News archives
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Vail Daily
Pine beetle slowing in Eagle County? (CO)
Flying over Eagle County in airplanes this summer, foresters actually counted 11,881 fewer acres of rust-colored, pine-beetle infested trees than in 2006.
Fewer? In Eagle County?
The pine beetle epidemic, first seen in Colorado forests in 1996, grew by half a million acres in 2007 and has infe... Continued...
Bogalusa Daily News
Southern Forests to hold public workshop on future of forests (LA)
The U.S. Forest Service in cooperation with the Southern Group of State Foresters has begun a two-year project that will forecast the future of forests on public and private lands.
A public workshop will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 29 at the Sheraton Convention Center, 103 France St... Continued...
The Ironton Tribune
Forest owners could benefit from collaboriation (OH)
A pioneering memorandum of understanding, the first of it’s kind in the country, was signed by three agencies responsible for forest conservation in Ohio.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the USDA Forest Service, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division ... Continued...
Sit News
Forest Service releases the new Tongass National Forest plan (AK)
More than 3 million acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the largest in the country at nearly 17 million acres, will be opened to logging, mining and road building under the new 2008 Tongass Land Management Plan released Friday.
The revised management plan for this southeast Alaska forest w... Continued...
AP via Idaho Statesman
Reports: Silva questions deforestation (Brazil)
A reported jump in the rate of Amazon deforestation is unproven despite a government crackdown on tree cutting, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in comments published Thursday.
Silva said figures showing increased deforestation, issued last week by his Environment Ministry, have not yet bee... Continued...
TimberJay Newspapers
Comments sought on major land exchange (MN)
The US Forest Service is seeking public comments on a proposed land exchange involving 30 cabin lease lots on the South Kawishiwi River, near Ely.
The Forest Service is proposing to exchange 424.6 acres of public land, that is currently occupied by the privately-owned summer cabins, for a total of ... Continued...
WIDNR
Wisconsin now to offer single, season long burning permits (WI)
Landowners in all areas of Wisconsin where the Department of Natural Resources has primary responsibility for wildfire protection and suppression will now be able to apply for a single, no-cost, season-long, outdoor burning permit.
In the past, homeowners using burn barrels were required to appl... Continued...
AP
UN: Climate Change May Cost $20 Trillion
Global warming could cost the world up to $20 trillion over two decades for cleaner energy sources and do the most harm to people who can least afford to adapt, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns in a new report.
Ban's report provides an overview of U.N. climate efforts to help the 192-nati... Continued...
Friday, January 25, 2008
The New York Times
Climate Talk's Cancellation Splits a Town (MT)
School authorities’ cancellation of a talk that a Nobel laureate climate researcher was to have given to high school students has deeply divided this small farming and ranching town at the base of the east side of the Rocky Mountains.
The scholar, Steven W. Running, a professor of ecology at the ... Continued...
High Country News
Of wolves and willows (CO)
Don Despain and Roy Renkin aren’t the first scientists to notice how the climate is changing in Yellowstone National Park. But they are among the first to examine the link between climate change and the growth of certain plants, such as the willow bush.
For the last couple of years, Despain and ... Continued...
Beacon
Deadly Avalanches Sweep the West
An avalanche north of Whitefish Mountain Resort on Jan. 13 capped off a deadly week of avalanche activity throughout western United States and Canada in which at least 10 people died.
Two men, Anthony Kollmann, 19, of Kalispell, and David Gogolak, 36, of Whitefish, were confirmed dead following a... Continued...
Next West Environment
Lynx Pinched by Recreation (CO)
Finding room for lynx to roam in the wide-open spaces of Montana and Wyoming may not be a huge issue. But in crowded Colorado, researchers are finding that intensive recreational use—especially snowmobiling—is crowding the rare cats out of some critical areas.
At issue is the management of the V... Continued...
NPR
Trees Lost to Katrina May Present Climate Challenge (LA)
Almost everyone has heard about Hurricane Katrina's toll on the residents of New Orleans. But Gulf Coast trees also took a wallop. Hundreds of millions of trees were destroyed or badly damaged and have become an unexpectedly large contributor to global warming, according to new research.
In fact... Continued...
Wisconsin State Journal
"Buy local" mantra moves into timber (WI)
The dairy cows, mounds of hay and their accompanying smells are long gone.
The ability to make a living off the rolling landscape above the Wisconsin River has remained.
With a massive power saw, a $10,000 Swedish milling machine and three simple solar kilns, Jim Birkemeier is turning firewo... Continued...
Wisconsin State Journal
Preparing wood for milling important part of operation (WI)
The key components to Jim Birkemeier's forestry and wood flooring operation include not only the way the wood is harvested, but the way in which it is prepared for milling.
The 200 acres of woodland on the farm his parents bought in 1973 include eight miles of trails that provide access to the tr... Continued...
Minnesota Public Radio
Protecting Minnesota's changing northern forests (MN)
Forest researchers in the region agree that global warming is going to have a big effect on Minnesota's northern boreal forest.
In a warming climate, the northwoods pine, aspen and fir trees will eventually give way to hardwoods, such as maple and oak. But a Duluth, Minn., researcher says we mig... Continued...
CanWest News Service
Canada's Boreal forest the Fort Knox of carbon
Canada's forest is emerging as an immense - truly immense - national and international player.
The broad swath of often-scruffy timberland stretching from the Yukon to Labrador is one of largest stores of carbon on Earth, making it key to global warming and climate change.
It holds an estimate... Continued...
Reuters
Amazon deforestation seen surging
Deforestation of the Amazon has surged in recent months and is likely to rise in 2008 for the first time in four years, a senior Brazilian government scientist said on Wednesday.
The rise raises questions over Brazil's assertion that its environmental policies are effectively protecting the world... Continued...
AP
New tree species found in Madagascar
A self-destructing palm tree that flowers once every 100 years and then dies has been discovered on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, botanists said Thursday.
The name of the giant palm and its remarkable life cycle will be detailed in a study by Kew Gardens scientists in the Botanical Journ... Continued...
Minnesota Conservation Volunteer
Land of Biofuels? (MN)
Like arrows hitting their mark, power-filled packets of sunlight collide with pigment molecules inside a leaf, setting them abuzz with energy. Funneled by a tag team of subatomic particles, the energy converges on a central point until there's enough to drive the construction of special molecules th... Continued...
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