Author: rpalma
Source: Science Magazine By: Warren Cornwall A Douglas fir tree is a marvel of natural engineering. The trunk, made mostly of slender dead cells each a few millimeters long, can reach heights of 100 meters. It’s supple enough to sway in windstorms without snapping, yet strong enough to support its weight—up to 160 metric tons. Kilogram […]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle PONDEROSA BASIN, Mariposa County — When Ursula Rowe returned to her mountain home after a hip replacement a few months back, the landscape had changed. Dozens of towering pine trees had browned up and died on her once-verdant plot of land near Yosemite, and she had to cough up $25,000 to […]
Source: KQED Science Wildfires and Tree-Killing Beetles So far this year 4,636 wildfires in California have burned more than 200,000 acres. That’s more fires than this time last year and more fires than the five-year average. In fact, in the last few decades, the number of large fires are on the rise across the Western United […]
Source: The Forest Blog It’s summertime or the tail end of it at least. Fires are still an issue for some communities, while others move towards the cool fall nights and rainfall. We had another season of massive wildfires. Fortunately, the season was much better for those of us in Northeast Washington, while others still face significant […]
Source: Evergreen Magazine What role does thinning in overstocked and diseased forests play here? “If we use insect and disease attacks as indicators of genetic simplicity, and resilience to these pests as indicators of genetic robustness, we can use harvesting to assist natural selection to build a more resilient forest ecosystem with a greater ability to […]