Forests

"Brought to the United States as an ornamental porch decoration, the kudzu vine has reshaped itself into ladder fuel for wildfires."

"Billions of American chestnut trees once covered the eastern United States. ... But by the 1950s, this venerable tree went functionally extinct, culled by a deadly airborne fungal blight and lethal root rot. A new study out Thursday in the journal Science provides hope for its revitalization, finding that the genetic testing of individual trees can reveal which are most likely to resist disease and grow tall, thus shortening how long it takes to plant the next, more robust, generation."

"President Donald Trump has nominated a hotel and food management executive to be director of the National Park Service."

"Even after legalization, illicit cannabis grows continue to pollute California’s public lands. And the contamination, new research shows, lingers."

"Chronic exposure to pollution from wildfires has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually in the United States, according to a new study."

"A House hearing exposed sharp divisions over whether loosening environmental laws and expanding logging will protect communities from catastrophic fires. Scientists urged a shift toward investing in fire-resilient homes and landscapes."

"A recent, non-binding opinion from the Government Accountability Office may pave the way for Congress to begin rescinding management plans for national monuments across the country, environmentalists and experts say, potentially leading to protected areas being further opened up for resource extraction. And Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is yet again at the center of the renewed threats to the nation’s monuments."

"The U.S. Forest Service announced revisions to its oil and gas leasing rules today that the agency promises “modernizes and streamlines” the permitting process to drill for fossil fuels in the nation’s forests and grasslands. The changes prompted the ire of environmental groups who say it is the latest in a year’s worth of attacks on public lands protections by President Trump’s administration."

"A niche rule established by the U.S. Forest Service to justify the clearing of tens of thousands of acres of forest in the name of reducing wildfire risk was unlawfully created and applied, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon found last week, invalidating its future use across the United States."