Latest Forest Stories
U.S. scientists say they are using airborne lasers and other new technology to quantify landscape-scale changes occurring to Hawaiian forests. The U.S. Forest Service and Carnegie Institution of Washington scientists said they hope their findings will help other researchers racing to assess threats to tropical forests around the world. Our results clearly show the interactive role that climate and invasive species play on carbon stocks in tropical forests, and this may prove useful in...
New technology deployed on airplanes is helping scientists quantify landscape-scale changes occurring to Big Island tropical forests from non-native plants and other environmental factors that affect carbon sequestration.U.S. Forest Service and Carnegie Institution scientists involved in the research published their findings this month in the journal Ecosystems and hope it will help other researchers racing to assess threats to tropical forests around the world."Our results clearly show...
HILO, Hawaii -- New technology deployed on airplanes is helping scientists quantify landscape-scale changes occurring to Big Island tropical forests from non-native plants and other environmental factors that affect carbon sequestration. U.S. Forest Service and Carnegie Institution scientists involved in the research published their findings this month in the journal Ecosystems and hope it will help other researchers racing to assess threats to tropical forests around the world. "Our...
Human impact on tropical forest ecosystems has reached a "tsunami" stage, say scientists, and will require a new generation of sophisticated remote-sensing technology to monitor the changes. Speaking at a January 12, 2009 symposium "Will the Rainforests Survive? New Threats and Realities in the Tropical Extinction Crisis*," hosted by the Smithsonian Institution, Gregory Asner of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology presents new estimates of the global...
Scientists at a Smithsonian symposium reported Monday that tropical rainforests are making a comeback, but said the young vegetation may not be capable of consuming as much carbon-dioxide or sustaining as much diverse wildlife as the older trees did.The debate about the world's tropical rainforests has gone on for years, and is the central theme of this week's symposium at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington.The talks coincide with efforts by the international...
Large areas of forests could succumb to climate change; scientists urge local adaptation responses to avoid disaster for environment, forest-dependent people in new reportUnless immediate action is taken, climate change could have a devastating effect on the world's forests and the nearly 1 billion people who depend on them for their livelihoods, warned a leading group of forest scientists in a report to be released next week. The researchers from the Center for International Forestry...
How best to map "˜boreal' or northern forest with spaceborne radar is the focus of an ESA campaign currently underway in northern Sweden. By answering this question, the campaign addresses one of the key objectives of the candidate Earth Explorer BIOMASS mission. BIOMASS is one of six candidate Earth Explorer missions that has just completed assessment study and will be presented to the science community at a User Consultation Meeting in January 2009. Up to three of the missions will...
By Trevor Hughes The cost of fighting summer wildfires in California and the West has forced U.S. Forest Service officials to slash more than $400 million in spending, causing closures of some campgrounds and limiting access to some forests. While the number of fires and acreage involved is down, the amount spent to contain those fires is up. That's because the cost of fighting fires varies depending on where the fires are burning, said Forest Service spokeswoman Donna Drelick. The...
By Gangloff, Deborah With the U.S. Forest Service, we are forging a new partnership to rebuild natural systems while continuing to build human networks. More than 130 years ago AMERICAN FORESTS realized new public policies were needed to address the reckless degrading of the environment through out-of-control mining of forests with no regard for future generations. AMERICAN FORESTS formed a partnership with industry leaders, bringing those concerned about the environment together with those...
By Fred O. Williams Gov. David A. Paterson has enacted a law named for Buffalo-area environmentalist Bruce Kershner that protects old-growth forests, a cause that Kershner championed before his death last year. The Bruce S. Kershner Heritage Tree Preservation and Protection Act protects forests on state land that are more than 180 years old, adding them to lands in the state Nature and Historical Preserve. A proposal to extend the protection on private land by giving tax credits to...
Latest Forest Reference Libraries
Clearcutting, otherwise known as clearfelling, is a controversial forestry/logging practice in which the majority or all of the trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Clearcutting, in addition to shelterwood and seed tree harvests, is utilized by foresters to construct certain types of forest ecosystems and to encourage select species that require plentiful sunlight or grow in large, even-age stands. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in certain countries support the practice for...
The Amazon Rainforest (known as Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia in Portuguese, and Selva Amazónica or Amazonia in Spanish), also known as Amazonia, or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers almost all of the Amazon Basin in South America. The basin consists of 1.7 billion acres, of which 1.4 billion acres is rainforest. This rainforest covers nine nations (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana). Brazil contains...
Deforestation is the act or process of removing trees from forested lands by cutting or burning. There are many reasons for deforestation. Logs are sold as a commodity and cleared lands can be used for pastures and human settlements. The damage caused by deforestation, however, can be great. If land is not somewhat reforested it can cause damage to habitats for wildlife and other plant life, affect the aridity of the region, and possibly encourage degradation into wasteland. Due to negligent...
The Cacomistle (Bassariscus sumichrasti) is a nocturnal, arboreal and omnivorous species of mammal that belongs to the family Procyonidae. Its range extends from Mexico to western Panama. Its preferred habitats are wet, tropical evergreen woodlands and mountain forests. It will move seasonally to drier deciduous forests. It is not common in its natural range. It is completely dependent on forest habitat, making it susceptible to deforestation. The term cacomistle is from the Nahuatl...
