Currently viewing the category: "Trees Forests"

Study: Forests absorb much more greenhouse gas than previously known

On July 19, 2011 By

Another surprise. The real carbon absorbers are the temperate and boreal forests. Tropical forests are too compromised by humans-

One of the best things that could happen to the future of our existence, IMO, would be the collapse of News Corps in the current scandal. [...]

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U.S. government will add whitebark pine to endangered species list

On July 19, 2011 By

Critical high altitude pine has been nearly wiped out by beetles, fire, blister rust-

These trees with fat rich nuts are already getting federal government attention, but mortality is even worse than thought. The large majority of whitebark grow on U.S. public lands. The work will concentrate on protecting existing stands using pheromones to confuse [...]

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The other end of the tar sands monstrosity. The Keystone Pipeline

On June 21, 2011 By

Canadian tar sands are not just about turning Alberta’s boreal forest into a wasteland.
Transport of the product has many dangers, ill-effects. ____________

They haul their giant equipment around the world disrupting the roadside environment to dig tar sands in Alberta, turning hundreds of square miles into lifeless pits. Ah, but they produce [...]

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Pacific salmon run helps shape Canada’s ecosystems

On April 1, 2011 By

Predators help disperse salmon, nutrient on streambanks

This article describes the results of a study suggesting another “trophic cascade” mechanism by which predators and salmon interact, enriching the diversity of plant-life in the world’s largest old-growth temperate rainforest:

Pacific salmon run helps shape Canada’s ecosystems – BBC News

The annual migration sees salmon return to [...]

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Climate Change Takes Toll on Lodgepole Pine

On March 1, 2011 By

The most abundant of all Western pine falls at astounding rate-

Every Western pine from the Yukon to New Mexico is suffering high mortality from unusually severe attack by native insects, diseases and direct mortality from drought and heat. Lodgepole pine, which often grows in vast almost monocultural stands, is dying too.  Almost anyone who [...]

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Massive Australian floods were no natural disaster

On January 13, 2011 By

It is land clearing for livestock-

Despite some recognition today, just one tree is being planted in Queensland for every one hundred cleared to increase livestock grazing.

Yes, it rained a lot for a long time, but cows on huge tracts of “cleared” land made the disaster.

Video. Continue Reading →

Clearing tropical forests is a lose-lose

On November 1, 2010 By

It releases a great deal of carbon and produces much less new food than more intensive use of existing croplands-

Lose-lose . . . sounds like a Western land use issue.

Clearing tropical forests is a lose-lose. Michael Marshall. New Scientist.

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Is the American Chestnut ready to begin its restoration?

On October 18, 2010 By

The first large scale planting blight resistant chestnut is done-

When the chestnut blight hit in the 1950s, there were probably 3 billion American chestnut trees in the United States. Now there are perhaps only about a hundred trees in its natural range. The demise of the chestnut was a blow to wildlife that ate [...]

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Losing the Whitebark Pine affects much more than grizzly bears

On September 3, 2010 By

“We don’t know what’s going to happen without whitebark.”-

I know it will soon be functionally extinct, although no doubt some token remnants will be protected from beetles and blister rust. Ecologically speaking, it is already almost gone.

Here is a long essay on its demise and the effects. Feature article in New West. Continue Reading →

Grizzly Managers Spin Whitebark Pine Woes: Just How Important is Whitebark to Yellowstone Bears?

On August 22, 2010 By

Very important.

Interesting post by NRDC’s Louisa Wilcox about how the science shows how critical whitebark pine nuts are for grizzlies and how the managers talk out of both sides of their mouth.

“In its August 9th legal brief challenging the 2009 ruling by Federal Judge Donald Molloy that required relisting of the Yellowstone grizzly [...]

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Quote

‎"At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour."

~ Edward Abbey