Forest Journalism for a Sustainable Future
Do you know where your water comes from? Well, you’re about to. There is a long process every drop of water endures before it reaches our faucets, and we can thank forests for much of that process. Trees work as water filtration systems, … [Continue reading]
Every week brings new reports of ecological changes brought about by the Earth’s changing climate – everything to the effects of rising sea levels to the extinction, or explosion, of the globe’s plant and animal species. That includes tiny insects … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
A new State of the Climate report confirmed that 2016 surpassed 2015 as the warmest year in 137 years of recordkeeping. Major indicators of climate change continued to reflect trends consistent with a warming planet. Last year’s record heat … [Continue reading]
Climate change will, ultimately, affect every creature on this planet. And the changes will be more complex and multi-layered than most of us can comprehend – at least until we see them with our own eyes. I was reminded of this recently while … [Continue reading]
In 1995, the U.S. Forest Service spent 16 percent of its total budget on fighting fires. Today, it’s 52 percent and growing. What’s changed? “Everything,” said Matthew Thompson, a research forester who works at the agency’s Rocky Mountain Research … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
Large wildfires can be a major contributor to degraded air quality, said Shawn Urbanski, a research physical scientist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station who is working to improve a national wildfire pollution emissions … [Continue reading]
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 … [Continue reading]
For years, Henri Grissino-Mayer warned that Gatlinburg, Tennessee, was “made to burn.” 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 … [Continue reading]