‘Bosco Verticale’ in Milan, Italy is an apartment complex featuring vertical forests. Credit: Boeri Studio, Paolo Rosselli

Check out what’s happened this week in forestry news!

The Allure of Vertical Forests — The New York Times

The Vertical Forest prototype was first constructed four years ago in Milan, Italy, where a pair of apartment buildings also housed 21,000 plants and 20 species of birds.

“This Farm Bill was the biggest opportunity in years for Congress to make the right policies for—and investments in—the conservation of private lands in the United States.” Thankfully, lawmakers seized that opportunity. They passed a bill that will help farmers, ranchers and forest owners become more sustainable and productive, while protecting lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans and wildlife.

“Urban street trees are living in the most hostile place possible,” says Earl Eutsler, associate director for Urban Forestry at the District Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Administration. “But it’s also where they do the most direct good in terms of environmental benefits and services to those people walking along streets, riding bikes along streets, even driving — because they’re a direct filter of the particulate matter that is emitted by cars and trucks.”

Secondary forests—those that regrow naturally after being cleared or degraded—constitute more than half of existing tropical forests. When they are old enough, they support a wide range of species and store carbon at a higher rate than old-growth forest because the trees grow more rapidly.

Forests have a complicated relationship with carbon and climate. They sequester huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, estimated at 10-20 percent of U.S. emissions, thus limiting its potential as a greenhouse gas. In turn, forests are also impacted by changes in climate, which affects how much carbon they store.