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All Life, Online
Officials unveiled 25 entries complete with text, pictures, and video at a news conference in Monterey, California. Another 30,000 entries initially will have less detailed information. “Our major message to the world is “Here’s our first attempt at putting together this encyclopedia, ;lease give us your feedback, your criticisms, your comments,” James Edwards, executive director of the project, told Reuters News Service. Officials there say they see the encyclopedia helping researchers find information that might not ordinarily be readily available. “The Encyclopedia of Life allows the low-cost efficient assembly of lots of databases that individual researchers would never be able to get together,” project chair Jesse Ausubel of Rockefeller University told Reuters. Find the database at: www.eol.org
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Saving Hemlocks
Writing in the journal Environmental Entomology, researchers say the two species of Chamaemyiidae flies are similar to related species that have been used to control pests in Hawaii and Chili. Previously scientists have tried to control the pests with beetles.
The adelgid is about the size of an ant but packs a powerful punch, literally sucking the juice from tree needles and eventually killing the tree. The result has been devastated hemlock forests up and down the East Coast. In the West, hemlocks appear to have more natural resistance to the pest and a wider range of predators appear to help keep it under control, scientists say.
An OSU grad student hunted through dozens of species and thousands of predators at 16 sites in Oregon and Washington to ID ones that attacked the adelgid, a native of Asia that has been in the U.S. since 1924.
Want to know more about the fight to save the lacey conifer? Try Saveourhemlocks.org, the website of a group of scientists, land managers, and others fighting the pest in the Southern Appalachians. The U.S. Forest Service also has a website devoted to the adelgid fight: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/hwa/
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Fighting Amazon Deforestation The scene turned ugly a week ago in Tailandia, south of the capital of Para state, and one of Brazil’s most violent towns. Logging is central to the local economy and Tailandia, with 140 sawmills, is a focus of the battle over illegal logging, Reuters says. Officials say the effort will ultimately deploy 1,000 agents and be permanent. Reuters cited official figures that show about 2,703 square miles of forest were illegally chopped down in the Brazilian rainforest between August and December last year, the first increase after three years of declines. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47206/story.htm |
Eyes to the Sky In preparation, check out your state’s register and then go find some of those state champion trees. Who knows? Come spring, some of them may be wearing national crowns as well. Check out your state champs: |
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Paperless Trees “This was something that became a development priority for us towards the end of last year,” said Shawn Berriman, marketing & development officer. “It makes sense to us from a both fiscal and environmental standpoint—and it’s a perfect fit with our mission. We should do all that we can to save trees by cutting back on our own paper usage.” American Forests expects the new process to be available in mid-March. |
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Building a Better Urban Forest The winning UT team, led by architecture professor Steven Moore, consisted of grad students, faculty, and professionals in architecture, landscape architecture, planning, engineering, business, law, and public policy. Their “People, Power, Progress” suggested ways to better manage Austin’s urban forest and offered innovative designs for six overhead and two underground utility lines, and a GIS-based tool that allow neighborhoods, environmental groups, and other utilities to determine what works best for a community. UT’s School of Architecture says it plans to use the $250,000 first prize to create a permanent endowment that will support grad student research in sustainable design and development. |
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Post-Katrina, Gulf Coast Hurting Environmentally The assessment, by American Forests, is meant to provide cities, counties, and states with data they can use to take advantage of ecosystem services natural systems provide when rebuilding from the storm. The 30,000-square mile regional assessment compared landcover in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in 2001 and 2006. American Forests is helping restore the Gulf Coast's forested acres through its Katrina ReLeaf Fund. Last year we planting 7,000 trees with the Replant South Mississippi Partnership, with more slated this year for the six coastal counties that lost an estimated 99,000 forested acres. The Partnership was formed by the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain and the Sun Herald Newspaper with support from The Home Depot Foundation and the Mississippi Forestry Commission. |
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Forests Loss Harming Elephants and Tigers Reuters News Service cited the WWF report, which details how the deforestation was generating damaging greenhouse gases—and harming tigers and elephants in Riau, which comprises one-fifth of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. Elephant populations have fallen 84 percent to just 210 animals, Reuters says, and tigers 70 percent to 192 animals. READ MORE |
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Tavern on the Lake What started with recycled paper products where possible and recycling of all glass used at the restaurant, turned into a goal to be more carbon neutral. To offset factors like ambient lighting and its wood-burning stove, the restaurant decided to plant trees. Partner with American Forests Global ReLeaf Forests program, Tavern on the Lake (TavernOnTheLakeOrlando.com) will plant more than 15,000 trees in the Hal Scott Longleaf Pine Planting Project in Orange County east of the city. Our goal this year is to plant 15,000 trees, says Doug Doran, president of Group Four Restaurants. |
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