Earth Blog

In 2002 what is considered to be one of the worst brush fires (as if there was ever a “good brush fire” and controlled burns don’t count) in California’s history ripped through  the Sequoia National Forest and a portion of the Inyo National Forest.

The fire burned from July 21st to August 29th, destroyed a total of 150,670 acres, 14 structures, and cost approximately $45.7 million to extinguish.  The fire was eventually linked to a woman from Bakersfield named Peri Dare Van Brunt. She let a campfire she had been using to cook a meal burn out of control at Road's End Resort.

A United States Forest Service day-by-day breakdown of the cost, acres contained, and staggering amount of personnel needed to fight a brush fire can be found here at ponderosaca.com. Ponderosa is a Census-designated place in Tulare County. The tiny town was one of the two communities threatened by the fire.

“Whilst we are all familiar with gold (especially in this Olympic year), it is the mention of frankincense and myrrh that really says ‘Christmas’ to us and and takes our imaginations back to ancient times,” opened an Oxford University Press news release about a study published earlier this month in the journal Annals of Botany called “Resin secretory structures of Boswellia papyrifera and implications for frankincense yield.”

Does it take your imagination back to “ancient times?” Do the the three gifts the Wise Men brought to welcome baby Jesus and “resin secretory structures” evoke Christmas like chestnuts roasting on an open fire or pink aluminum trees?

I think the majority of us wonder what frankincense and myrrh are- spices, plants, or are they candy? Please let them be candy!

In honor of The Lorax being released today on DVD let’s look at another tree cover study from the United States Forest Service (USFS) because they speak for the trees all day every day.

In February a study by the USFS estimated that the tree cover in urban parts of the country was declining at four million trees per year.

Even at that astonishing rate (for urban areas at least) the USFS released a study a few months later that says the tree cover in the contiguous 48 states is at 659 million acres. That means over one-third of the nation is shaded by glorious trees or other impervious cover.

Today is National Arbor Day and Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) tweeted a link to their "Right Tree, Right Place" tips to remind their 4.6 million customers to make “informed landscaping choices” before planting trees and shrubs.

FPL has been designated a "Tree Line USA" utility for ten years in a row by The National Arbor Day Foundation. The non-profit is known for their “Tree City USA” and “Tree Campus USA”  but they also recognize utilities that are mindful of trees by their implementation of excellent tree care practices and teach their workers proper tree stewardship.

One spring five years ago a team of researchers planted red oak seedlings, a tree native to the eastern seaboard, in a northeastern portion of Central Park near 105th Street. They didn’t stop at the famous park; they went on to plant trees in two rural forest plots in suburban Hudson Valley, and near the Ashokan Reservoir located in the foothills of the Catskills about one hundred miles from Manhattan.

The team was testing the “urban heat island” notion: large cities are known to be hotter because sunlight is absorbed by the concrete and buildings and then it is radiated back into the air. They wanted to see if the heat would affect how the trees grew if at all.

"We've been working on this for a long time and are looking at many genes. One particular gene has become my favorite," said Dr. William Powell,"And over the years it has convinced me that this gene is going to do the trick."

What trick is this gene set to perform? It’s going to detoxify the oxalic acid produced by the pathogen that causes blight in chestnut trees.

Powell is a plant biotechnology expert from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, New York, and with assistance from The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) they have been working on bringing chestnut trees back to the eastern United States.

The United States Forest Service estimates that tree cover in urban parts of the United States is declining at four million trees per year. That’s the same amount of iPhones 4S that sold over a single weekend when they debuted in 2011.  While an iPhone owner could argue Apple and their products are an important facet of technology and urban living, can they prove smartphones are necessary to a city’s landscape?

“Trees are an important part of the urban landscape,” according to Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. “They play a role in improving air and water quality and provide so many environmental and social benefits. As our Forest Service Chief says, ‘…urban trees are the hardest working trees in America.’

Scientists continue to study the earth’s climate in an effort to make vital predictions about the earth’s health and critical components such as carbon dioxide levels many years from now. Studying a subject as broad as the earth’s climate with so many potential variables involved obviously poses some significant challenges. And this task is made all the more difficult due to such a large number of potential factors that we aren’t even aware of yet. However, recent research conducted by members of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the University of Cambridge, UK have uncovered some vital information regarding future carbon dioxide levels that may prove to be quite helpful.