Latest Forest Stories
Certain research and education activities remainThe 25-story construction crane used since 1995 to investigate such things as how Pacific Northwest forests absorb carbon dioxide, obtain sufficient water and resist attacks by pests and diseases is being pruned back to just the tower.The Wind River Canopy Crane, located in a 500-year-old forest near Stevenson in southwest Washington, has been operated cooperatively by the University of Washington, the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research...
Redwoods on Google Earth 3D Trees for the First Time San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) April 29, 2011 Save the Redwoods League, the only nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting ancient redwood forests throughout their natural range, announced today that it has partnered with iNaturalist.org to launch Redwood Watch. Redwood Watch is an international citizen-based science project that encourages people around the world to help scientists study redwoods as climate changes. By simply sharing...
The WWF wildlife campaign group said on Wednesday that the world stands to lose 230 million hectares of forest by 2050 with drastic consequences for the climate, biodiversity and the global economy. "Those responsible -- policy-makers and industry -- are sawing away at the branch we're all sitting on," WWF's head of forests, Philipp Goeltenboth, said in a statement, noting that the area projected to be lost is 27 times the size of Austria.According to the organization, the current...
First hectare-scale maps of canopy height, aboveground biomass and associated carbon stock for the forests and woodlands of the conterminous United StatesThe Woods Hole Research Center has released the first hectare-scale maps of canopy height, aboveground biomass, and associated carbon stock for the forests and woodlands of the conterminous United States. The multi-year project, referred to as the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD), produced maps of these key forest attributes at an...
Lee Rannals for RedOrbit.comJust days before Earth Day, tropical dry forests in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais received good news as members of the Superior Court of Minas Gerais overturned a state law that altered the status of the 6,000 square-mile forest's protection. The tropical dry forests can thank a project called Tropi-Dry for the success of overturning the law that left the area unprotected from logging. The effort taken by these scientists rings of truth that man can still...
Officials in Los Angeles County have launched an effort to restore tens of thousands of acres of severely charred wooded areas in the Angeles National Forest, an area that had the largest fire in that county's history after an arsonist set it ablaze two years ago. The National Forest Foundation (NFF) and local and federal agency officials Friday announced a five-year plan to replant 3 million trees on 10,000 acres, remove invasive plants and restore the habitat on 40,000 more acres in the Big...
OLYMPIA, Wash., April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark Doumit, Executive Director of the Washington Forest Protection Association, made the following statement today in response to Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark's advocacy for increased timber fees. Private companies have been forced to reset the way they do business because of the national housing crisis, while housing starts remain at their lowest level since 1959. The state agencies need to reset the way they do business to...
Rampant woody vines, or lianas, are choking trees, changing tropical and temperate forest ecosystemsKudzu, the plant scourge of the U.S. Southeast. The long tendrils of this woody vine, or liana, are on the move north with a warming climate.But kudzu may be no match for the lianas of the tropics, scientists have found. Data from sites in eight studies show that lianas are overgrowing trees in every instance.If the trend continues, these "stranglers-of-the-tropics" may suffocate...
Local participation in forest management may simultaneously promote biodiversity and sustainable resource use for household livelihoodsContrary to popular belief, the biodiversity of a tropical forest may be conserved while its resources are used to support local household livelihoods, according to a new study published in the March 25 issue of Science. But biodiversity and resource use are most likely to successfully co-exist in forests that are managed under systems that receive inputs from...
When local residents are allowed to make rules about managing nearby forests, the forests are more likely to provide greater economic benefits to households and contain more biodiversity, two University of Michigan researchers and a colleague conclude from an analysis of forest practices in tropical developing countries of East Africa and South Asia.Lauren Persha and Arun Agrawal of the University of Michigan and Ashwini Chhatre of the University of Illinois used evidence from more than 80...
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...
