It’s the last Forest Digest of 2014! With some of our staff out over the next few weeks, we won’t be reporting on the forestry news from around the world until Jan. 9!

  • “Report suggests forest-cutting can have an immediate effect on climate” — The Washington Post
    Researchers say in a new report released this week that cutting down forests like the Amazon not only releases carbon — stored by the trees — into the atmosphere, but directly and more immediately affects the climate, from changes in rainfall patterns to rising temperatures. The report also suggests that omplete deforestation of the Amazon would alter rainfall in the much of the United States.
  • “U.S. Forest Service considers knocking back old-growth forests to benefit wildlife” — The Times-Picayune
    THe U.S. Forest Service is considering changing management practices to replace old-growth stands of forest with younger stands in an effort to help populations of wildlife. According to Forest Service data, wildlife species that depend on young forests have experienced population declines over the last two decades in western North Carolina’s Nantahala and Pisgah national forests.
  • “Yurok tribe hopes California’s cap-and-trade can save a way of life” — Los Angeles Times
    Forestry crews from the Yurok tribe, California’s largest Native American tribe, lead an inventory of their lands, in hopes of making money through the state’s cap-and-trade program. Rather than use their trees for timber harvest, the Yurok can manage their forests for carbon storage, selling credits to oil companies and other businesses that must reduce emissions.