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And Winter Broke

By Cristina Eisenberg / On March 31st, 2011
In March I participated in a University of Nebraska literary retreat at the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust. It was the climax of spring migration on the river, where sandhill cranes pause to feed during their 5,000 mile journey from Mexico to as far as Siberia. I spent my time there ensconced in a primitive blind with several eminent poets, bearing witness to the cranes' sempiternal return. Fossil evidence suggests that cranes have been stopping at this place on their journey north for the past 10 million years.
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The Wildfires in Hawaii Are a Loss for Our World

By Admin / On March 28th, 2011
The wildfire created by the recent eruption of the Kilauea volcano on the Island of Hawaii has already burned some 2,000 acres in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, home to 23 species of endangered plants and 6 endangered birds. Because this fire now threatens a relatively pristine native rain forest that is home to Hawaii's famous happyface spiders and honeycreeper songbirds, Park officials are quite rightly doing everything they can to stop it. As a whole, Hawaii is a globally important paradise that is dying on our watch.
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Is There a Silver Lining to Our Environmental Actions?

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On March 21st, 2011
Is There a Silver Lining to Our Environmental Actions? Recent human and environmental crises are a stark reminder that we are all connected by the vast meridians spanning planet earth. We share the same atmosphere, affected by the same hydrological and climatic systems, and therefore are vulnerable to the waste products we spew. With population levels expected to rise to 9 billion by century’s end, what kind of planet are we leaving for our children and is there hope for a better future?
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Victory for the Tongass Rainforest

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On March 11th, 2011
On March 7, a federal judge in Anchorage ruled in favor of the Organized Village of Kake and conservation groups in reinstating the roadless rule on the 7 million hectare (17 million acre) Tongass National Forest. The judge’s ruling strikes down the 2003 Bush Administration’s decision to “temporarily” exempt the Tongass from the national roadless rule that protects nearly 24 million hectares (60 million acres) of some of the nation’s wildest areas.
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Tapioca and Antarctica

By Kennedy Warne / On March 9th, 2011
In May 2009 I set out on a two-month “state-of-the-forests” mangrove tour of the Americas. I wanted to document the plight of mangroves in the region and assess the impact of their loss on the thousands of coastal people who rely on these forests for food, shelter and livelihoods.
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Return to the Mangroves

By Kennedy Warne / On March 2nd, 2011
In May 2009 I set out on a two-month “state-of-the-forests” mangrove tour of the Americas. I wanted to document the plight of mangroves in the region and assess the impact of their loss on the thousands of coastal people who rely on these forests for food, shelter and livelihoods.
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Obama's new forest rules: Read the fine print

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On February 22nd, 2011
This post was written by Dominick A. DellaSala, chief scientist and president, and Randi Spivak, vice president of Government Affairs at the Ashland-based Geos Institute. This post was excerpted from OregonLive.com.
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Moving Conservation to the Landscape Scale

By Admin / On February 14th, 2011
Parks, like Yellowstone National Park, and wildlife reserves, are the traditional models for conserving large tracts of land. But as the effects of climate change and development encroaches, it’s now clear that even large, protected tracts aren’t protection enough to help preserve biodiversity. As Nature pointed out in a recent editorial:
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A Global Pandemic of Tree Plantations

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On January 19th, 2011
Like a scene out of a Mel Brooks movie, plantation forests have risen from the graves of old-growth forests. If you don’t believe me, visit an old-growth forest and then contrast that with a tree plantation to see, feel, and smell the difference.
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Human Impacts on Natural Systems

By Cristina Eisenberg / On January 17th, 2011
As a conservation biologist, I study the ecological effects of wolves on food webs, focusing on their primary prey (elk) and the foods their prey eat (aspens). My work takes place in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, which has many bears in it. Doing wolf research provides essential lessons about the web of life and coexisting with bears.

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