Prescribed burning in thinned silver top ash forest. Forest thinning should be one way we tackle fire management and forest resilience, but we need more research to understand the best way to go about it.
Chris Weston
Forest thinning is a good way to lower the risk of fire, but there are potential downsides.
Researchers have uncovered what appears to be widespread logging of steep slopes in Victoria, which has the potential to damage critical water supplies.
Chris Taylor
Researchers have uncovered what appears to be widespread logging of steep slopes in Victoria, which has the potential to damage critical water supplies.
After gum trees are cut down, the koalas that lived in them must take a hike.
Esther Wong
Fires and logging changes forest soil structure for at least 30-80+ years, affecting everything from regrowth to carbon storage.
Smoke billows from the High Park wildfire west of Fort Collins, Colo., on June 11, 2012, a year of historic drought across much of the western United States.
AP Photo/Ed Andrieski
Some observers have blamed recent wildfires on poor forest management, while others point to climate change. In fact, a climate scientist explains, reducing fire risks means tackling both issues.
Clearfell logging in the Thomson Catchment with the Thomson Reservoir in the background.
Chris Taylor
Rural Westerners have been stereotyped as angry ranchers who hate government. But for every gun-wielding militia member, there are many others who work collaboratively to protect what they value.
A Northern Spotted Owl in Oregon’s Deschutes National Forest.
AP Photo/Don Ryan, File
The Trump administration wants to step up logging, saying it will benefit wildlife by reducing forest fire risks. But wildfires create habitat for threatened Spotted Owls and many other species.
Increased logging in NSW could affect threatened species.
Nativesrule
Every autumn Victoria copes with smoke haze from planned burns that reduce bushfire risk, but a large part of that pollution actually comes from industrial logging activity.
A woman sells charcoal in Nairobi, Kenya.
Flickr/Laura Rantanen
The illegal timber trade is a huge global business worth up to US$150 billion yearly. One way to curb it is by convincing consumers in wealthy countries that buying contraband wood products is wrong.
The Victorian mountain ash forest has been severely affected by fires and logging. To determine the actual health of the forest, we need to look at the quality, not just the quantity of what remains.
Graeme/flickr
In the aftermath of fires or logging, conservation needs to focus on recovering the health of the remaining vegetation, not just the size of the forest or woodland.
Current protections for native forests are hopelessly out of date.
Graeme/Flickr
Agreements between the Commonwealth and state governments that protect native forests are based on hopelessly out-of-date information. It’s a huge mistake to renew them without assessment.
Log barges with illegally felled timber, waiting to be loaded onto the “Harbour Gemini” ship in Paia inlet, Papua New Guinea,
AP Image/Greenpeace, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert
How do you determine the financial benefit of cutting a tree down, versus leaving it standing? Environmental accounting offers some insight.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has proposed shrinking Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and allowing more public access and road maintenance.
Bob Wich/BLM
Environmental law and natural resource experts respond to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s proposals to shrink four national monuments and allow logging, fishing and other activities in six more.
Cypress swamp near Mandeville, Louisiana.
Neal Wellons/Flickr
A new report calls U.S. forests an undervalued asset for slowing climate change. It warns that they are being degraded by logging for wood, paper and fuel, particularly in the Southeast.