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Forest Journalism for a Sustainable Future

The state of U.S. forests: You’ll be surprised by the answers to these 6 questions

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1. How forested is the United States? Here’s a surprising fact about our increasingly urbanized nation: About one-third of it is forested. Forests have an enormous impact on our water resources, economy, wildlife, recreational activities and cultural fabric. They also are major economic assets: The forest products industry manufactures more than US$200 billion worth of products yearly, and is one of the top 10 manufacturing employers in 47 states.

2. Who owns U.S forests? About 58 percent of the nation’s forestland is privately owned, mostly by families and other individuals. The public owns the rest. About three-quarters of the public forestland is owned by the federal government, mostly in national forests, with the rest controlled by states, counties and local governments. Forests in the eastern United States are mostly private; in the West, they are mostly public. [Read more…]

Sinks or stores? World’s forests are key to fight against global warming

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Earth’s forests can be a storehouse for carbon, but the relationship is complex and easily altered. Photo: Bethany Atkins

 

Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series focused on forests and climate change. In this article, we focus on the role that forests play in storing and producing atmospheric carbon and the opportunities land managers have to impact those roles. Next Monday’s installment will focus on the impact of climate change on forested ecosystems.

In 2013, Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Sprajc hacked his way through a remote jungle on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The modern-day Indiana Jones was on the trail of a huge discovery: a lost Mayan city obscured by centuries of nearly impenetrable forest.

It wasn’t the first ancient city unearthed from the jungle: Sprajc found two others in the area the following year, and archaeologists have been discovering Mayan, Incan and Aztecan cities deep in Central and South American jungles for a century or more.

More importantly, for archaeology and for the planet, it probably won’t be the last. [Read more…]

Scientists say nation must choose: Planned fires or more unchecked wildfires?

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Colorado’s Hayman fire burned 137,760 acres, 133 homes and 433 outbuildings. Photo: U.S. Forest Service

The harder we struggle against wildfires, the deeper we sink, like we’re in quicksand, says Mark Finney, research forester for the U.S Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station.

“It’s called the fire paradox,” says Finney, a fire behavior expert based at the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab in Montana. “The more you fight against fires, the worse they get when they happen.”

In a nutshell, Finney and other forest experts say, periodic fires reduce fine fuels such as pine needles. They stop young conifer trees from growing into big conifers. Meadows form and break up continuous stands of mature forest.

That’s how fire worked its magic for thousands of years. [Read more…]

Deadly Gatlinburg fire fueled by ‘exceptional’ drought in southeastern U.S.

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The Drought Monitor issued Nov. 29 showed “exceptional drought”, the highest category, for the Gatlinburg area and large sections of Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Map: NOAA

Of the dozens of wildfires that burned across the southeastern United States last November and December, none was more devastating than the Chimney Tops 2 Fire in Tennessee.

Fanned by strong winds on the afternoon of Nov. 28, the fire grew to more than 17,000 acres, leaving Great Smoky Mountains National Park and raging through the city of Gatlinburg.

Fourteen people were killed, 145 were injured; 1,711 residences and 42 commercial properties were destroyed in Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the surrounding area. [Read more…]

“Fire dominoes:” Tennessee prof warned of potential Gatlinburg disaster

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For years, Henri Grissino-Mayer warned that Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was “made to burn.”

Henri Grissino-Mayer

The surrounding Great Smoky Mountains National Forest was overstocked with fuel and all of Gatlinburg’s homes and tourist cabins were made of wood, the professor warned. If a wildfire reached the surrounding forests, and then the town, there would be a disaster.

For years, Grissino-Mayer was ridiculed and scorned.

Then came the last week of November 2016 and the Chimney Tops 2 inferno. [Read more…]