Forest News

December 6, 2023

Top Headlines

In Hotter Regions, Mammals Seek Forests, Avoid Human Habitats

Dec. 4, 2023 — As the climate warms, preserving forest cover will be increasingly important for wildlife conservation, finds a study of North American ...

Strange Burn: New Research Identifies Unique Patterns in Utah Wildfires

Dec. 4, 2023 — Utah's variable topography produces a tremendous range of wildfire behavior, according to new ...

Rare Ant Species Rediscovered in North Carolina Trees

Nov. 30, 2023 — There's a species of ant that is so rare, only a handful of records exist from across the entire eastern United States. North Carolina State University researcher Michelle Kirchner not only found these ants in the Triangle region of North Carolina, ...

Forest Modeling Shows Which Harvest Rotations Lead to Maximum Carbon Sequestration

Nov. 21, 2023 — Forest modeling shows that a site's productivity -- an indicator of how fast trees grow and how much biomass they accumulate -- is the main factor that determines which time period between timber ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:09pm EST

Public Gardens Contribute to Invasives Problem

Dec. 1, 2023 — Some nonnative plants cultivated in public gardens or arboretums are escaping to become invasive in wild ...

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture Can Increase Forest Biodiversity, Researchers Find

Nov. 28, 2023 — The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a ...

First Comprehensive Look at Effects of 2020-2021 California Megafires on Terrestrial Wildlife Habitat

Nov. 21, 2023 — In 2020 and 2021, California experienced fire activity unlike anything recorded in the modern record. When the smoke cleared, the amount of burned ...

Naturally Regrowing Forests Are Helping to Protect the Remaining Old Forests in the Amazon

Nov. 13, 2023 — Secondary forests that have regrown naturally on land abandoned from agriculture are important in counteracting the effects of forest fragmentation ...

New Global Stocktake: Healthy Forests Could Store Much More Carbon

Nov. 16, 2023 — Natural carbon reservoirs will play a major role at the COP28 world climate conference in the United Arab Emirates. In a recent study, a team of more than two hundred researchers worldwide presents ...

Europe Was Not Covered by Dense Forest Before the Arrival of Modern Humans

Nov. 14, 2023 — For decades, we believed that outside ice ages Europe was mostly covered by dense forest before the arrival of modern humans. Now, a new study shows that there was far more open and semi-open ...

Wildfire, Drought Cause $11.2 Billion in Damage to Private Timberland in Three Pacific States, Study Finds

Nov. 13, 2023 — Wildfires and drought have led to $11.2 billion in damages to privately held timberland in California, Oregon and Washington over the past two ...

Diverse Forests Hold Huge Carbon Potential, as Long as We Cut Emissions

Nov. 13, 2023 — New study estimates that natural forest recovery could capture approximately 226 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon, but only if we also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving these results requires ...

Southern Alaska's National Forests Key to Meeting Climate, Conservation Goals

Nov. 8, 2023 — Analyses of U.S. national forests shows that increased protections for two Alaskan forests is a key to meeting climate and biodiversity ...

A Database Unifies the Information on Damage to European Forests Over the Last 60 Years

Nov. 7, 2023 — Researchers are creating a database that harmonizes the recording of disturbances caused by insects and diseases in forests in 8 European countries ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Low-Intensity Fires Reduce Wildfire Risk by 60%

Nov. 10, 2023 — High-intensity, often catastrophic, wildfires have become increasingly frequent across the Western U.S. Researchers quantified the value of managed low-intensity burning to dramatically reduce the ...

Lightning Identified as the Leading Cause of Wildfires in Boreal Forests, Threatening Carbon Storage

Nov. 9, 2023 — Most wildfires in boreal forests, such as those in Canada, are caused by lightning strikes, according to a study aimed at attributing fire ignition sources ...

Experts Predict 'Catastrophic Ecosystem Collapse' of UK Forests Within the Next 50 Years If Action Not Taken

Nov. 8, 2023 — Experts predict 'catastrophic ecosystem collapse' of UK forests within the next 50 years if action not taken. Other threats to UK forests include competition with society for water, viral ...

The Kids Aren't Alright: Saplings Reveal How Changing Climate May Undermine Forests

Nov. 3, 2023 — Researchers studied how young trees respond to a hotter, drier climate. Their findings can help shape forest management policy and our understanding of how landscapes will ...

Amazon Deforestation Linked to Long Distance Climate Warming

Oct. 30, 2023 — Deforestation in the Amazon causes land surfaces up to 100 kilometers away to get warmer, suggests a new study. The research suggests that tropical forests play a critical role in cooling the ...

Offset Markets: New Approach Could Help Save Tropical Forests by Restoring Faith in Carbon Credits

Oct. 30, 2023 — A new approach to valuing the carbon storage potential of natural habitats aims to help restore faith in offset schemes, by enabling investors to directly compare carbon credit pricing across a wide ...

75% of Exclusive Hardwood May Be Illegally Harvested

Oct. 26, 2023 — The tropical wood type ipe is popular for building exclusive wooden decks, and in North America and Europe, the demand for the material has increased sharply. Now, a study shows that more than ...

Single Model Predicts Trends in Employment, Microbiomes, Forests

Oct. 25, 2023 — Researchers report that a single, simplified model can predict population fluctuations in three unrelated realms: urban employment, human gut microbiomes and tropical forests. The model will help ...

New Study Finds Hidden Trees Across Europe: A Billion Tons of Biomass Is Overlooked Today

Oct. 25, 2023 — Through satellite imaging a new AI driven mapping of biomass and CO2 storage shows that a huge number of trees are overlooked in Europe's urban, rural, and agricultural areas. Across Europe, ...

New Study Shows Surprising Effects of Fire in North America's Boreal Forests

Oct. 23, 2023 — Using satellite images, researchers found that fires in North America's boreal forest may be changing the environment in ways that researchers didn't previously ...

Land Use: Producing More Food and Storing More Carbon

Oct. 20, 2023 — Doubling food production, saving water, and increasing carbon storage capacity -- this may sound paradoxical, but would be theoretically feasible considering the biophysical potential of the Earth. ...

Unearthing the Ecological Impacts of Cicada Emergences on North American Forests

Oct. 19, 2023 — New research unveils the cascading effects of periodical cicada emergence events on forest ecosystems ahead of an historic convergence of broods set to emerge spring of ...

Researchers Study One of the World's Darkest Rivers

Oct. 18, 2023 — They set out to study the Congo Basin's carbon cycle and in the process have become aware of one of the world's darkest blackwater rivers: the Ruki. In the first study on this major jungle ...

Subalpine Forests in the Northern Rockies Are Fire Resilient--for Now

Oct. 17, 2023 — Using lake sediment cores, scientists determined how these subalpine ecosystems recovered after 4,800 years of ...

AI Models Identify Biodiversity from Animal Sounds in Tropical Rainforests

Oct. 17, 2023 — Animal sounds are a very good indicator of biodiversity in tropical reforestation areas. Researchers demonstrate this by using sound recordings and AI ...

Wildfires Threaten Environmental Gains in Climate-Crucial Amazon

Oct. 16, 2023 — Despite steps toward decreasing deforestation, uncontrolled wildfires are threatening environmental gains in Brazilian Amazonia, one of the world's most critical carbon sinks and a region of ...

The Good and Bad Uses of Biomass for California

Oct. 11, 2023 — A new study examines the good and bad uses of biomass and the best pathways to meet California’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 85% of 1990 levels by ...

Epiphytes, Amazing Plants Like Moss and Bromeliads Found in Trees, Face Growing Threats

Oct. 11, 2023 — Epiphytes, plants such as orchids and mosses that grow in trees, draw nutrients from the air and create refuge for all sorts of other life forms. They are the foundation of forest canopy ...

Carbon-Capture Tree Plantations Threaten Tropical Biodiversity for Little Gain, Ecologists Say

Oct. 3, 2023 — The increasingly urgent climate crisis has led to a boom in commercial tree plantations in an attempt to offset excess carbon emissions. However, authors argue that these carbon-offset plantations ...

Scientists Reveal What Fuels Wildfires in Sierra Nevada Mountains

Sep. 25, 2023 — Wildfires in California, exacerbated by human-driven climate change, are getting more severe. To better manage them, there's a growing need to know exactly what fuels the blazes after they ...

Friday, November 10, 2023