atrium Nov. 23, 2004.

And we know for certain, he wants to wish everyone a "Merry Christmas" (not Happy Holidays). Just look at all those Christmas trees:

President-elect Trump, flanked by decorated Christmas trees, speaks at rally in Wisconsin. Trump said at the event, "We are going to say Merry Christmas again," implying a war on Christmas.

Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

President-elect Trump, flanked by decorated Christmas trees, speaks at rally in Wisconsin. Trump said at the event, "We are going to say Merry Christmas again," implying a war on Christmas. Merry Christmas (and Happy Holidays) from all of us to all of you.

2016-12-25 07:00 Domenico Montanaro www.npr.org

4 /5 2.6 Searching for redemption, a former gang member struggles to outrun his past In an open blue coffin draped in a sheer veil, Carl Betts was greeted by friends and family.

Betts, 51, was not a gang member. He had grown up among them but never joined. But it was a distinction lost on those who mourned him, as well as on the young gunman who had fired several rounds into his face.

Among those paying their respects was Melvin Earl Farmer, a former member of the 83rd Street gang, who waited in line for an hour to see his old friend.

“He didn’t look that bad for someone who had his brains shot out,” Farmer said later, outside the church. “It’s good that people will remember him with his face all together.”

Bryan Perry, another former 83rd Street Crip, nodded in agreement. When a car passed by slowly, Perry turned his head to follow the vehicle through the light until it disappeared.

“No one is safe out here,” Perry said. “These young guys out here, just running up and shooting people. It’s just wild.”

Two months later, Perry, 45, was fatally shot outside a convenience store. Police said the shooting was gang-related.

In South Central Los Angeles, the narrative is often one of violence. Roles — good guy, bad guy — are defined narrowly.

But there are a handful of people like Melvin Farmer, who exist in a kind of gray area: He maintains bonds with gang members but also with those determined to stamp out the gangs.

According to Farmer, it’s not easy to play the role of peacemaker when the parents of the young men dying in gang wars today “know my history.” The path to glory in the gang world, Farmer says, usually dead-ends in life in prison or death: “You either get tried by 12 or carried by six. That’s how this game goes.”

:: For the past two decades, Farmer has used his gang connections to help end the violence in South L. A. In 1998, he worked with other activists on a program to provide jobs for anyone who turned in a gun, The Times reported at the time. The initiative came after a gang feud had led to weeks of police raids.

Two years later, Farmer spoke to black inmates after several racially charged riots in a county detention center, and he carried their request for segregated prison populations to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Farmer also worked with black community activists in 2007 to counter a gang-prevention plan proposed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wanted gang parolees to wear ankle monitors similar to those worn by sex offenders.

In a letter to the governor, Farmer and other activists said the plan did not address the roots of gang violence, such as poverty, unemployment and poor education.

“Melvin does the work that very few people want to do in South Central,” said Najee Ali, a community organizer who has worked with Farmer. “He has used his street credibility to bring peace, while risking his life in doing so.”

Recently, Farmer volunteered to work with City Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s office to strengthen anti-gang efforts in his South L. A. district. He helped the councilman’s office recruit young men from the area to participate in a community event, Harris-Dawson’s spokesperson said, and met with the deputy chief of staff to discuss ways to combat gang violence.

But Farmer’s works haven’t brought the more permanent role he seeks as a leader in gang- intervention efforts. “We will always have a scarlet letter against us because of our past, no matter how sincerely we work,” Ali said.

Farmer hoped those efforts would lead to something bigger — a paid position as an anti-gang advisor perhaps — that would allow him to use his gang ties to, in effect, go straight. Many of his friends have made that transition. Farmer desired recognition too.

“Ain’t just anybody can walk up and talk to these gangs, but people sometimes don’t see the value in that,” he said. “Especially not from me.”

Farmer has been in and out of jail for most of his life. In 1994, he was convicted of drug possession and, under the three strikes law, sentenced to life in prison. But he caught a break. His case was overturned on appeal for an improper search, and when he walked free in 1997, he vowed to change his life.

“Melvin has always been a bit of a knucklehead,” said Ben “Taco” Owens, a gang-intervention worker in South L. A. “He’s done a lot of good since he got out, but he has found himself back into trouble once or twice.”

In the past two decades, Farmer was found guilty on seven counts of driving with a suspended license, two counts of shoplifting and one count each of theft and larceny.

Then, in 2011, he was sentenced to four years in prison for using a stolen credit card in Georgia and almost hitting three police officers with a vehicle as he tried to escape.

Although Farmer served his sentences, society sets up former inmates for failure, noted USC law professor Jody Armour, who studies race and criminal justice. Their criminal records block them from necessary resources such as housing and job opportunities. Coupled with high recidivism rates and poor skills, they cannot secure a stable future. Criminality provides an avenue to make ends meet.

“We put these people in a Catch-22,” Armour said. “They are socially marooned, but there are no real ways to fully return to society. There’s no way to be whole again.

Farmer had his first run-in with the law at 13 — a schoolyard bet to steal shoes. His mother couldn’t understand it: She had just bought him shoes the week before. He avoided punishment in juvenile court, but the theft earned him respect. And he wanted more.

A series of violent crimes, including armed robbery, followed. While his peers took their high school yearbook photos, Farmer was posing for mugshots.

Being in a gang was like “being a rock star,” Farmer said. “It made us feel special, invincible, wanted.”

It also was an escape from an abusive father who beat his mother. After Farmer drew a gun on his father and threatened to kill him, his mother recalled, her son was different.

Irene Burke watched her son become consumed by the gang. She sat through his court hearings and sentencing, hoping the punishment would persuade him to leave it all behind and pursue his passion: basketball.

In his teens, Farmer played for Crenshaw High School and cleaned up at neighborhood pickup games. Burke recalled sitting on the sidelines during her son’s games.

“We would be out there screaming, and my daughters would holler, ‘That’s my brother,’ ” Burke said. “And I know I’m his mom, but he was something else, flying up and down the court.”

But he never stayed out of trouble long enough to finish the season. And each time Farmer got out of prison, he would go back to the gang.

“I don’t know if he is worried about his safety though,” his mother said.

Since the funeral, police had not found Betts’ killer, several more people had been killed and rumors created tension between the local gangs. Normally, a shot-caller or “big homie” would be responsible for handling any long-standing beef. Farmer instead intervened.

As Farmer pulled up to the park, a group of men blocked the entrance — but then a path was cleared for him as the men showed deference to an original 83rd Street Crip member.

Farmer strolled through the new generation of gang members, walking gingerly on a bad knee. Formerly known as “Skull,” Farmer’s skinny arms swayed in his short-sleeve shirt as he exchanged daps, fist-bumping the young men. “All these boys have my DNA in their blood,” Farmer said. “I was doing this long before they were born, and so they need to respect me.”

Farmer stepped away and left the two gangs to mingle. Many of the young men had grown up together but had been separated by gang lines. Perhaps they were less likely to kill each other if they reconnected, Farmer thought.

The get-together at the park ended without incident, but the shootings continued. So Farmer staged a few more gatherings, hoping to build on the initial meeting, and there were no killings for weeks. Then someone else was gunned down on July 8; several more were fatally shot the following week.

Gang relations are complicated. Bringing two rival gangs together, he knew, could make both targets for other gangs. But Farmer was proud of what he’d done. He felt a sense of purpose.

A month after burying Carl Betts, Farmer went to another funeral — for another former gang member who, like him, had been trying to go straight.

Ladell Rowles, known as “the street apostle,” had set up a nonprofit organization that hosted after-school programs and charity events. In early July 2015, he was shot at point-blank range with a rifle, killed while trying to mediate a dispute among gang members. Police arrested a man in Rowles’ killing but released him because of insufficient evidence.

The congregation of mourners, again dressed mostly in blue, packed New Temple Missionary Baptist Church. A group of men stood vigil on the street outside.

“It was a beautiful service,” Farmer said afterward. “I wonder what they’ll say about me when I die. You can only hope that it will be good.”

2016-12-25 07:00 Jerome Campbell www.latimes.com

5 /5 1.6 World's last wild frankincense forests are under threat ERIGAVO, Somalia (AP) — In a tradition dating to Biblical times, men rise at dawn in the rugged Cal Madow mountains of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa to scale rocky outcrops in search of the prized sap of wild frankincense trees.

Bracing against high winds, Musse Ismail Hassan climbs with his feet wrapped in cloth to protect against the sticky resin. With a metal scraper, he chips off bark and the tree’s white sap bleeds into the salty air. “My father and grandfather were both doing this job,” said Hassan, who like all around here is Muslim. “We heard that it was with Jesus.”

When dried and burned, the sap produces a fragrant smoke which perfumes churches and mosques around the world. Frankincense, along with gold and myrrh, was brought by the Three Kings as gifts in the Gospel account of the birth of Jesus.

But now these last intact wild frankincense forests on Earth are under threat as prices have shot up in recent years with the global appetite for essential oils. Overharvesting has led to the trees dying off faster than they can replenish, putting the ancient resin trade at risk.

“(Frankincense) is something that is literally given by God to humanity, so if we don’t preserve it, if we don’t take care of it, if we don’t look after it, we will lose that,” said Shukri Ismail, Somaliland’s minister of environment and rural development.

The Cal Madow mountains, which rise from the Gulf of Aden in sheer cliff faces reaching over 8,000 feet (2,440 meters), are part of Somaliland, an autonomous republic in Somalia’s northwest. The frankincense trade is Somaliland’s largest source of government revenue after livestock and livestock products, Ismail said.

Harvesting frankincense is risky. The trees can grow high on cliff edges, shallow roots gripping bare rock slithering with venomous snakes. Harvesters often slip and tumble down canyon walls.

“Every year people either break both legs or die. Those casualties are so often,” said Hassan, adding that he wished he had proper ropes and climbing gear. “It’s a very dangerous job, but we don’t have any alternative.”

Once the resin is collected, women sort the chunks by color and size. The various classes of resin are shipped to Yemen, Saudi Arabia and eventually Europe and America. Besides its use as incense, frankincense gum is distilled into oil for use in perfumes, skin lotions, medicine and chewing gum.

In the last six years, prices for raw frankincense have shot up from around $1 per kilogram to $5 to $7, said Anjanette DeCarlo, an ecologist and director of Conserve Cal Madow, an environmental group.

The rise in demand is the result of stronger marketing in the essential oils industry, which labels frankincense as the “King of Essential Oils,” DeCarlo said. The dwindling supply of high-quality resin, and competition between exporters, also are factors.

Now over-tapping is destroying the trees across the Cal Madow, as tappers try to extract as much sap as possible and make too many cuts per tree. They also tap the trees year-round rather than seasonally, preventing the trees from recovering.

“The death rate of the adult trees is alarming,” DeCarlo said. “There is potential for regeneration, but it takes about 40 years or so for these trees to become viable for tapping if it’s done right.”

Officials worry the ancient trade could disappear.

“Frankincense that the pharaohs were using came from here, so you could imagine it has a history, it has a rich history,” Ismail said. “I’m afraid that we will lose that rich history.”

2016-12-25 06:02 By Associated mynorthwest.com Total 5 articles.

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Created at 2016-12-25 18:03