You’ve heard me talk a lot about how everything is connected. It’s a theme in the natural world that I find completely fascinating, so you can imagine how much I enjoyed this recent article from Yale Environment 360 about finding a connection between trees and giant manta rays. Yes, I said giant manta rays. These [...]
Thanks to a particularly dry April, Arizona is kicking off the 2012 fire season with several intense fires. In the Mazatzal Wilderness, which spans Tonto and Coconino National Forests, more than 4,600 acres are currently ablaze, and an impressive cadre of 200 firefighters and 11 aircraft are working to contain it. Other fires bring the [...]
What is one of the almost universal things that say nature to us humans? It can wake us up in the morning, relax us on a walk, be a taste of the country in the middle of a city and is even used in movies and television simply to say “it’s a nice day out.” [...]
With the amount of coverage it receives (and rightfully so) in the media, you probably think that climate change is the single greatest threat to forests. And while it certainly is a serious threat to the stability and survival of all ecosystems, recent research shows that there’s another problem facing forests today that may be [...]
When you think of protecting a habitat for an animal, you probably think of a place that is green and full of life. A forest, a jungle, a grassland or others. What you probably don’t think of — and what I didn’t either, until recently — are the blackened remains of a post-fire forest. This [...]
American Forests has had a lot to say over the years about the relationship between forests and water. From protecting sourcewater to managing overflow in cities to advocating for forests’ integration into the Clean Water Act. And of course, we’ve been planting trees to restore watersheds for decades. Despite all this, the message about forests [...]
So far this Earth Month, we’ve been looking at a lot of the great benefits that forests provide, from mitigating climate change to providing homes for wildlife and managing water flow in our cities. But today, let’s look at a completely different thing that forests provide for us: Fun! Forests are like amusement parks, only [...]
The conservation movement has been fortunate enough to have a number of truly wonderful figures over the years. Few of these people, however, are as recognizable a name as John Muir. This man was a naturalist, a writer, an adventurer and above all an advocate for wilderness. His work was so influential that many call [...]
When the National Register of Big Trees is released, it is always exciting. There are new species and new champions, often with amazing proportions and incredible stories. Unfortunately, this often means that other champion trees have lost their crowns — usually a bitter pill to swallow for those involved in achieving it in the first [...]
When I’m driving in a new area, I am one of those people who become entirely reliant on a GPS. I find it hard to imagine how people found their way around before this nifty invention — or worse, before even paper maps were available. But it turns out that trees played quite the part [...]
