Forests

"RJ Laverne’s childhood home in Detroit had a big elm out front. In fact, the whole neighborhood was lined with them: great, graceful trees whose branches spread across the street to create a shady canopy. Elms were so widely planted in cities and suburbs in the 19th and 20th centuries that they became known as the “Main Street tree.” Then, in the 1930s, Dutch elm disease began to ravage them, and by 1989, most of America’s 77 million mature elms were dead."

"Amid drought and heat waves, April’s national wildfire forecast shows that nearly the entire Western U.S. will face an above-normal risk of wildfires at some point in the next four months."

"Scientists say their work on fires and climate change could be lost as the agency moves its headquarters to Utah from Washington and shuts 57 research stations."

"The Trump administration is speeding up environmental reviews of large infrastructure projects under a final rule set to be published by the US Department of Agriculture Friday."

"The White House released its fiscal 2027 budget request Friday morning, unveiling plans to continue waging its longstanding war against renewable energy and climate initiatives while boosting support for artificial intelligence and fossil fuels."

"In announcing one of the largest reorganizations in the 120-year history of the U.S. Forest Service, the Trump administration declared that there would be “no interruption or change” to the agency’s firefighting force. But critics say the upheaval comes at the worst possible time ... .

"Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva, a globally recognized climate leader, said she was stepping down Wednesday from her role in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration to run for Congress later this year."

"President Donald Trump’s administration will move the U.S. Forest Service headquarters out of the nation’s capital to Salt Lake City as part of an organizational overhaul that involves shuttering research facilities in 31 states and concentrating resources in the West, the agency announced Tuesday."

"Medicinal and aromatic plants in the Appalachian Mountains, which have stood for hundreds of millions of years and contributed to biodiversity across the region, are facing threats from poaching, climate change, and more. The multiple national parks dotting the region are often havens for these plants, though even the protections afforded by the parks cannot prevent all threats."

"The Trump administration’s new wildfire agency is taking shape at the Interior Department, coalescing around a mission to prioritize swiftly putting out fires on public lands, even as some experts question that strategy."