which winds for 2 miles up through the forest ending along an abandoned logging road that offers a stunning view of the triplet of volcanic peaks known as the Three Sisters according to Oregon Lakes & Rivers.
#New Earth Explorer Satellite to Map Global Forests The European space agency hopes to launch a new Earth Explorer satellite in 2020 that will map the extent and composition of the world s forests.
The satellite called BIOMASS will use long range radar to pierce through clouds and collect data from forested regions inaccessible from the ground such as the boreal forests of Russia and the Amazon rain forest.
and 3d forest maps will help researchers measure the total amount of carbon stored in forests
The new data could also help inform reforestation projects aimed to slow the pace of climate change.
#New Kiln Advances Science of Thermally Modified Wood Products This Research in Action article was provided to Livescience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
With funding from the National Science Foundation NRRI is investigating the use of thermal modification techniques to improve the durability of engineered wood products such as cross-laminated timbers and plywood.
and validate the process to build the market for this improved wood. The technology is a special heat technique that results in high-performing wood products.
After modification the wood is moisture resistant with decreased swelling and shrinkage in humid indoor and outdoor applications.
which would help our critical forest products industry much of which has a rural base get back on track.
landmarks are the Wade Tract Preserve in southern Georgia one of the last old-growth stands of longleaf pine left in the world
or to fly across the Atlantic on a piece of wood like Charles Lindbergh. The 10 Most Controversial Psychiatric Disorders Jobs Lindbergh and other high-fliers are the subject of Kendall's recent book America's Obsessives:
and seascape consisting of sand islands coastal mangroves estuaries dry forests and farmland. It is where humpbacks whales mate on their southern migration down the coast;
Future frontiers of agricultural expansion will most likely be in the tropics as people clear high-biodiversity tropical forests to raise cattle grow soy
so they don't pay much attention to what's around in their environment Smalling said. 40 Freaky Frog Photos Researchers collected Pacific chorus frogs on a north-south transect across Lassen volcanic national park Lake Tahoe Yosemite national park Stanislaus National Forest
The animals which travel long distances are considered environmental indicators of healthy forests. Since we often work in remote locations we sometimes make surprising discoveries in this case one that appears to be important for our understanding of human cultural history in the region Alexine Keuroghlian a researcher with WCS's Brazil program said in a statement.
We hope to partner with local landowners to protect these cave sites as well as the forests that surround them
and forest that reduce the force of floods coming down from our mountains and coastal ecosystems that buffer the shores he explained.
I first stepped out of the dense tropical rain forest of Central african republic's Dzanga-Sangha region into a 30-acre clearing with mineral rich soils known as the Village of the Elephants.
Instantly I was transported into prehistory with forest elephants of every size shape and color sucking the mineral salts out of the soil chasing one another rolling around in mud-pits
Central african republic's neighbors Cameroon and Republic of congo can also help to ensure the integrity of their shared forests and wildlife.
Forest elephant populations have plummeted 62 percent over the past 10 years driven largely by demand from newly rich individuals in China and Thailand.
and to walk in the forest with Ba'Aka pygmies collecting medicinal herbs. I often think of Mekema my trusted Ba'Aka friend
and the forests were largely empty of species like elephant. But with the help of Mekema and his people the government of CAR was able to protect Dzanga Sangha
He had helped refill the forest with the majestic wildlife of his youth. I hope for his sake
#Primeval Underwater Forest Discovered in Gulf of mexico Scuba divers have discovered a primeval underwater forest off the coast of Alabama.
The Bald cypress forest was buried under ocean sediments protected in an oxygen-free environment for more than 50000 years
but was uncovered likely by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 said Ben Raines one of the first divers to explore the underwater forest
The forest contains trees so well-preserved that when they are cut they still smell like fresh Cypress sap Raines said.
Despite its discovery only recently the underwater landscape has just a few years to be explored before wood-burrowing marine animals destroy the ancient forest. 8 of the World's Most Endangered Places Closely guarded secret Raines was talking with a friend who owned a dive shop
and found a forest of trees then told Raines about his stunning find. Â But because scuba divers often take artifacts from shipwrecks
The forest had become an artificial reef attracting fish crustaceans sea anemones and other underwater life burrowing between the roots of dislodged stumps.
Primeval forest Raines reached out to several scientists to learn more about the forest. One of those scientists was Grant Harley a dendrochronologist (someone who studies tree rings) at the University of Southern Mississippi.
 Because of the forest depth scuba divers can only stay below for about 40 minutes before coming up.
The longer this wood sits on the bottom of the ocean the more marine organisms burrow into the wood
This article has been updated to correct the metric conversion of the area the forest spans. It is 1. 3 square kilometers not 0. 8 kilometers.
#Protecting the Nation's Drinking water Means Protecting Forests (Op-Ed) Kathy Abusow is president and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
Carlton Owen is president and CEO of the U s. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. The authors contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices:
An estimated two-thirds of the nation's freshwater resources originate in forests according to the U s. Forest Service.
This makes protecting forestlands critically important in order to ensure a supply of clean safe water. Recent research also suggests that protecting watersheds reduces long-term water treatment and storage costs for consumers.
Recognizing this water utilities increasingly are taking responsibility for the health of local watersheds with a special emphasis on protecting the forests they contain.
To that end the U s. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) supported by a grant from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is launching an initiative this week to better engage forest landowners
and maintain watersheds on privately owned forest lands. The project will encourage forest owners and water utilities to work together to conserve watersheds by keeping their forest locations healthy the most cost-effective way for communities to ensure continued access to clean water.
Both the Endowment and SFI believe strongly that one of the best ways to protect the nation's water quality is to develop effective collaborations between water utilities and forest landowners.
Investing in land protection to protect sources of drinking water is smart both economically and environmentally.
It's important to note that protecting forests does not necessarily mean public ownership or set asides.
Well-managed private forests offer many advantages such as keeping land on the tax rolls while still providing the myriad benefits that flow from forests renewable wood and paper products wildlife habitat places for recreation and much more.
The magic is in keeping forests as forests. In 2011 for example Raleigh N c. established a watershed protection fee of 1 cent per 100 gallons in customers'monthly water bills.
The fee costs homeowners an average of 40 cents a month and generates about $1. 8 million annually for land protection
and management to protect drinking-water quality. Dozens of communities across the country are taking similar steps to protect their watersheds.
and to the National Association of State Foresters to assess development and implementation of best-management practices in all U s. states and territories.
and Community Partnerships Grant Program to foster partnerships and conservation research that improve forest management in the United states and Canada and responsible procurement globally.
The SFI program is the only forest certification standard in North america that requires participants to support
and engage in research activities to improve forest health productivity and sustainable management of forest resources.
Through the new collaboration with the Endowment an investment in healthy forests will pay dividends for the nation's future water quality
and perhaps keep a little extra change in everyone's pocket The U s. Endowment for Forestry
and improving the internationally recognized Sustainable Forestry Initiative program. Â Across the United states and Canada 240 million acres are certified to the SFI forest management standard.
Learn more at http://sfiprogram. org/Buysfi. The views expressed are those of the author
In Central america the radar team looked at coastal mangrove forests and active volcanoes. In South america the sites ranged from Chilean wineries and shrinking tropical glaciers to Amazon cloud forests and Moche culture archaeological sites in Peru.
The radar is sensitive to water content of soil and soil moisture constrains a lot of ecosystem processes Yang Zheng UAVSAR operational processing lead told Ouramazingplanet during a UAVSAR demo at NASA's Dryden Flight Research center in January.
In the world's forests We're trying to make the step from knowing where there's forest to how much carbon is stored in the forest
In Central america the radar team looked at coastal mangrove forests and active volcanoes. In South america the sites ranged from Chilean wineries and shrinking tropical glaciers to Amazon cloud forests and Moche culture archaeological sites in Peru.
The radar is sensitive to water content of soil and soil moisture constrains a lot of ecosystem processes Yang Zheng UAVSAR operational processing lead told Ouramazingplanet during a UAVSAR demo at NASA's Dryden Flight Research center in January.
In the world's forests We're trying to make the step from knowing where there's forest to how much carbon is stored in the forest
and two years after they were discovered the WCS helped create a protected forest on Mount Rungwe to promote the conservation of these rare primates.
In this forest we have had habituated a group of kipunji that we have followed every day for over four years Tim Davenport director of WCS's Tanzania Program told Livescience in an email.
This dominant female nicknamed Trike is believed to have lost a hand and lower arm in a snare accident before the creation of the protected forest in the southern highlands of Tanzania.
Before we managed the forest there was illegal hunting going on including snaring WCS spokesman Stephen Sautner told Livescience.
Testimonials from ordinary folks are endless boasting advantages along the lines of having more energy better skin improved relationships with woodland creatures and so on
Meanwhile sulfur isotopes in the wood of tree rings approached levels not seen since the preindustrial age.
Other species disappeared before scientists had a chance to study their remarkable biological abilities like the gastric brooding frog which vanished from Australia in the mid-1980s likely due to timber harvesting and the chytrid fungus.
'Nuked'California's enormous Rim Fire had a devastating effect on soils and vegetation according to Forest Service ecologists.
The Rim Fire has scorched some 400 square miles (1000 square km) of forest since Aug 17 when it was sparked by a hunter's illegal fire.
Most of the intense burn was in the Stanislaus National Forest Miller told the AP. Approximately 7 percent of fire zone also suffered a high severity soil burn
and 37 percent received a burn of moderate severity according to a survey by a Forest Service Burned Area Emergency Response team.
Despite the damage the forests are already showing signs of new plant growth. In Yosemite national park campgrounds and giant sequoia groves that closed while flames raged nearby have reopened along with many main roads.
The Rim Fire continues to smolder in parts of Yosemite's forest. National park system policy is to let non-threatening fires burn.
#Rim Fire Endangers Experimental Forest This article was provided by Accuweather. com. As the California Rim Fire near Yosemite national park continues to burn becoming one of the state's largest fires in California history it is coming dangerously close to sending years of research
at the Stanislaus-Tuolumne Experimental Forest up in flames. Located in the central Sierra nevada near Pinecrest Calif. the experimental forest has been the home base for forest fire research since the 1920s.
Back in the twenties fires came through the area every eight to ten years keeping the forests more open according to U s. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station Geographer and Researcher Carl Skinner.
As a result the forests were less dense making a high intensity fire like the Rim Fire less likely.
In the 1920s they mapped every tree on ten acre plots so we know the sizes
Scrubs and grasses were mapped also extensively so well in fact that researchers today know how dense the vegetation on the forest floor used to be.
and spacial distribution of what the forests used to be like. With these studies researchers attempt to figure out how the forest has changed over time and
what it would take to restore the forest to more fire resistant conditions. In fire-prone areas the big trees that survived the fire have thick bark
and high branches that protected them Skinner said. Recently the forest has been entirely remapped to determine what changes have occurred since the 1920 mapping.
We have seen tremendous change in the forest it has become much denser with three to four times more trees Skinner said.
There are very few scrubs left and we have lost a lot of vegetative diversity. Completed just last year the site was thinned back to recreate the conditions in the 1920s.
This October and November prescribed fire was scheduled to be put back into the woods. This exploratory fire was to be used to compare the differences
and responses in the way the forest reacted with fire to the way it functioned prior to the thinning.
Already done at other locations research has shown that thinning the forest and reinstating its conditions to
since the beginning of the week the threat to the Stanislaus-Tuolumne Experimental Forest has been reduced.
Despite the research potential if the Rim Fire makes its way into the experimental forest the downsides far outweigh the benefits as the team would have to relocate.
Forest Service Fiscal year 2013 Budget Justification Budget Puts NOAA's Focus on Weather Interactive US Radar Extreme heat is forecast over a large part of the West this summer.
Adding to the danger of the dry brush is the bark beetle over western forests which is killing scores of trees
Budget cuts to the U s. Forest Service could also play a role by limiting the amount of firefighters
The Forest Service estimates to have substantial cuts this year and over half of those cuts could be shouldered by wildland fire management.
#Ruins of Lost City May Lurk Deep in Honduras Rain forest New images of a possible lost city hidden by Honduran rain forests show
Essentially slow-flying planes send constant laser pulses groundward as they pass over the rain forest imaging the topography below the thick forest canopy.
since the days of the conquistadors who believed the Mosquitia rain forests hid a metropolis full of gold
#Satellites Spy Beetle Attacks on Forests A new computer program detected a slow-motion decline and subsequent revival of forests in the Pacific Northwest in recent years.
Kennedy's program called Landtrendr can detect minute changes in the health of forests by analyzing wavelengths of light given off by the landscape
In the case of the declining forests Kennedy consulted with the U s. Forest Service to confirm that the pattern of decline
when the forest began to grow back. Another outbreak near Mount Rainier lasted 10 years from its onset in 1994 until the insects killed all the trees
 Pine beetles still pose a huge threatâ to forests throughout the West. Kennedy's program also recognized a subtler decline of forests near these two mountains.
Hiking to an area that seemed be in poor health based upon the program's analysis Kennedy recently found an infestation of western spruce budworms.
but has changed already the way the U s. Forest Service monitors ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest according to the NASA statement.
#Shrine Found at Buddha's Birthplace dates to 6th century B c. An ancient timber structure that may have marked once Buddha's birthplace has been unearthed in Nepal.
Charcoal and grains of sand from a timber structure at the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini Nepal date to the sixth century B c. according to the a study published in the December issue of the journal Antiquity.
and nuns and discovered the remnants of an ancient timber enclosure buried under a series of brick temples.
The timber structure contained an open space at the center and was likely open at the top.
Now a few hot spots char the ground in Yosemite national park where Park Service policy allows nonthreatening fires to burn themselves out renewing the forest.
and equipment said Jerry Snyder public affairs officer for the Stanislaus National Forest. Permission can be granted
And in the Stanislaus National Forest an emergency soil restoration team will continue its efforts to stabilize steep slopes before the winter rains arrive Snyder said.
The Forest Service's Burned Area Emergency Response Team the soil emergency restoration team has found moderate to severe soil damage in 37 percent of the entire burned area
Started in Stanislaus National Forest on Aug 17 by a hunter's illegal campfire the Rim Fire is California's third-largest wildfire since the 1930s and the biggest ever in the Sierra nevada mountains.
The fire destroyed 11 homes and more than 2 million board-feet of timber in the national forest.
The fire is contained fully in the Stanislaus National Forest but there are plenty of internal smokes that we are chasing down and trying to put out Snyder told Livescience.
The titan arum is native to the rain forests of central Sumatra in western Indonesia. The D c. plant was about 4 feet (1. 2 m) tall
The forest really does hum with life. Though often too low or too high for human ears to detect insects
Gagliano imagines that root-to-root alerts could transform a forest into an organic switchboard.
Considering that entire forests are interconnected all by networks of fungi maybe plants are using fungi the way we use the Internet
Plant hydraulics will tell us what our future forests will look like in 50 years. Two geologists in Arizona are also building a low-cost acoustic detector crowd-funded at about $1000 drawn by the age-old allure of communicating with plants.
and Forests told the Gazette. Not only are thieves skulking around private property to steal the sap they're also destroying old sugar maple trees by boring three
Ape oddity When O. bambolii was formed alive Italy a string of islands that were covered with swampy forests and teeming with crocodilians.
Instead it probably used its long hanging arms and apelike spine to swing from the branches in a forest.
Marine biologist Win Watson recalls annual Make a Dish from Your Animal dinners at the Woods Hole Oceanic Institution in Woods Hole Mass. during the 1970s and 1980s.
Nearby Christian settlements include the churches at Abu Hof in the Lahav Forest and a monastery at Givot Bar.
and Siberia where boreal forests dominate and winters are long and dark. But what the higher frequency of wildfires spells for the subarctic in a warmer future world is difficult to predict researchers say.
On the other hand the spike in wildfires is transforming Alaska's coniferous forests into woodlands made up of relatively fire-resistant deciduous trees.
The current project focused on boreal forests which make up about 10 percent of the Earth's land surface and more than 30 percent of its terrestrial carbon stock.
whose recent fire activity is one of the highest among North american boreal forests. The team collected ancient charcoal samples buried in the mud at the bottom of 14 lakes in the area.
The amount of charcoal present indicates how much of the forest burned. By collecting samples of pollen in the sediment they could also tell which tree species populated the Yukon Flats over time.
However the severe wildfires promoted the growth of fire-resistant plant species resulting in a gradual shift from conifer-rich boreal forests to deciduous woodlands.
and increased forest burning Kelly said adding that lightning can more readily spark a wildfire
The results are particularly striking given that wildfires release the forests'stored carbon into the atmosphere potentially exacerbating climate change.
Today our Western forests from the Rockies to the mountains of the Sierra nevada are loaded with several billion excess trees.
That policy has altered radically our forest landscapes where fires set by lightning or Native americans had limited always forest stocks to roughly a few dozen trees per acre.
All that changed in 1910 when a series of huge wildfires led the federal government to declare war on wildfires through a program that now costs more than $2 billion a year.
roughly 112 to 172 more trees per acre in mountain forests of the West. This process of unnatural afforestation (the establishment of trees or tree stands where none previously were) may sound green
and asthma-inducing particulate matter into the air a big fire is like setting a coal-fired power plant in the middle of a forest.
For my liberal friends the snarl and whine of a chainsaw in the forest generates suspicion.
And my conservative friends object to a multibillion-dollar public works projects in the woods. But as times have changed
Western markets value an acre-foot of water at $450 to $650 which means that the annual worth of water taken up by excess trees throughout the Western forests may be more than $8. 5 billion.
This contractual approach to the forest anchored by Western cities like Spokane Wash.;Denver; Salt lake city;
and rural areas that could restore forest health and replenish shrunken rivers. It's true that this approach will require that environmentalists jettison the outmoded notion that
It's that kind of thinking that now threatens to strangle the very forests and streams environmentalism seeks to protect.
The late Robert Sharer who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania notes in his book Daily Life in Maya Civilization Greenwood Press 2009) that the ancient Maya believed that everything oewas imbued in different degrees
In the jungle the majority of the life forms actually live up in the trees. It can take 200 years
The translator told me as he came down that the man thought he knew the jungle;
or so and looked around the forest he saw his home from a different perspective
and once the tadpoles hatch she ferries each one on her back from the rain forest floor up to trees as tall as 100 feet (30 meters).
and the loss of forest caused by the miners stripping the trees had tripled since 2008 the time of the Great Recession when gold prices skyrocketed.
#Thirsty Wood's Distress Call Heard in Lab Like a person gasping for air when it's in short supply living trees make noises
what a human can hear in slivers of dead pine wood bathed in a hydrogel to simulate the conditions of a living tree.
because there may be other causes like cracks in the wood or insects. But the majority of sounds that occur during cavitations (tiny air bubbles that pop out in the water) are due to these bubbles.
How do you navigate through the forest? FA: We put cameras mostly on the roads and paths because the tigers don't like to go through the grass.
We also carry a laptop into the forest and I use Google earth quite a lot because nobody goes there.
so we don't get lost in the forest. OAP: What are some of the challenges of working inside Kaziranga
These forests have been opened in a number of places. We are losing these forests at very fast rates.
OAP: What should people in the United states know about tigers in India? FA: They should know that the tigers are very important.
They should know they are disappearing from large tracts of forest in India and other range countries and try to help as much s they can.
The Assam Forest Department is allowed to kill them. Kaziranga has about 2200 Asiatic one-horned rhinos India's biggest conservation success story.
and every day is a new day in the forest because you don't know what is there for you and
#Too much Deer Pee Changing Northern Forests The booming deer population in the northern United states is bad for the animal's beloved hemlocks a new study finds.
With the reduced hemlock cover available for deer the booming white-tailed deer population means more deer crowd into the remaining forest.
Longer growing seasons may mean increased forest growth which affects carbon water and nutrient cycles; some birds produce additional clutches of eggs;
and poplars some of the most culturally and economically important tree species in the United states. Â In addition to building a more robust and detailed map of the Green Wave knowledge gathered on the ground helps us improve forecast models and early warning systems for use in forest management
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