"Selling off England's public forests could cost the nation more than it would save, according to an official government document that emerged last night."
A US Forest Service report indicates 4,600+ threatened species live in more than 90% of the country’s watersheds, discusses problems as well as a number of plausible solutions, and includes several maps that allow you to quickly determine if at-risk species are in your audience area.
"The Obama administration opened an aggressive new legal front in the enduring trade fight over lucrative softwood lumber exports, accusing Canada of violating a 2006 deal by allowing British Columbia to sell vast quantities of cut-rate, Crown-owned timber to lumber companies."
The mysterious "sudden aspen decline" that is decimating many western forests also seems responsible for a spike in deer mouse populations that is hastening spread of the sin nombre virus, a still-rare hantavirus that kills some 40 % of the humans it infects.
Two recent studies — one examining problems in urban and natural forests, and the other on microbial pests in various settings — reveal the latest knowledge on insect and microscopic invasive species.
"Three decades ago the Zapotec Indians here in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico fought for and won the right to communally manage the forest. Before that, state-owned companies had exploited it as they pleased under federal government concessions."
Center for Health Reporting editor-in-chief David Westphal writes about the impact of the Center's four-day series “Burning Issue: Gasping for Breath,” which examined the scientific links between woodstove/fireplace smoke and asthma, chronic lung disease and heart problems and highlighted the state's failure to regulate wood smoke pollution.
"Here in the vast wilderness surrounding Peru's Alto Purús National Park, the locations of [mahogany] trees, worth tens of thousands of dollars in the United States, have become closely guarded secrets among members of indigenous tribes."
The coffers of wildland fire-fighting agencies are depleted in places like Colorado, even as property-damage figures are hitting record highs. That's partly because more and more people are building houses in the high-risk wildland-urban interface.
Sudden aspen decline, a disease that has killed many aspens in the mountain West, seems to be slowing enough that some stands can hold their own.
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