View From The Canopy #35
Hello and welcome to issue #35 of View From The Canopy. British Columbia, Canada stays in the spotlight with more developments regarding logging and the fight for preservation of their unique and valuable forests. This week also news about quite a few forest fires and so-called ‘zombie fires’.
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News articles 📰
[B.C., CANADA]
Fairy Creek crackdown leads to more arrests, protests Thursday
RCMP unexpectedly arrested a number of old-growth activists with the Fairy Creek blockades inside the control zone near the Caycuse Camp early Thursday morning.
[ON, CANADA]
A roadmap for preserving nature in southern Ontario
In the densely populated cities and suburbs of southern Ontario, the idea of finding a slice of nature to set aside for conservation can seem impossibly difficult. But there are conservation opportunities just waiting to be unlocked, says the Southern Ontario Nature Coalition.
[US]
What to Save? Climate Change Forces Brutal Choices at National Parks.
For decades, the core mission of the Park Service was absolute conservation. Now ecologists are being forced to do triage, deciding what to safeguard — and what to let slip away.
[B.C., CANADA / UK]
The little-known pipeline from B.C. forest to U.K. furnace is growing
Scientists warn that selling the biggest wood pellet company in Canada to Drax could fan the flames of climate and ecological disaster.
[VIETNAM]
‘Drastic forest development’: Vietnam to plant 1 billion trees — but how?
After a string of deadly typhoons in late 2020, Vietnam’s prime minister called for the country to plant 1 billion trees nationwide by 2025 to reduce the risk of landslides and flooding.
Forest Fires Updates 🔥
Blazes That Refuse to Die: ‘Zombie Fires’
With a changing climate, fires in far northern forests that smolder throughout winter and erupt again in spring could become more common, a new study suggests.
[US]
The Biden administration releases its wildfire strategy as the climate threat grows.
🔥 New Jersey, United States
🔥 North-West Ontario, Canada
🔥 Manitoba, Canada
🔥 Athens, Greece
Opinion 💬
[B.C.,CANADA]
BC’s Cynical Attack on Old-Growth Forests
John Horgan’s alliance with corporate and union logging interests is stalling protection for remaining ancient trees.
Research & Reports 🔬
B.C.’s rarest forest ecosystems are rapidly disappearing and if the province doesn’t act immediately to defer logging in key areas, as recommended by the 2020 Old Growth Strategic Review, they will be lost forever, according to a report released Wednesday by a team of independent scientists.
Controversial forestry experiment will be largest-ever in United States
At the Elliott State Forest in Oregon, researchers will explore how best to balance timber production with conservation.
Despite lingering tensions among environmentalists and loggers, a plan to launch the largest forestry experiment in the United States — and perhaps the world — last month cleared a major hurdle. Controversially, the study would allow logging in a new research forest, in an attempt to answer a grand question: in a world where wood remains a necessary resource, but biodiversity is declining, what’s the best way to balance timber production with conservation?
Ancient Forest Alliance - 2020 Activity Report and Financials [PDF]
Featured Forest ✨
Daintree rainforest, Australia
This weeks featured forest is the Daintree rainforest in the Daintree National Park in Queensland, Australia. Much of the national park is covered by tropical rainforest. The Greater Daintree Rainforest has existed continuously for more than 110 million years, making it possibly the oldest existing rainforest. The persistence of this rainforest is believed to be a product of a fortuitous continental drift; after the breakup of its parent supercontinent a portion drifted toward the pole to become Antarctica, disturbing ocean currents and becoming quite chilly, while other portions were moved to hotter and drier locations. The rainforests of the parent continent preserved its climate, and so also its original trees. Tree species, once thought to be long extinct, have only relatively recently been discovered here.
Miscellaneous 🍂
Finding the Mother Tree: A Conversation with Suzanne Simard
Taking the Measure of a Forest
A suburban forest preserve from the Eocene to the pandemic.
“Fast-forward through the last 10,000 years, and we would see a flickering mosaic of prairie, oaks, and maples, forests racing up and down glacial moraines.”
Selected Book 📚
Lab Girl
by Hope Jahren
Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.
Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.
Until next week ✌️
I hope you enjoyed the view from the canopy. If you've come across any interesting articles or you've written something yourself please hit reply and let me know about them.
See you next week!
Cheers,
Johan
🌳