forests

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When Will the Fish & Wildlife Service Give a Hoot for Spotted Owls?

Perhaps no other species symbolizes the conflict over logging in the Pacific Northwest more than the northern spotted owl. This medium-sized, forest-dwelling raptor has been credited with shutting down the logging industry in the 1990s and with shouldering the responsibility of conservation for hundreds of species that share its old-growth forest habitat.
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Time for British Columbia Provincial Government to Stand Tall on Historic Rainforest Agreements

British Columbia is endowed with the 7.4 million hectare Great Bear Rainforest and adjacent offshore archipelago of Haida Gwaii, one of the few remaining large blocks of comparatively unmodified landscapes on earth. The Great Bear includes over a quarter of the Pacific Coastal rainforests of North America and is home to spectacular wildlife and prodigious salmon runs that are increasingly rare around the world.
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Deja Vu in Kiwi-Ancient Forests

To the untrained eye, New Zealand forests have a tropical feel somewhat out-of-character in a temperate world. Like Australia, these rainforests owe their existence to the ancient ark of Gondwana that broke away from Pangea at a time when dinosaurs were still flourishing.  Some of the species like giant Kauri trees have lineages dating back 100 million years.
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Temperate Rainforests Down Under Owe Existence to Ancient Ark

Some 38-45 million years ago, Australia broke off from its parent super-continent, Gondwana, and began drifting northward.  In its long and arduous journey, the ark rafted ancient species forced to cope with a cooling and drying climate. Some, like Antarctic beech (Nothofagus spp.), were forced into climatic refugia along the eastern edge of Australia where it remained moist enough to cradle the evolution of rainforest communities in changing times.
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Occupy the Tongass Rainforest?

Taking America by storm with actions reminiscent of the 60s, “Occupy Wall Street” has gone viral in an attempt to raise awareness about corporate interests being placed above public needs. But the movement has yet to sound alarm bells on the Tongass rainforest, where a native corporation is seeking to develop and log over 100-square miles of public lands through a legislative lands transfer proposed in Congress.
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In the Case of Tar Sands Oil - Oils Well, Will Certainly Not End Well

Canada’s growing interest in exporting some of the dirtiest crude oil in the world is a threat to not only North America’s wildlife but also a rational energy policy and a stable atmosphere. NASA and climate scientist James Hansen called this project a climate game-changer because burning Alberta “tar sands” oil could raise CO2 levels in the atmosphere by 200 parts per million (ppm), pushing us dangerously away from the 350 ppm safety net that he and other scientists have recommend (we are currently at 390 ppm of CO2 and rising at about 1-2 ppm per year).
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Historic Temperate Rainforest Agreement Down to the Fine Print

After 30 years of controversy that tore at the social fabric of Tasmania, the federal and Tasmanian governments of Australia finally signed the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement to provide support and funding that will help the timber industry transition out of native-forest logging and will protect the region’s high-conservation-value rainforests. In sum, the government will provide much-needed financial support for workers and contractors to cease logging native forests while it takes legal steps to protect these forests as formal reserves similar to national parks.
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Governor Parnell Can’t See the Trees for the Rainforest

Containing about one-third of the world’s coastal old-growth rainforests, the Tongass is the “crown jewel” of the National Forest System. Its pristine rivers produce more salmon than any other place on earth. The regional economy is tied to the health of this fishery and wildlife, which in turn, depends on how the Tongass rainforest is managed.
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Logging Company Threatens Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest

Aggressive logging in one of the last remaining large blocks of temperate rainforests in the world – the Great Bear Rainforest - is jeopardizing an historic agreement designed to boost rainforest protections and shift logging from industrial clearcuts toward ecosystem-based management (a lesser form of logging).
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TGIF – Thank God It’s Forested!

My 6 year old daughter, Ariela, standing alongside a "nurse log" - will her generation marvel in coastal rainforest giants?

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