Forests

"The legislation includes forestry and conservation provisions but steers away from issues like pesticide labeling and biofuels policy."

"Since April, an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ballooned to 1,114 confirmed cases and 279 deaths, already the third-largest such epidemic since the disease was identified 50 years ago. Despite its worrying size, this outbreak is threaded with mystery — particularly regarding its origins."

"Extreme heat and dry, windy conditions fueled several wildfires in the West on Sunday, including an uncontained blaze in Utah that forced the evacuation of a small town southwest of Salt Lake City."

"The Major oak, one of Europe’s oldest, largest and most celebrated ancient trees, has died."

"Katherine Levy remembers a childhood deeply rooted in the natural offerings of Lake Tahoe – water skiing in the summer and working as ski instructor on the surrounding snow-covered mountains during winter months." "A US government plan to spray multiple types of herbicides – including the cancer-linked glyphosate weed killer – within national forest property that abuts the community’s cherished lake."

"In the days after Hurricane Helene devastated the southern Appalachians in late September 2024, Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent Tracy Swartout went up in a helicopter to survey the damage. What she saw was deeply troubling. 'When Helene happened, we ended up with 58 landslides spread across 200 linear miles of the parkway,' Swartout says."

"Few public universities get more federal research funding than the University of Washington."

"A hidden circulatory system pulses just beneath the planet’s surface. There, embedded in the soil, are dense networks of microorganisms known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi attach themselves to the roots of plants, sending long, thin filaments out through the soil. These ferry water and nutrients to plants and whisk away carbon, helping to keep vast quantities of it out of the atmosphere."

“As the West enters a high-risk wildfire season, Nevada’s largest utility is asking state regulators to OK a $500 million insurance policy funded by its ratepayers."

“Extreme drought and rising temperatures in the US are poised to overwhelm the Trump administration’s plans to control wildfire by logging federal forests, scientists say."