"In a quiet stretch of western Massachusetts stands a sycamore so old it was around when the Constitution was signed. It’s awe-inspiring, with branches bigger than the entire trunks of most trees. ... In the eastern United States, that rare sense of awe was once supplied in bulk by the American chestnut."
"Despite hours of impassioned arguments from Sen. Tina Smith, the U.S. Senate ended a Biden-era moratorium on mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed."
"CONGAREE NATIONAL PARK, S.C. — Rising possibly 175 feet above the floodplain, propped up by a trunk 15 feet around at its base, America’s tallest loblolly pine dwarfed the veteran state biologist standing beneath it."
"After Canadian wildfires brought extremely poor air quality to Detroit in the summers of 2023 and 2025, Michigan is updating how it communicates air quality risks to residents this year."
"Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto ordered prosecutors on Friday to file criminal charges against companies that refuse to cooperate with a task force he launched to crack down on illegal activities in the country's forests."
"Two deer tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland during recent white-tailed deer reduction operations and subsequent disease sampling. This is the first CWD-positive detection at Catoctin Mountain Park."
"Placerville, Calif., bears all the markers of a community at risk of a wildfire. The city's rolling hillsides are dense with brush, which dries out during the hot summers. Older homes made of wood, which are more prone to igniting, are dotted throughout."
A walk in the woods can get you more than a good time — it can get you a good story. TipSheet explores the National Trails System and other trail systems around the United States, which provide scenic and historic high points for your reporting, along with traveler interviews and insights. A dozen story ideas and reporting resources for exploring your area’s natural wonders.
"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."
