Latest Forests Stories
The Altai Republic on the southern border of Russia in Central Asia has been hit by at least 158 wildfires this year, officials said. At least three fires were reported to be burning Wednesday in the taiga or coniferous forest, Itar-Tass reported. Last year, there were only 126 fires in 12 months. So far this year, about 8,600 acres have been consumed by fire. About half the fires reported in July were caused by lightning strikes, while the other half are believed to have been deliberately...
TORONTO, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- ForestEthics commended the Ontario government's announcement today that it will protect 50 per cent (55 million acres/22.5 million hectares) of Ontario's vast Northern Boreal Forest from industrial development. This commitment will secure more than 50 billion tons of stored carbon, help species and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate, and provide habitat for the threatened woodland caribou. The area to be protected is half the size of California, or six...
THE latest step in a drive to protect the last areas of ancient woodland in the North East took place yesterday amid one of the best examples of the habitat in the region. The Forestry Commission staged a workshop at Allen Banks in Northumberland to give land managers a chance to comment on proposed guidelines on protecting ancient woodland. Ancient woods are defined as those marked on the earliest reliable maps, which date to the early 1600s. In reality, many of these are much older by...
Half a century after most of Costa Rica's rainforests were cut down, researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute took on a project that many thought was impossible - restoring a tropical rainforest ecosystem.When the researchers planted worn-out cattle fields in Costa Rica with a sampling of local trees, native species began to move in and flourish, raising the hope that destroyed rainforests can one day be replaced.Carl Leopold and his partners in the Tropical Forestry Initiative began...
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Environmentalists say a new survey of logging and other development in Canada's forests, released on Wednesday, shows the need for greater conservation and protection. The study found that about 70 percent of Canada's forests have not been "fragmented" by logging or other human intrusions, but most of the undisturbed landscape is in the far northern boreal and taiga forests. "It's kind a dual threat and opportunity message," said Peter Lee,...
Latest Forests Reference Libraries
Rainforests are forests that are characterized by high levels of rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum usual annual rainfall of about 68 to 78 inches. The monsoon trough, or otherwise known as the intertropical convergence zone, holds an important role in producing the climatic conditions that are essential for the Earth’s tropical rainforests. About 40 to 75 percent of all biotic species are native to the rainforests. It’s been estimated that there might be many millions of...
Taiga, or otherwise known as boreal forest, is a biome that is characterized by coniferous forests made up mostly of spruces, larches, and pines. The taiga is the world’s largest terrestrial biome. In North America, it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as portions of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods. It covers most of Sweden, Finland, much of Norway, lowland/coastal areas of Iceland, much of Russia, northern Kazakhstan, northern...
