• Forests

Scientists Perfect Technique to Harvest Metals from Trees

• mining
• Rare Earth Minerals
• trees

While metallic soils often kill plants, scientists have been studying certain species of trees that are able to thrive in these soils and store metals–like nickel–in their tissue and seeds as a result. As the New York Times recently wrote, “This vegetation could be the world’s most efficient, solar-powered mineral smelters. What if, as a […]

• Forests

Australia’s Burned Forests Pose Immense Economic Risk

• Australia
• biodiversity
• Forests
• trees
• wildfires

Australia’s wildfires have been devastating for wildlife and people alike but there’s another casualty that’s been largely overlooked in media coverage: its forests.

Why This Matters: Forestry groups worry about the immense economic/ecological impact of the burned forests.

• Forests

Top Stories of 2019: Forests on Fire All Over the World

• carbon emissions
• carbon sink
• climate change
• Fire
• trees

This year will be remembered for searing images of the Amazon burning at an unprecedented rate (there were so many fires you could see them from space), with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro alternating between downplaying the severity of them and then sending in Brazilian military troops to fight the tens of thousands of fires burning there.  As we reported, world leaders and environmental organizations — even the Pope — pushed Brazil to take action — and the worst part was most of the fires were started by people who wanted to clear land for agriculture and other development.  But fires were bad all over the planet — from the Arctic tundra in Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia, to Australia, and of course, California.

• Air

Cleaning Urban Air, One Moss “Tree” at a Time

• air pollution
• trees

Across Europe, pollution-eating moss is cleaning the air. Part-nature and part man-made, the CityTree combines the purifying factor of moss with remote technology to increase the airflow through the “trees” to maximize their ability to filter air pollution. Two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050 thus cleaning up the […]

• Forests

Ethiopia’s Green Legacy – Hundreds of Millions of New Trees Planted

• carbon dioxide
• carbon sink
• Ethiopia
• reforestation
• sink
• trees

On Monday, Ethiopians around the nation planted trees — and not just a few — the citizens of the second-largest African nation planted 353 million trees in just 12 hours as part of the “Green Legacy” initiative led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

• Forests

We Need Trees to Stay Cool But We Keep Losing Them

• Forests
• trees
• urban forests

We wrote last week that trees and forests have an important role to play in fighting climate change and their importance was only underscored by the recent heatwave that much of the east coast experienced. Tree cover can cool cities by as much as 10°F but in the United States, we’ve been losing a significant […]

• People

Interview of the Week: Jim Richards, CEO Milkadamia

• farming
• plant based
• regenerative farming
• trees
• vegan

Jim Richards is the CEO of Milkadamia, the maker of plant-based, vegan macadamia milk and products produced through regenerative farming techniques. ODP: What are the barriers that prevent regenerative farming from being used more widely? JR: The interest in regenerative farming among farmers is high and we can anticipate many more farms becoming regenerative. However, […]

• People

One Prize Winning Thing: The Overstory by Richard Powers

• novel
• Pulitizer Prize
• trees

The Overstory by Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday.  As its name suggests, it is an “epic” tale of the rich life and tragic death of trees.  According to The Washington Post, the novel’s win “marks a new high point in the growing prominence of environmental novels.”  Powers said upon learning […]

• Forests

Fighting climate change with trees

• Australia
• coal
• Forests
• reforestation
• trees

A new analysis presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science even concluded that replenishing the world’s forests on a grand scale would suck enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cancel out a decade of human emissions–a stance that, while intriguing, doesn’t yet have broad consensus (we’ll keep you posted if consensus builds).

• Forests

Trump Quietly Orders More Logging On Federal Lands

• climate change
• Fire
• forest
• risk
• shutdown
• timber
• timber sales
• trees

President Trump issued an Executive Order late last year directing the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to increase logging on lands under their agencies’ control by 31% above levels of timber harvest in 2017.  The Washington Post reported that the President had been itching to sign this Order — he wanted to do it during his trip to California in mid-November, an inside source told The Post, but it wasn’t ready for his signature.  The order only became public earlier this week. 

• Forests

Bioengineering may save America’s forests

• bioengineering
• climate change
• disease
• Forests
• tree disease
• trees

Scientific American recently reported that U.S. forests are among the most vulnerable in the world to predators and disease, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The report also explained that biotechnology has the potential to be a part of the solution in protecting forest trees against destructive pest and disease outbreaks,

• Land

Brazil’s Amazon Protected Areas Now At Risk

• Amazon
• Bolsonaro
• Brazil
• carbon
• climate change
• deregulation
• indigenous rights
• rainforest
• reforestation
• trees

Brazil’s new President, Jair Bolsonaro, who is ultra-conservative and ran on a promise of deregulation similar to President Trump’s, has moved the administration of Brazil’s extensive protected areas in the Amazon from the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs to the Agriculture Ministry.  This “paves” the way for new and increased development in the Amazon and the loss of a major global carbon sink.