View From The Canopy #37
Hello and welcome to issue #37 of View From The Canopy newsletter. This week a poem to start;
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray…
- Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
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News articles 📰
[PACIFIC]
Lush forests laid to waste: how Pacific Islands got hooked on logging
The timber industry in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands has brought money and jobs – but also pollution, environmental devastation and food insecurity
[CANADA]
The struggle over whether to protect or log an untouched mountainside between Argenta and Johnsons Landing within the last intact ecosystem in the province's southeast is highlighting the challenge of managing landscapes in a changing climate
[CANADA]
‘It’s the Most Natural Thing’: A Gitxsan House Group Closes its Territory to Logging
On a remote forestry road in northern B.C., a family keeps vigil. For the past month, members of Wilp Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit, a house group of the Gitxsan Nation, have spent day and night watching over a gate that they installed here in early May. Its purpose is to control access to their Lax’yip, or territory, and ensure any logging that happens there is done with consent from the house group.
[CANADA]
Three Days in the Theatre of Fairy Creek
The drama playing out today was set in motion 150 years ago. One person can change the ending.
Forest Fires Updates 🔥
[USA]
As wildfires decimate the giant sequoia, California faces unprecedented loss
When wildfire tore through giant sequoia groves in the Sierra Nevada last year, researchers estimated hundreds of the towering trees — maybe 1,000 — were killed. Now, almost nine months later, experts have revised that figure tenfold. A new draft report puts the toll at 7,500 to 10,600 trees — 10% to 14% of the world’s natural population.
Research & Reports 🔬
Turning tree residue into smart hydrogels
NC State researchers are turning wood byproducts into sensory hydrogels that can react to different stimuli and, through advanced manufacturing methods, are made into sustainable, biodegradable smart materials that can be used in agriculture, health care and even veterinary medicine.
How the major Swedish forest fire of 2014 affected the ecosystem
Swedish researchers from institutions including Uppsala University have spent four years gathering data from the areas affected by the major forest fire of 2014. In their study of how the ecosystem as a whole has been altered, they could see that water quality in watercourses quickly returned to normal, while forested areas continued to lose carbon for many years after the fire.
Featured Forest ✨
Hyrcanian Forests, Iran
Photo © Farhad V. Moghadam
This week’s featured forest are the Hyrcanian forests in Iran. The Hyrcanian forests form a unique forested massif that stretches 850 km along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. The history of these broad-leaved forests dates back 25 to 50 million years, when they covered most of this Northern Temperate region. These ancient forest areas retreated during the Quaternary glaciations and then expanded again as the climate became milder. Their floristic biodiversity is remarkable: 44% of the vascular plants known in Iran are found in the Hyrcanian region, which only covers 7% of the country. To date, 180 species of birds typical of broad-leaved temperate forests and 58 mammal species have been recorded, including the iconic Persian Leopard.
Miscellaneous 🍂
🎥 MOVIE: The Ancient Woods
Filmed in one of the last remaining patches of old growth forest in Lithuania, The Ancient Woods is a place where the boundaries of time melt and everything that exists does not wither or age but "grows into" eternity. A poetic and atypical nature film takes its viewers on the endless journey - from the forest thickets to the wolves' caves and up to black stork's nest, and then deep into the water to the underwater forest, returning after to the human beings inhabiting the edge of the woodland. There's no commentary, only the rich, almost palpable sounds of the forest and the magical situations captured by the camera.
Amazônia: life and death in the Brazilian rainforest
The 10th edition of the Carmignac photojournalism award was dedicated to the Amazon and the issues related to its deforestation. Photojournalist Tommaso Protti, accompanied by journalist Sam Cowie, travelled thousands of miles across the Brazilian Amazon. From the eastern region of Maranhão to the western region of Rondônia, through the states of Pará and Amazonas, they portrayed modern-day life in the Brazilian Amazon, where social and humanitarian crises overlap with destruction of the rainforest.
China farmers push back the desert - one tree at a time
Tree-planting has been at the heart of China's environmental efforts for decades as the country seeks to turn barren deserts and marshes near its borders into farmland and screen the capital Beijing from sands blowing in from the Gobi, a 500,000 square-mile expanse stretching from Mongolia to northwest China.
Selected Book 📚
The Book of Australian Trees
by Inga Simpson
In The Book of Australian Trees Simpson describes 15 of Australia’s tallest, oldest, fattest and most unusual trees and she does it in such a way that is both factual and poetic. Simpson describes trees as if they are people. She wants you to get to know them, to see what makes them special, to understand the differences between them.
The book details how Banksia serrata seed pods “open like mouths” and how long strips of bark hang down the trunks of Eucalyptus regnans “like rattling ribbons”. It tells of three Northofagus moorei trees in south-east Queensland that are 2000 years old, and describes how the flowers of the Ficus macrophylla are, like with all figs, to be found inside the fruit.
read review at The Sydney Morning Herald
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
🌳