After an eventful week of celebrating wetlands and forest creatures, start the weekend with the most recent tree news in Forest Digest.
- Tree species influence boreal forest fire behavior and subsequent effects on climate — Phys.org
According to a study by a UC—Irvine scientist, fires that burn black spruce, as species found in Canada and Alaska that is also know as “fire embracers,” actually help expose snow in the understory, allowing more sunlight to be reflected and cool the climate.
- Cheap drones could revolutionize forest monitoring, but turbulence ahead — Forest News
Drones could be taking to the sky to assist in monitoring forests! In a new paper from the Universidad Nacional Autònoma de Mexico, Michael McCall suggests that using unmanned drones is a solution to monitoring fires, illegal logging, CO2 intake and the spread of diseases in forests.
- Scientists Seeking to Save World Find Best Technology Is Trees — Bloomberg Business
Though we’re not surprised, trees are the best technology to store carbon dioxide and mitigate climate change, according to a new study done by Oxford University. Researchers found that trees beat out other methods, such as liming the oceans and using sulphate aerosols, for the title and, by most estimates, will continue to hold it until 2050.
- Family Forests: A Key Piece of Protecting Critical Forestland — Huffington Post Green
Not everyone got to grow up surrounded by a family forest, but those that did understand their importance and the struggle to maintain those acres. Thanks to research by the American Forest Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service and the Family Forest Research Center, we can better understand the benefits of family forests and the threats they now face.
- Farming Now Worse for Climate Than Clearing Forests — Scientific American
Is farming the new deforestation? According to new study by Princeton University, deforestation has decreased in the last decade, having a positive effects on climate change, but a new culprit has taken its place —agriculture. Yet, this problem doesn’t come up during climate talks because many countries do not want to or can’t limit their food production, despite other ways this can be done.