Forests

"An iconic Alaska tree may warrant protection as a threatened or endangered species due to climate warming, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday."

"The U.S. Forest Service announced it will try to reinstate the exemption to Colorado’s roadless rule that allows coal mines to build roads in protected areas of Western Colorado.  The exemption was struck down last summer by a federal court because the government failed to assess the impact of that future coal mining on climate change."

"RENO, Nev. -- Todd McNeal, chief of Twain Harte Fire and Rescue, spoke before his fellow firefighters and foresters last week with the tone of an evangelist. 'There is fundamental change that has occurred around us,' said McNeal, his voice rising to fill a dimly lit casino resort conference hall."

"A massive die-off of pine trees in the southern Sierra Nevada caused by beetles attacking drought-stressed trees is turning forests brown and creating a fire tinderbox."

"SAN LORENZO -- What are now seedlings will play a key role in an experiment that could be an environmental triple win -- improving water quality and protecting against sea level rise while providing wildlife habitat."

"The Amazonian rainforest has lost much of its ability to absorb climate-altering greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, scientists reported on Wednesday."

"St. Paul-based 3M Co, one of the world’s largest manufacturers and the maker of Post-it notes, will take new steps to ensure that its suppliers of paper, pulp and packaging provide materials that come from sustainably logged timber."

"A federal appeals court has rejected a lawsuit by the timber industry seeking to strip Endangered Species Act protection from a threatened seabird that nests in old-growth forests."

An ecological treasure, a forest maintained by the Kernan Family in upstate New York for seven decades, is now "threatened by the construction of the Constitution Pipeline, a $700 million, 124-mile conduit designed to transport natural gas from the Marcellus Shale fields of northeast Pennsylvania" to pipelines serving markets in New York and New England.