#forestmanagement — Public Fediverse posts

Around 1830, America imported Japanese wisteria for its hanging purple flowers; the heavy vines now strangle mature trees and replace native vegetation | World News

Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) covered in hanging clusters of its purple flowers. Credits – WIkimedia Commons  Around 1830,…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #environmentalimpact #forestmanagement #invasivespecies #Japanese #Japanesewisteria #nativeplants
https://www.europesays.com/japan/77907/

Trees in extreme drought in Germany

Forests around the world are increasingly under stress caused by drought as a result of climate change. Researchers at our Uni wanted to know how soil structure and landscape influence the health of trees. They studied beech trees in the Harz Mountains in Germany: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8254

Research in #Trees: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-026-02788-1

#ForestManagement #DroughtStress #EcoSystems

Trees in extreme drought in Germany

Forests around the world are increasingly under stress caused by drought as a result of climate change. Researchers at our Uni wanted to know how soil structure and landscape influence the health of trees. They studied beech trees in the Harz Mountains in Germany: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8254

Research in #Trees: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-026-02788-1

#ForestManagement #DroughtStress #EcoSystems

Trees in extreme drought in Germany

Forests around the world are increasingly under stress caused by drought as a result of climate change. Researchers at our Uni wanted to know how soil structure and landscape influence the health of trees. They studied beech trees in the Harz Mountains in Germany: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8254

Research in #Trees: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-026-02788-1

#ForestManagement #DroughtStress #EcoSystems

Trees in extreme drought in Germany

Forests around the world are increasingly under stress caused by drought as a result of climate change. Researchers at our Uni wanted to know how soil structure and landscape influence the health of trees. They studied beech trees in the Harz Mountains in Germany: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8254

Research in #Trees: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-026-02788-1

#ForestManagement #DroughtStress #EcoSystems

Trees in extreme drought in Germany

Forests around the world are increasingly under stress caused by drought as a result of climate change. Researchers at our Uni wanted to know how soil structure and landscape influence the health of trees. They studied beech trees in the Harz Mountains in Germany: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8254

Research in #Trees: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-026-02788-1

#ForestManagement #DroughtStress #EcoSystems

“It’s easy to understand that when people arrived on this landscape, that it was a landscape that was shaped and maintained by #fire and that it was exquisitely beautiful,” White says.

“It’s easy to understand that traditional knowledge of fire should be integrated into fire management practices today, but, man, that’s hard to achieve.”

#rewilding #forests #wildfires #forestmanagement #landmanagement #stewardship

https://www.rewildingmag.com/indigenous-forest-management-a-culture-of-burning/

“It’s easy to understand that when people arrived on this landscape, that it was a landscape that was shaped and maintained by #fire and that it was exquisitely beautiful,” White says.

“It’s easy to understand that traditional knowledge of fire should be integrated into fire management practices today, but, man, that’s hard to achieve.”

#rewilding #forests #wildfires #forestmanagement #landmanagement #stewardship

https://www.rewildingmag.com/indigenous-forest-management-a-culture-of-burning/

“It’s easy to understand that when people arrived on this landscape, that it was a landscape that was shaped and maintained by #fire and that it was exquisitely beautiful,” White says.

“It’s easy to understand that traditional knowledge of fire should be integrated into fire management practices today, but, man, that’s hard to achieve.”

#rewilding #forests #wildfires #forestmanagement #landmanagement #stewardship

https://www.rewildingmag.com/indigenous-forest-management-a-culture-of-burning/

“It’s easy to understand that when people arrived on this landscape, that it was a landscape that was shaped and maintained by #fire and that it was exquisitely beautiful,” White says.

“It’s easy to understand that traditional knowledge of fire should be integrated into fire management practices today, but, man, that’s hard to achieve.”

#rewilding #forests #wildfires #forestmanagement #landmanagement #stewardship

https://www.rewildingmag.com/indigenous-forest-management-a-culture-of-burning/

“It’s easy to understand that when people arrived on this landscape, that it was a landscape that was shaped and maintained by #fire and that it was exquisitely beautiful,” White says.

“It’s easy to understand that traditional knowledge of fire should be integrated into fire management practices today, but, man, that’s hard to achieve.”

#rewilding #forests #wildfires #forestmanagement #landmanagement #stewardship

https://www.rewildingmag.com/indigenous-forest-management-a-culture-of-burning/

EU wildfire strategy falls short as southern Europe faces another devastating fire season

The European Commission’s long-awaited wildfire strategy, unveiled in March, was presented as a major shift in approach: moving…
#Europe #EU #Brussels #EUcountries #EuropeanUnion #forestmanagement #SouthernEurope #theCommission #TheEuropeanCommission #wildfire
https://www.europesays.com/europe/104708/

EU wildfire strategy falls short as southern Europe faces another devastating fire season

The European Commission’s long-awaited wildfire strategy, unveiled in March, was presented as a major shift in approach: moving…
#Europe #EU #EuropeanCommission #Brussels #EUcountries #EuropeanUnion #forestmanagement #SouthernEurope #theCommission #TheEuropeanCommission #wildfire
https://www.europesays.com/europe/104384/

https://www.europesays.com/videos/68167/ Firefighters in race against time to put out spotfires ahead of higher temperatures • FRANCE 24 #Bordeaux #BordeauxFire #BordeauxFires #CapFerret #ClimateChange #ExtremeTemperatures #fire #firefighters #ForestFires #ForestMan #ForestManagement #France #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FranceClimateChange #FranceForest #FranceHeatwave #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FrenchFirefighters #FrenchFires #gironde #heatwave #Landes #SouthOfFrance #wildfires

https://www.europesays.com/videos/68026/ Monster fires spark debate over France’s forest management • FRANCE 24 English #Bordeaux #BordeauxFire #BordeauxFires #CapFerret #ClimateChange #ExtremeTemperatures #fire #firefighters #ForestFires #ForestMan #ForestManagement #France #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FranceClimateChange #FranceForest #FranceHeatwave #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FrenchFirefighters #FrenchFires #gironde #heatwave #Landes #SouthOfFrance #wildfires

Why Soil Carbon Is The Real Fuel Behind Canada’s Wildfires

When wildfire smoke settled over New York, Chicago, and much of the northeastern United States this month, President…
#Canada #borealforests #Canada'sborealforest #carbonemissions #donaldtrump #ForestManagement #forestsoils #McMasterUniversity #northernCanada #wildfires
https://www.europesays.com/canada/146342/

Fact based discussion or misinformed hyperbole. I choose facts, apparently a lot of the U.S. media prefers the latter. "...the forest-mismanagement explanation is borrowed from the wrong forest. Its a real problem in the frequent-fire dry forests of the western US, but the Canadian boreal is a rare-crown-fire system, mostly unmanaged and unsuppressed," #forestmanagement #smoke

https://open.substack.com/pub/theclimatebrink/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just

Fact based discussion or misinformed hyperbole. I choose facts, apparently a lot of the U.S. media prefers the latter. "...the forest-mismanagement explanation is borrowed from the wrong forest. Its a real problem in the frequent-fire dry forests of the western US, but the Canadian boreal is a rare-crown-fire system, mostly unmanaged and unsuppressed," #forestmanagement #smoke

https://open.substack.com/pub/theclimatebrink/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just

Fact based discussion or misinformed hyperbole. I choose facts, apparently a lot of the U.S. media prefers the latter. "...the forest-mismanagement explanation is borrowed from the wrong forest. Its a real problem in the frequent-fire dry forests of the western US, but the Canadian boreal is a rare-crown-fire system, mostly unmanaged and unsuppressed," #forestmanagement #smoke

https://open.substack.com/pub/theclimatebrink/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just

Canadian wildfire smoke ignites cross-border feud over Ottawa’s ‘willful negligence’

As smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to drift across parts of the United States, forestry experts say Canada…
#Canada #MarkCarney #AndrewHale #CanadianPrimeMinister #Canadianwildfire #canadian-wildfires #donaldtrump #ForestManagement #FoxNewsDigital #wildfire
https://www.europesays.com/canada/135156/

Came across an interesting analysis on the current and historical Canadian wildfires.

Made some interesting points on the mis-placed understanding/criticism in regards to Western U.S. coniferous fire burns versus the remote Canadian boreal fires we are currently seeing.

https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just
#ForestManagement #WildFire #CanadianWildFires #Ecology #ClimateChange

Came across an interesting analysis on the current and historical Canadian wildfires.

Made some interesting points on the mis-placed understanding/criticism in regards to Western U.S. coniferous fire burns versus the remote Canadian boreal fires we are currently seeing.

https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just
#ForestManagement #WildFire #CanadianWildFires #Ecology #ClimateChange

Came across an interesting analysis on the current and historical Canadian wildfires.

Made some interesting points on the mis-placed understanding/criticism in regards to Western U.S. coniferous fire burns versus the remote Canadian boreal fires we are currently seeing.

https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just
#ForestManagement #WildFire #CanadianWildFires #Ecology #ClimateChange

Came across an interesting analysis on the current and historical Canadian wildfires.

Made some interesting points on the mis-placed understanding/criticism in regards to Western U.S. coniferous fire burns versus the remote Canadian boreal fires we are currently seeing.

https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just
#ForestManagement #WildFire #CanadianWildFires #Ecology #ClimateChange

Came across an interesting analysis on the current and historical Canadian wildfires.

Made some interesting points on the mis-placed understanding/criticism in regards to Western U.S. coniferous fire burns versus the remote Canadian boreal fires we are currently seeing.

https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/canadas-boreal-wildfires-arent-just
#ForestManagement #WildFire #CanadianWildFires #Ecology #ClimateChange

Trump Says Canada Should Pay Tariffs Over Wildfire Smoke

U.S. President Donald Trump. AFP/Yonhap News U.S. President Donald Trump argued that “Canada should pay tariffs” over smoke…
#EuropeSays #Korea #KR #Seoul #Canadawildfires #forestmanagement #MarkCarney #Trumptariffs #TruthSocial #U.S.airquality #wildfiresmoke
https://www.europesays.com/korea/90328/

https://www.europesays.com/videos/62965/ Donald Trump blames Canada for smoke pollution • FRANCE 24 English #canada #climate #DonaldTrump #DonaldTrump #fire #fires #forestmanagement #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #pollution #Smoke #USA

Trump threatens Canada with more tariffs over wildfire smoke in US

President Trump said on Friday that he intends to charge Canada over wildfire smoke entering the U.S. “We…
#Canada #ForestManagement #MarkCarney #PresidentTrump
https://www.europesays.com/canada/134120/

Trump threatens Canada with more tariffs over wildfire smoke in US

President Trump said on Friday that he intends to charge Canada over wildfire smoke entering the U.S. “We…
#Canada #MarkCarney #ForestManagement #PresidentTrump
https://www.europesays.com/canada/134104/

Blazing Skies: The Alarming Rise of Wildfires Across North America https://www.byteseu.com/2204688/ #AirQuality #Canada #Climate #ClimateChange #EmergencyResponse #firefighting #ForestFires #ForestManagement #GlobalWarming #WildfirePrevention #Wildfires

Mapping Deforestation Probability And Understanding The Forest Dynamics In Gazipur, Bangladesh
--
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2026.101568 <-- shared paper
--
"ABSTRACT: Deforestation is a spiralling environmental catastrophe with impervious results for biodiversity, climate change, and human livelihoods, specifically in tropical regions. Being a tropical country, Bangladesh has experienced approximately 40% loss of its forest cover, at Gazipur since 1930, which contains about 86% of the country's Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, ranging approximately 4,300 hectares per year (2001–2010) to over 19,500 hectares per year (2011–2020), exemplifying an intensification of nearly 353%. The objective of this study is to map deforestation probability at the Gazipur district of Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, by utilising machine learning algorithms along with multi-source geospatial data, with the purpose of identifying high-risk zones and facilitating evidence-based forest governance, land-use development, and prioritizing conservation areas. This study integrated twelve conditioning factors, including biophysical, landscape, and anthropogenic. To identify susceptible zones the study trained and assessed five machine learning algorithms; RF, XGBoost, ANN, NB, and MLP and validating the result through different metrics like sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, F1-score, AUC. The performance of the models was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and marginal response curves (MRC) were used to understand factor contributions. In the result, RF achieved highest performance with accuracy of 84% and AUC of 0.93, followed by XGBoost at 83% accuracy and 0.92 AUC. Rainfall and population density were most dominant conditioning factors among models. Pairwise statistical testing resulted that ensemble-based algorithms (RF, XGBoost) generated statistically comparable and significantly higher predictions compared to NB and MLP. Spatial probability maps indicate areas of high and very high risk in the south-western and north-eastern upazilas. The results can be applicable for forest management authorities, urban planners, and policymakers, and correspond with SDG Indicator 15. An inclusive governance framework containing land zoning, ecological area identification, and compliance with industrial EIA is proposed to persuade probability maps into adaptive forest management strategies…”
#deforestation #probability #machinelearning #algorithms #AI #Gazipur #Bangladesh #GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #rainfall #precipitation #humanimpacts #populationpressure #risk #prediction #RandomForest #conservation #restoration #environment #biodiversity, #climatechange #human #livelihood #tropical #forestcover #sal #forest #vegetation #tree #upazila #spatialprobability #geostatistics #forestmanagement #planning #policy #urbanplanners #governance #zoning #ecology #habitat

Mapping Deforestation Probability And Understanding The Forest Dynamics In Gazipur, Bangladesh
--
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2026.101568 <-- shared paper
--
"ABSTRACT: Deforestation is a spiralling environmental catastrophe with impervious results for biodiversity, climate change, and human livelihoods, specifically in tropical regions. Being a tropical country, Bangladesh has experienced approximately 40% loss of its forest cover, at Gazipur since 1930, which contains about 86% of the country's Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, ranging approximately 4,300 hectares per year (2001–2010) to over 19,500 hectares per year (2011–2020), exemplifying an intensification of nearly 353%. The objective of this study is to map deforestation probability at the Gazipur district of Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, by utilising machine learning algorithms along with multi-source geospatial data, with the purpose of identifying high-risk zones and facilitating evidence-based forest governance, land-use development, and prioritizing conservation areas. This study integrated twelve conditioning factors, including biophysical, landscape, and anthropogenic. To identify susceptible zones the study trained and assessed five machine learning algorithms; RF, XGBoost, ANN, NB, and MLP and validating the result through different metrics like sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, F1-score, AUC. The performance of the models was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and marginal response curves (MRC) were used to understand factor contributions. In the result, RF achieved highest performance with accuracy of 84% and AUC of 0.93, followed by XGBoost at 83% accuracy and 0.92 AUC. Rainfall and population density were most dominant conditioning factors among models. Pairwise statistical testing resulted that ensemble-based algorithms (RF, XGBoost) generated statistically comparable and significantly higher predictions compared to NB and MLP. Spatial probability maps indicate areas of high and very high risk in the south-western and north-eastern upazilas. The results can be applicable for forest management authorities, urban planners, and policymakers, and correspond with SDG Indicator 15. An inclusive governance framework containing land zoning, ecological area identification, and compliance with industrial EIA is proposed to persuade probability maps into adaptive forest management strategies…”
#deforestation #probability #machinelearning #algorithms #AI #Gazipur #Bangladesh #GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #rainfall #precipitation #humanimpacts #populationpressure #risk #prediction #RandomForest #conservation #restoration #environment #biodiversity, #climatechange #human #livelihood #tropical #forestcover #sal #forest #vegetation #tree #upazila #spatialprobability #geostatistics #forestmanagement #planning #policy #urbanplanners #governance #zoning #ecology #habitat

Mapping Deforestation Probability And Understanding The Forest Dynamics In Gazipur, Bangladesh
--
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2026.101568 <-- shared paper
--
"ABSTRACT: Deforestation is a spiralling environmental catastrophe with impervious results for biodiversity, climate change, and human livelihoods, specifically in tropical regions. Being a tropical country, Bangladesh has experienced approximately 40% loss of its forest cover, at Gazipur since 1930, which contains about 86% of the country's Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, ranging approximately 4,300 hectares per year (2001–2010) to over 19,500 hectares per year (2011–2020), exemplifying an intensification of nearly 353%. The objective of this study is to map deforestation probability at the Gazipur district of Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, by utilising machine learning algorithms along with multi-source geospatial data, with the purpose of identifying high-risk zones and facilitating evidence-based forest governance, land-use development, and prioritizing conservation areas. This study integrated twelve conditioning factors, including biophysical, landscape, and anthropogenic. To identify susceptible zones the study trained and assessed five machine learning algorithms; RF, XGBoost, ANN, NB, and MLP and validating the result through different metrics like sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, F1-score, AUC. The performance of the models was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and marginal response curves (MRC) were used to understand factor contributions. In the result, RF achieved highest performance with accuracy of 84% and AUC of 0.93, followed by XGBoost at 83% accuracy and 0.92 AUC. Rainfall and population density were most dominant conditioning factors among models. Pairwise statistical testing resulted that ensemble-based algorithms (RF, XGBoost) generated statistically comparable and significantly higher predictions compared to NB and MLP. Spatial probability maps indicate areas of high and very high risk in the south-western and north-eastern upazilas. The results can be applicable for forest management authorities, urban planners, and policymakers, and correspond with SDG Indicator 15. An inclusive governance framework containing land zoning, ecological area identification, and compliance with industrial EIA is proposed to persuade probability maps into adaptive forest management strategies…”
#deforestation #probability #machinelearning #algorithms #AI #Gazipur #Bangladesh #GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #rainfall #precipitation #humanimpacts #populationpressure #risk #prediction #RandomForest #conservation #restoration #environment #biodiversity, #climatechange #human #livelihood #tropical #forestcover #sal #forest #vegetation #tree #upazila #spatialprobability #geostatistics #forestmanagement #planning #policy #urbanplanners #governance #zoning #ecology #habitat

Mapping Deforestation Probability And Understanding The Forest Dynamics In Gazipur, Bangladesh
--
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2026.101568 <-- shared paper
--
"ABSTRACT: Deforestation is a spiralling environmental catastrophe with impervious results for biodiversity, climate change, and human livelihoods, specifically in tropical regions. Being a tropical country, Bangladesh has experienced approximately 40% loss of its forest cover, at Gazipur since 1930, which contains about 86% of the country's Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, ranging approximately 4,300 hectares per year (2001–2010) to over 19,500 hectares per year (2011–2020), exemplifying an intensification of nearly 353%. The objective of this study is to map deforestation probability at the Gazipur district of Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, by utilising machine learning algorithms along with multi-source geospatial data, with the purpose of identifying high-risk zones and facilitating evidence-based forest governance, land-use development, and prioritizing conservation areas. This study integrated twelve conditioning factors, including biophysical, landscape, and anthropogenic. To identify susceptible zones the study trained and assessed five machine learning algorithms; RF, XGBoost, ANN, NB, and MLP and validating the result through different metrics like sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, F1-score, AUC. The performance of the models was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and marginal response curves (MRC) were used to understand factor contributions. In the result, RF achieved highest performance with accuracy of 84% and AUC of 0.93, followed by XGBoost at 83% accuracy and 0.92 AUC. Rainfall and population density were most dominant conditioning factors among models. Pairwise statistical testing resulted that ensemble-based algorithms (RF, XGBoost) generated statistically comparable and significantly higher predictions compared to NB and MLP. Spatial probability maps indicate areas of high and very high risk in the south-western and north-eastern upazilas. The results can be applicable for forest management authorities, urban planners, and policymakers, and correspond with SDG Indicator 15. An inclusive governance framework containing land zoning, ecological area identification, and compliance with industrial EIA is proposed to persuade probability maps into adaptive forest management strategies…”
#deforestation #probability #machinelearning #algorithms #AI #Gazipur #Bangladesh #GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #rainfall #precipitation #humanimpacts #populationpressure #risk #prediction #RandomForest #conservation #restoration #environment #biodiversity, #climatechange #human #livelihood #tropical #forestcover #sal #forest #vegetation #tree #upazila #spatialprobability #geostatistics #forestmanagement #planning #policy #urbanplanners #governance #zoning #ecology #habitat

Mapping Deforestation Probability And Understanding The Forest Dynamics In Gazipur, Bangladesh
--
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2026.101568 <-- shared paper
--
"ABSTRACT: Deforestation is a spiralling environmental catastrophe with impervious results for biodiversity, climate change, and human livelihoods, specifically in tropical regions. Being a tropical country, Bangladesh has experienced approximately 40% loss of its forest cover, at Gazipur since 1930, which contains about 86% of the country's Sal (Shorea robusta) forest, ranging approximately 4,300 hectares per year (2001–2010) to over 19,500 hectares per year (2011–2020), exemplifying an intensification of nearly 353%. The objective of this study is to map deforestation probability at the Gazipur district of Dhaka Division, Bangladesh, by utilising machine learning algorithms along with multi-source geospatial data, with the purpose of identifying high-risk zones and facilitating evidence-based forest governance, land-use development, and prioritizing conservation areas. This study integrated twelve conditioning factors, including biophysical, landscape, and anthropogenic. To identify susceptible zones the study trained and assessed five machine learning algorithms; RF, XGBoost, ANN, NB, and MLP and validating the result through different metrics like sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, F1-score, AUC. The performance of the models was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and marginal response curves (MRC) were used to understand factor contributions. In the result, RF achieved highest performance with accuracy of 84% and AUC of 0.93, followed by XGBoost at 83% accuracy and 0.92 AUC. Rainfall and population density were most dominant conditioning factors among models. Pairwise statistical testing resulted that ensemble-based algorithms (RF, XGBoost) generated statistically comparable and significantly higher predictions compared to NB and MLP. Spatial probability maps indicate areas of high and very high risk in the south-western and north-eastern upazilas. The results can be applicable for forest management authorities, urban planners, and policymakers, and correspond with SDG Indicator 15. An inclusive governance framework containing land zoning, ecological area identification, and compliance with industrial EIA is proposed to persuade probability maps into adaptive forest management strategies…”
#deforestation #probability #machinelearning #algorithms #AI #Gazipur #Bangladesh #GIS #spatial #mapping #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #rainfall #precipitation #humanimpacts #populationpressure #risk #prediction #RandomForest #conservation #restoration #environment #biodiversity, #climatechange #human #livelihood #tropical #forestcover #sal #forest #vegetation #tree #upazila #spatialprobability #geostatistics #forestmanagement #planning #policy #urbanplanners #governance #zoning #ecology #habitat

I've always been a nature boy. In the Seven Mountains, 1979. #nature #naturelover #naturelovers #naturalbeauty #beautyofnature #woods #woodland #forest #forestland #forests #woodlands #preservation #conservation #replanting #forestmanagement #thesevenmountains #tree #trees #woodwideweb #stream #streams #creek #creeks #river #rivers #mountains #mountainous #1970s #twentiethcentury #outdoors #outofdoors #hiking #camping #walking #naturewalk #naturewalks #leaves

I've always been a nature boy. In the Seven Mountains, 1979. #nature #naturelover #naturelovers #naturalbeauty #beautyofnature #woods #woodland #forest #forestland #forests #woodlands #preservation #conservation #replanting #forestmanagement #thesevenmountains #tree #trees #woodwideweb #stream #streams #creek #creeks #river #rivers #mountains #mountainous #1970s #twentiethcentury #outdoors #outofdoors #hiking #camping #walking #naturewalk #naturewalks #leaves

I've always been a nature boy. In the Seven Mountains, 1979. #nature #naturelover #naturelovers #naturalbeauty #beautyofnature #woods #woodland #forest #forestland #forests #woodlands #preservation #conservation #replanting #forestmanagement #thesevenmountains #tree #trees #woodwideweb #stream #streams #creek #creeks #river #rivers #mountains #mountainous #1970s #twentiethcentury #outdoors #outofdoors #hiking #camping #walking #naturewalk #naturewalks #leaves

I've always been a nature boy. In the Seven Mountains, 1979. #nature #naturelover #naturelovers #naturalbeauty #beautyofnature #woods #woodland #forest #forestland #forests #woodlands #preservation #conservation #replanting #forestmanagement #thesevenmountains #tree #trees #woodwideweb #stream #streams #creek #creeks #river #rivers #mountains #mountainous #1970s #twentiethcentury #outdoors #outofdoors #hiking #camping #walking #naturewalk #naturewalks #leaves

I've always been a nature boy. In the Seven Mountains, 1979. #nature #naturelover #naturelovers #naturalbeauty #beautyofnature #woods #woodland #forest #forestland #forests #woodlands #preservation #conservation #replanting #forestmanagement #thesevenmountains #tree #trees #woodwideweb #stream #streams #creek #creeks #river #rivers #mountains #mountainous #1970s #twentiethcentury #outdoors #outofdoors #hiking #camping #walking #naturewalk #naturewalks #leaves

Moving forests to save them: Here are the risks and rewards of assisted tree migration
#Environment #ClimateChange #Forests #TreeMigration #AssistedMigration #Biodiversity #INRS #Carbon #Trees #Ecosystems #Sustainability #ForestManagement #Nature #Wildlife
https://the-14.com/moving-forests-to-save-them-here-are-the-risks-and-rewards-of-assisted-tree-migration/

Moving forests to save them: Here are the risks and rewards of assisted tree migration
#Environment #ClimateChange #Forests #TreeMigration #AssistedMigration #Biodiversity #INRS #Carbon #Trees #Ecosystems #Sustainability #ForestManagement #Nature #Wildlife
https://the-14.com/moving-forests-to-save-them-here-are-the-risks-and-rewards-of-assisted-tree-migration/

Moving forests to save them: Here are the risks and rewards of assisted tree migration
#Environment #ClimateChange #Forests #TreeMigration #AssistedMigration #Biodiversity #INRS #Carbon #Trees #Ecosystems #Sustainability #ForestManagement #Nature #Wildlife
https://the-14.com/moving-forests-to-save-them-here-are-the-risks-and-rewards-of-assisted-tree-migration/

Moving forests to save them: Here are the risks and rewards of assisted tree migration
#Environment #ClimateChange #Forests #TreeMigration #AssistedMigration #Biodiversity #INRS #Carbon #Trees #Ecosystems #Sustainability #ForestManagement #Nature #Wildlife
https://the-14.com/moving-forests-to-save-them-here-are-the-risks-and-rewards-of-assisted-tree-migration/

Moving forests to save them: Here are the risks and rewards of assisted tree migration
#Environment #ClimateChange #Forests #TreeMigration #AssistedMigration #Biodiversity #INRS #Carbon #Trees #Ecosystems #Sustainability #ForestManagement #Nature #Wildlife
https://the-14.com/moving-forests-to-save-them-here-are-the-risks-and-rewards-of-assisted-tree-migration/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/564274/ How Long Does It Take to Grow a Tree That Supports Endangered Indiana Bats? #AllJournalNews #CollegeOfAgricultural #ConsumerAndEnvironmentalSciences #Éire #EnvironmentalScience #ForestManagement;Conservation;WildlifeBiology;bats;EndangeredSpecies;Forests #IE #Ireland #nature #Newswise #Plants #Science #UniversityOfIllinoisUrbanaChampaign #Wildlife

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest”*…

Dillon Osleger explains that, while the future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors, they’re slowly being starved out of existence…

High in the crown of a giant sequoia, the world becomes a cathedral of green and amber, hushed but for the creak of ancient wood and the sharp, rhythmic snap of cones being pulled from boughs. Dan Keeley, 31, moved around with a practiced, fluid economy, suspended by thin lines of high-tensile rope 200 feet above the ground on the western edge of California’s Sequoia National Park. To his left, the sequoia’s cinnamon-colored bark provided a steady presence as he leaned out over the negative space between branches.

“There is a lot of trust that goes into this work,” Keeley said, speaking over the wind. He eyed a cluster of green, egg-sized cones. “Trust in the trees, predominantly, but also trust in the system — that I’m being sent to the right trees, at the right time, and for the right reason, not all of which are always the case.”

 Keeley, a lean, tanned former rock climber and arborist, is what some in the forestry industry call a pinecone cowboy, a freelance contractor hired to harvest the genetic future of Western forests. He climbs trees of important or threatened species to collect ripe cones for seeds intended to be used for reforestation. 

Keeley is part of a specialized workforce that’s become the primary resistance against the rapid erasure of a Western landscape. As megafires — fueled by climate change and a century of heavy-handed forest management and fire suppression — incinerate millions of acres in the West, natural regeneration is failing. Cones from serotinous species, which open their scales and drop their seeds in response to low-intensity wildfires on the forest floor, are now incinerated in increasingly common crown fires — high-intensity blazes that leap into the canopy. Meanwhile, other species’ seeds, dropped into the soil by wind and animals like squirrels and birds, are choked underneath layers of ash or outcompeted by invasive shrubs. The future of a relationship between trees and wildfires that has existed for 350 million years now rests on the shoulders of rope-suspended climbers who collect the trees’ cones one 45-liter bag at a time…

[The work, which dates back to the 1930s, is both arduous and precise; the workers, dedicated. But, as Osleger explains, a number of forces– main among them, Federal budget cuts, have taken a huge toll on the effort…]

… The result is an annual reforestation shortfall that is compounding and transforming entire ecosystems. The Forest Service produces 30 million to 50 million seedlings a year, according to American Forests, a mere fraction of the 120-million annual seedling goal the REPLANT Act established. Roughly 80% of those seedlings will survive, while it takes about 220 trees to reforest each burned acre. Altogether, the agency meets just 6% of its post-wildfire planting needs annually, according to its 2022 Reforestation Strategy Report. 

And that’s just on Forest Service land: Wildfires on both public and private lands have affected, on average, 7.8 million acres a year over the last decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In California alone, current seedling production and planting rates mean that it would take 15 to 20 years to reforest what has already been lost, while each additional fire “puts us further behind,” said Kuldeep Singh, operations manager of seed production for CAL FIRE. While the Forest Service considers a tract reforested after seedlings survive their first five years, research says that a functioning ecosystem like the one the fire destroyed won’t return for several decades.

When a forest fails to regenerate, either because it wasn’t replanted or because new seedlings didn’t survive, it often becomes scrub-land, in a permanent ecological shift known as type conversion. The new brush-based ecosystem creates a more flammable fuel bed that resists the forest’s return, effectively locking the land into a cycle of fire and scrub. In areas like South Lake Tahoe, California, for example, fields of 8-foot-tall manzanita and buckbrush now dominate hundreds of acres where conifers once stood. In Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and throughout the Southwest, Forest Service research says that high-severity burn areas — which are difficult to regenerate regardless of human intervention — are increasingly repopulated by invasive grasses or the flowering plants called Brassicaceae, which store less carbon and prevent conifers from taking root. This process is permanently altering the hydrology, fire cycle and carbon-sequestration capacity of the West…

More– and more photos– at: “The plight of the pinecone cowboy,” from @highcountrynews.org.

Pair with: “Make Your Own Micro Forest” (“The Miyawaki method of reforestation inserts small, densely packed wild acreage into urban environs. It’s proving wildly successful.”)

* John Muir

###

As we treasure trees, we might recall that it was on this date in 1910 that Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana was established. The park encompasses more than 1 million acres and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of trees and plants, and hundreds of species of animals. Its pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles.

The park’s predominantly coniferous forest is home to various species of trees such as the Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, subalpine fir, limber pine and western larch, which is a deciduous conifer, producing cones but losing its needles each fall.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest”*…

Dillon Osleger explains that, while the future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors, they’re slowly being starved out of existence…

High in the crown of a giant sequoia, the world becomes a cathedral of green and amber, hushed but for the creak of ancient wood and the sharp, rhythmic snap of cones being pulled from boughs. Dan Keeley, 31, moved around with a practiced, fluid economy, suspended by thin lines of high-tensile rope 200 feet above the ground on the western edge of California’s Sequoia National Park. To his left, the sequoia’s cinnamon-colored bark provided a steady presence as he leaned out over the negative space between branches.

“There is a lot of trust that goes into this work,” Keeley said, speaking over the wind. He eyed a cluster of green, egg-sized cones. “Trust in the trees, predominantly, but also trust in the system — that I’m being sent to the right trees, at the right time, and for the right reason, not all of which are always the case.”

 Keeley, a lean, tanned former rock climber and arborist, is what some in the forestry industry call a pinecone cowboy, a freelance contractor hired to harvest the genetic future of Western forests. He climbs trees of important or threatened species to collect ripe cones for seeds intended to be used for reforestation. 

Keeley is part of a specialized workforce that’s become the primary resistance against the rapid erasure of a Western landscape. As megafires — fueled by climate change and a century of heavy-handed forest management and fire suppression — incinerate millions of acres in the West, natural regeneration is failing. Cones from serotinous species, which open their scales and drop their seeds in response to low-intensity wildfires on the forest floor, are now incinerated in increasingly common crown fires — high-intensity blazes that leap into the canopy. Meanwhile, other species’ seeds, dropped into the soil by wind and animals like squirrels and birds, are choked underneath layers of ash or outcompeted by invasive shrubs. The future of a relationship between trees and wildfires that has existed for 350 million years now rests on the shoulders of rope-suspended climbers who collect the trees’ cones one 45-liter bag at a time…

[The work, which dates back to the 1930s, is both arduous and precise; the workers, dedicated. But, as Osleger explains, a number of forces– main among them, Federal budget cuts, have taken a huge toll on the effort…]

… The result is an annual reforestation shortfall that is compounding and transforming entire ecosystems. The Forest Service produces 30 million to 50 million seedlings a year, according to American Forests, a mere fraction of the 120-million annual seedling goal the REPLANT Act established. Roughly 80% of those seedlings will survive, while it takes about 220 trees to reforest each burned acre. Altogether, the agency meets just 6% of its post-wildfire planting needs annually, according to its 2022 Reforestation Strategy Report. 

And that’s just on Forest Service land: Wildfires on both public and private lands have affected, on average, 7.8 million acres a year over the last decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In California alone, current seedling production and planting rates mean that it would take 15 to 20 years to reforest what has already been lost, while each additional fire “puts us further behind,” said Kuldeep Singh, operations manager of seed production for CAL FIRE. While the Forest Service considers a tract reforested after seedlings survive their first five years, research says that a functioning ecosystem like the one the fire destroyed won’t return for several decades.

When a forest fails to regenerate, either because it wasn’t replanted or because new seedlings didn’t survive, it often becomes scrub-land, in a permanent ecological shift known as type conversion. The new brush-based ecosystem creates a more flammable fuel bed that resists the forest’s return, effectively locking the land into a cycle of fire and scrub. In areas like South Lake Tahoe, California, for example, fields of 8-foot-tall manzanita and buckbrush now dominate hundreds of acres where conifers once stood. In Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and throughout the Southwest, Forest Service research says that high-severity burn areas — which are difficult to regenerate regardless of human intervention — are increasingly repopulated by invasive grasses or the flowering plants called Brassicaceae, which store less carbon and prevent conifers from taking root. This process is permanently altering the hydrology, fire cycle and carbon-sequestration capacity of the West…

More– and more photos– at: “The plight of the pinecone cowboy,” from @highcountrynews.org.

Pair with: “Make Your Own Micro Forest” (“The Miyawaki method of reforestation inserts small, densely packed wild acreage into urban environs. It’s proving wildly successful.”)

* John Muir

###

As we treasure trees, we might recall that it was on this date in 1910 that Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana was established. The park encompasses more than 1 million acres and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of trees and plants, and hundreds of species of animals. Its pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles.

The park’s predominantly coniferous forest is home to various species of trees such as the Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, subalpine fir, limber pine and western larch, which is a deciduous conifer, producing cones but losing its needles each fall.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest”*…

Dillon Osleger explains that, while the future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors, they’re slowly being starved out of existence…

High in the crown of a giant sequoia, the world becomes a cathedral of green and amber, hushed but for the creak of ancient wood and the sharp, rhythmic snap of cones being pulled from boughs. Dan Keeley, 31, moved around with a practiced, fluid economy, suspended by thin lines of high-tensile rope 200 feet above the ground on the western edge of California’s Sequoia National Park. To his left, the sequoia’s cinnamon-colored bark provided a steady presence as he leaned out over the negative space between branches.

“There is a lot of trust that goes into this work,” Keeley said, speaking over the wind. He eyed a cluster of green, egg-sized cones. “Trust in the trees, predominantly, but also trust in the system — that I’m being sent to the right trees, at the right time, and for the right reason, not all of which are always the case.”

 Keeley, a lean, tanned former rock climber and arborist, is what some in the forestry industry call a pinecone cowboy, a freelance contractor hired to harvest the genetic future of Western forests. He climbs trees of important or threatened species to collect ripe cones for seeds intended to be used for reforestation. 

Keeley is part of a specialized workforce that’s become the primary resistance against the rapid erasure of a Western landscape. As megafires — fueled by climate change and a century of heavy-handed forest management and fire suppression — incinerate millions of acres in the West, natural regeneration is failing. Cones from serotinous species, which open their scales and drop their seeds in response to low-intensity wildfires on the forest floor, are now incinerated in increasingly common crown fires — high-intensity blazes that leap into the canopy. Meanwhile, other species’ seeds, dropped into the soil by wind and animals like squirrels and birds, are choked underneath layers of ash or outcompeted by invasive shrubs. The future of a relationship between trees and wildfires that has existed for 350 million years now rests on the shoulders of rope-suspended climbers who collect the trees’ cones one 45-liter bag at a time…

[The work, which dates back to the 1930s, is both arduous and precise; the workers, dedicated. But, as Osleger explains, a number of forces– main among them, Federal budget cuts, have taken a huge toll on the effort…]

… The result is an annual reforestation shortfall that is compounding and transforming entire ecosystems. The Forest Service produces 30 million to 50 million seedlings a year, according to American Forests, a mere fraction of the 120-million annual seedling goal the REPLANT Act established. Roughly 80% of those seedlings will survive, while it takes about 220 trees to reforest each burned acre. Altogether, the agency meets just 6% of its post-wildfire planting needs annually, according to its 2022 Reforestation Strategy Report. 

And that’s just on Forest Service land: Wildfires on both public and private lands have affected, on average, 7.8 million acres a year over the last decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In California alone, current seedling production and planting rates mean that it would take 15 to 20 years to reforest what has already been lost, while each additional fire “puts us further behind,” said Kuldeep Singh, operations manager of seed production for CAL FIRE. While the Forest Service considers a tract reforested after seedlings survive their first five years, research says that a functioning ecosystem like the one the fire destroyed won’t return for several decades.

When a forest fails to regenerate, either because it wasn’t replanted or because new seedlings didn’t survive, it often becomes scrub-land, in a permanent ecological shift known as type conversion. The new brush-based ecosystem creates a more flammable fuel bed that resists the forest’s return, effectively locking the land into a cycle of fire and scrub. In areas like South Lake Tahoe, California, for example, fields of 8-foot-tall manzanita and buckbrush now dominate hundreds of acres where conifers once stood. In Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and throughout the Southwest, Forest Service research says that high-severity burn areas — which are difficult to regenerate regardless of human intervention — are increasingly repopulated by invasive grasses or the flowering plants called Brassicaceae, which store less carbon and prevent conifers from taking root. This process is permanently altering the hydrology, fire cycle and carbon-sequestration capacity of the West…

More– and more photos– at: “The plight of the pinecone cowboy,” from @highcountrynews.org.

Pair with: “Make Your Own Micro Forest” (“The Miyawaki method of reforestation inserts small, densely packed wild acreage into urban environs. It’s proving wildly successful.”)

* John Muir

###

As we treasure trees, we might recall that it was on this date in 1910 that Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana was established. The park encompasses more than 1 million acres and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of trees and plants, and hundreds of species of animals. Its pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles.

The park’s predominantly coniferous forest is home to various species of trees such as the Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, subalpine fir, limber pine and western larch, which is a deciduous conifer, producing cones but losing its needles each fall.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest”*…

Dillon Osleger explains that, while the future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors, they’re slowly being starved out of existence…

High in the crown of a giant sequoia, the world becomes a cathedral of green and amber, hushed but for the creak of ancient wood and the sharp, rhythmic snap of cones being pulled from boughs. Dan Keeley, 31, moved around with a practiced, fluid economy, suspended by thin lines of high-tensile rope 200 feet above the ground on the western edge of California’s Sequoia National Park. To his left, the sequoia’s cinnamon-colored bark provided a steady presence as he leaned out over the negative space between branches.

“There is a lot of trust that goes into this work,” Keeley said, speaking over the wind. He eyed a cluster of green, egg-sized cones. “Trust in the trees, predominantly, but also trust in the system — that I’m being sent to the right trees, at the right time, and for the right reason, not all of which are always the case.”

 Keeley, a lean, tanned former rock climber and arborist, is what some in the forestry industry call a pinecone cowboy, a freelance contractor hired to harvest the genetic future of Western forests. He climbs trees of important or threatened species to collect ripe cones for seeds intended to be used for reforestation. 

Keeley is part of a specialized workforce that’s become the primary resistance against the rapid erasure of a Western landscape. As megafires — fueled by climate change and a century of heavy-handed forest management and fire suppression — incinerate millions of acres in the West, natural regeneration is failing. Cones from serotinous species, which open their scales and drop their seeds in response to low-intensity wildfires on the forest floor, are now incinerated in increasingly common crown fires — high-intensity blazes that leap into the canopy. Meanwhile, other species’ seeds, dropped into the soil by wind and animals like squirrels and birds, are choked underneath layers of ash or outcompeted by invasive shrubs. The future of a relationship between trees and wildfires that has existed for 350 million years now rests on the shoulders of rope-suspended climbers who collect the trees’ cones one 45-liter bag at a time…

[The work, which dates back to the 1930s, is both arduous and precise; the workers, dedicated. But, as Osleger explains, a number of forces– main among them, Federal budget cuts, have taken a huge toll on the effort…]

… The result is an annual reforestation shortfall that is compounding and transforming entire ecosystems. The Forest Service produces 30 million to 50 million seedlings a year, according to American Forests, a mere fraction of the 120-million annual seedling goal the REPLANT Act established. Roughly 80% of those seedlings will survive, while it takes about 220 trees to reforest each burned acre. Altogether, the agency meets just 6% of its post-wildfire planting needs annually, according to its 2022 Reforestation Strategy Report. 

And that’s just on Forest Service land: Wildfires on both public and private lands have affected, on average, 7.8 million acres a year over the last decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In California alone, current seedling production and planting rates mean that it would take 15 to 20 years to reforest what has already been lost, while each additional fire “puts us further behind,” said Kuldeep Singh, operations manager of seed production for CAL FIRE. While the Forest Service considers a tract reforested after seedlings survive their first five years, research says that a functioning ecosystem like the one the fire destroyed won’t return for several decades.

When a forest fails to regenerate, either because it wasn’t replanted or because new seedlings didn’t survive, it often becomes scrub-land, in a permanent ecological shift known as type conversion. The new brush-based ecosystem creates a more flammable fuel bed that resists the forest’s return, effectively locking the land into a cycle of fire and scrub. In areas like South Lake Tahoe, California, for example, fields of 8-foot-tall manzanita and buckbrush now dominate hundreds of acres where conifers once stood. In Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and throughout the Southwest, Forest Service research says that high-severity burn areas — which are difficult to regenerate regardless of human intervention — are increasingly repopulated by invasive grasses or the flowering plants called Brassicaceae, which store less carbon and prevent conifers from taking root. This process is permanently altering the hydrology, fire cycle and carbon-sequestration capacity of the West…

More– and more photos– at: “The plight of the pinecone cowboy,” from @highcountrynews.org.

Pair with: “Make Your Own Micro Forest” (“The Miyawaki method of reforestation inserts small, densely packed wild acreage into urban environs. It’s proving wildly successful.”)

* John Muir

###

As we treasure trees, we might recall that it was on this date in 1910 that Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana was established. The park encompasses more than 1 million acres and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of trees and plants, and hundreds of species of animals. Its pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles.

The park’s predominantly coniferous forest is home to various species of trees such as the Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, subalpine fir, limber pine and western larch, which is a deciduous conifer, producing cones but losing its needles each fall.

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest”*…

Dillon Osleger explains that, while the future of Western forests depends on professional pinecone collectors, they’re slowly being starved out of existence…

High in the crown of a giant sequoia, the world becomes a cathedral of green and amber, hushed but for the creak of ancient wood and the sharp, rhythmic snap of cones being pulled from boughs. Dan Keeley, 31, moved around with a practiced, fluid economy, suspended by thin lines of high-tensile rope 200 feet above the ground on the western edge of California’s Sequoia National Park. To his left, the sequoia’s cinnamon-colored bark provided a steady presence as he leaned out over the negative space between branches.

“There is a lot of trust that goes into this work,” Keeley said, speaking over the wind. He eyed a cluster of green, egg-sized cones. “Trust in the trees, predominantly, but also trust in the system — that I’m being sent to the right trees, at the right time, and for the right reason, not all of which are always the case.”

 Keeley, a lean, tanned former rock climber and arborist, is what some in the forestry industry call a pinecone cowboy, a freelance contractor hired to harvest the genetic future of Western forests. He climbs trees of important or threatened species to collect ripe cones for seeds intended to be used for reforestation. 

Keeley is part of a specialized workforce that’s become the primary resistance against the rapid erasure of a Western landscape. As megafires — fueled by climate change and a century of heavy-handed forest management and fire suppression — incinerate millions of acres in the West, natural regeneration is failing. Cones from serotinous species, which open their scales and drop their seeds in response to low-intensity wildfires on the forest floor, are now incinerated in increasingly common crown fires — high-intensity blazes that leap into the canopy. Meanwhile, other species’ seeds, dropped into the soil by wind and animals like squirrels and birds, are choked underneath layers of ash or outcompeted by invasive shrubs. The future of a relationship between trees and wildfires that has existed for 350 million years now rests on the shoulders of rope-suspended climbers who collect the trees’ cones one 45-liter bag at a time…

[The work, which dates back to the 1930s, is both arduous and precise; the workers, dedicated. But, as Osleger explains, a number of forces– main among them, Federal budget cuts, have taken a huge toll on the effort…]

… The result is an annual reforestation shortfall that is compounding and transforming entire ecosystems. The Forest Service produces 30 million to 50 million seedlings a year, according to American Forests, a mere fraction of the 120-million annual seedling goal the REPLANT Act established. Roughly 80% of those seedlings will survive, while it takes about 220 trees to reforest each burned acre. Altogether, the agency meets just 6% of its post-wildfire planting needs annually, according to its 2022 Reforestation Strategy Report. 

And that’s just on Forest Service land: Wildfires on both public and private lands have affected, on average, 7.8 million acres a year over the last decade, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In California alone, current seedling production and planting rates mean that it would take 15 to 20 years to reforest what has already been lost, while each additional fire “puts us further behind,” said Kuldeep Singh, operations manager of seed production for CAL FIRE. While the Forest Service considers a tract reforested after seedlings survive their first five years, research says that a functioning ecosystem like the one the fire destroyed won’t return for several decades.

When a forest fails to regenerate, either because it wasn’t replanted or because new seedlings didn’t survive, it often becomes scrub-land, in a permanent ecological shift known as type conversion. The new brush-based ecosystem creates a more flammable fuel bed that resists the forest’s return, effectively locking the land into a cycle of fire and scrub. In areas like South Lake Tahoe, California, for example, fields of 8-foot-tall manzanita and buckbrush now dominate hundreds of acres where conifers once stood. In Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and throughout the Southwest, Forest Service research says that high-severity burn areas — which are difficult to regenerate regardless of human intervention — are increasingly repopulated by invasive grasses or the flowering plants called Brassicaceae, which store less carbon and prevent conifers from taking root. This process is permanently altering the hydrology, fire cycle and carbon-sequestration capacity of the West…

More– and more photos– at: “The plight of the pinecone cowboy,” from @highcountrynews.org.

Pair with: “Make Your Own Micro Forest” (“The Miyawaki method of reforestation inserts small, densely packed wild acreage into urban environs. It’s proving wildly successful.”)

* John Muir

###

As we treasure trees, we might recall that it was on this date in 1910 that Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana was established. The park encompasses more than 1 million acres and includes parts of two mountain ranges (sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains), more than 130 named lakes, more than 1,000 different species of trees and plants, and hundreds of species of animals. Its pristine ecosystem is the centerpiece of what has been referred to as the “Crown of the Continent Ecosystem,” a region of protected land encompassing 16,000 square miles.

The park’s predominantly coniferous forest is home to various species of trees such as the Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, subalpine fir, limber pine and western larch, which is a deciduous conifer, producing cones but losing its needles each fall.

Why forest loss is making our watersheds leak rain
#Forest #ForestLoss #Watersheds #Environment #Rivers #ClimateScience #SustainableForestry #LoggingImpact #Rain #Hydrology #ForestManagement #NatureProtection #EcosystemHealth #Water #Deforestation
https://the-14.com/why-forest-loss-is-making-our-watersheds-leak-rain/

Why forest loss is making our watersheds leak rain
#Forest #ForestLoss #Watersheds #Environment #Rivers #ClimateScience #SustainableForestry #LoggingImpact #Rain #Hydrology #ForestManagement #NatureProtection #EcosystemHealth #Water #Deforestation
https://the-14.com/why-forest-loss-is-making-our-watersheds-leak-rain/

Why forest loss is making our watersheds leak rain
#Forest #ForestLoss #Watersheds #Environment #Rivers #ClimateScience #SustainableForestry #LoggingImpact #Rain #Hydrology #ForestManagement #NatureProtection #EcosystemHealth #Water #Deforestation
https://the-14.com/why-forest-loss-is-making-our-watersheds-leak-rain/

Why forest loss is making our watersheds leak rain
#Forest #ForestLoss #Watersheds #Environment #Rivers #ClimateScience #SustainableForestry #LoggingImpact #Rain #Hydrology #ForestManagement #NatureProtection #EcosystemHealth #Water #Deforestation
https://the-14.com/why-forest-loss-is-making-our-watersheds-leak-rain/

Why forest loss is making our watersheds leak rain
#Forest #ForestLoss #Watersheds #Environment #Rivers #ClimateScience #SustainableForestry #LoggingImpact #Rain #Hydrology #ForestManagement #NatureProtection #EcosystemHealth #Water #Deforestation
https://the-14.com/why-forest-loss-is-making-our-watersheds-leak-rain/

"Under community #ForestManagement [in Nepal 🇳🇵] local forest rangers worked with the community groups to develop plans outlining how they could develop and manage the #forests. People were able to extract resources from the forests (fruits, medicine, fodder) and sell forest products, but the groups often restricted grazing and tree cutting, and they limited fuelwood harvests. Community members also actively patrolled forests to ensure they were being protected."

https://science.nasa.gov/Earth/earth-observatory/how-nepal-regenerated-its-forests-150937/

"Under community #ForestManagement [in Nepal 🇳🇵] local forest rangers worked with the community groups to develop plans outlining how they could develop and manage the #forests. People were able to extract resources from the forests (fruits, medicine, fodder) and sell forest products, but the groups often restricted grazing and tree cutting, and they limited fuelwood harvests. Community members also actively patrolled forests to ensure they were being protected."

https://science.nasa.gov/Earth/earth-observatory/how-nepal-regenerated-its-forests-150937/

"Under community #ForestManagement [in Nepal 🇳🇵] local forest rangers worked with the community groups to develop plans outlining how they could develop and manage the #forests. People were able to extract resources from the forests (fruits, medicine, fodder) and sell forest products, but the groups often restricted grazing and tree cutting, and they limited fuelwood harvests. Community members also actively patrolled forests to ensure they were being protected."

https://science.nasa.gov/Earth/earth-observatory/how-nepal-regenerated-its-forests-150937/

"Under community #ForestManagement [in Nepal 🇳🇵] local forest rangers worked with the community groups to develop plans outlining how they could develop and manage the #forests. People were able to extract resources from the forests (fruits, medicine, fodder) and sell forest products, but the groups often restricted grazing and tree cutting, and they limited fuelwood harvests. Community members also actively patrolled forests to ensure they were being protected."

https://science.nasa.gov/Earth/earth-observatory/how-nepal-regenerated-its-forests-150937/