Forest fire research questions use of prescribed blazes

The research, examined in this article, says big, natural forest fires actually promote biodiversity.

New York buying 69,000 acres for Adirondack Forest Preserve

This is a big deal, that’s both good for fish and wildlife and the Adirondack economy. Conservationists made it happen.

Aspen scale killing a signature tree species of West

It’s not just aspens in the area of Billings, Mont., that are affected as this article might lead readers to think.

Goodbye to the mountain forests of the West?

That would appear to be the new reality, as this piece from the New York Times states in good fashion. It’s no longer a matter of attempting to save and restore the status quo, it’s a matter of helping the land adapt to the climate humans are changing.

Oil/gas rush in Eastern forests spark questions and then some

I witnessed the destruction of already diminished hardwood forests in northern Pennsylvania by natural gas drillers punching holes in the Marcellus shale geological formation. Little covered by the mainstream media were such topics as forest fragmentation and the effects on native flora and fauna of road-building. Read more in this piece from the Washington Post.

To help forests and birds, stop helping deer

Yes! The writer of this op-ed deserves a medal for making the point that so many alleged conservationists (aka “sportsmen”) seem to ignore as they roam around in their pickup trucks with the windows rolled down looking for white-tails (in the East) and mule deer (in the West). Too many deer is THE issue facing forest after forest in Pennsylvania, where I lived for two decades and know only too well what browsing deer can do to other life forms. Why Bambi must go!

Bark beetle kill leads to more severe fires, right? Well, maybe

That’s the headline over this High Country News article. All of us who are advocating for an end to the emission of greenhouse gases should read and consider this piece. And that would include conservationists in the Adirondacks as well as conservationists and naturalists and birders in southeastern Arizona.

Global warming threatens pine forests, forcing rethinking of mitigation strategy

Maybe our planet has already past the tipping point. Given the headlines of recent days, particularly this one, it’s hard to argue otherwise. Let me know what you think. Scientists know that global warming will reshape pine forests. What they don’t yet understand is which trees are best poised to survive under these changed conditions and how they can help them adapt in the decades to come.

Tracing the money, and the masterminds, of illegal logging

That’s the headline over this piece from today’s NY Times. Illegal downing of trees is a rarity in the U.S., but not in some overseas locations where the demise of trees, indeed whole forests, where it has major effects.

Noise pollution is changing forests

As a veteran of more than 15 years of Breeding Bird Survey field work, I know a gret deal of how pervasive human noise has become. Striving to hear birdsong above the din of a highway or lawn mowers or chainsaws or leaf blowers is more than the occasional challenge. Read about noise pollution’s effects on forest life in this article.