African forest elephant in Lekoli River, Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Cuvette-Ouest Region, Republic of the Congo.
Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The more our cities grow, the more we need access to enjoy — and be in relationship with — urban forests to maintain our well-being.
With the evidence uncovered by paleontologists, an artist sketched El Bosque Petrificado Piedra Chamana as it might have looked long before humans.
Mariah Slovacek/NPS-GIP
They overlook a vast body of evidence that crown fire – the most extreme type of fire behaviour in which tree canopies burn - is more likely in logged native forests.
Aerial view of native seedlings for forest restoration at the the Instituto Terra, Aimores, Brazil.
Christian Ender/Getty Images
Large-scale tree-planting projects are politically popular and media-friendly, but without effective planning and long-term management, they can do more harm than good.
A helicopter drops water on a forest fire in Alaska.
Michael Risinger/U.S. Army National Guard
Scientists are learning trees can emit methane, which could be a big problem for global warming. But a world-first discovery of methane-eating bacteria in paperbark can help moderate this.
Giant old trees in the rainforest at Campement de Kloto, Missahoe, Agomé in Togo, West Africa.
Getty Images
As sea levels rise along the Atlantic coast, saltwater is intruding inland, killing trees and turning coastal forests into marshes. Should scientists try to slow the process, or work with it?
African forest elephant in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Republic of the Congo.
Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Permanently protecting large, mature forests is a faster and cheaper way to stabilize Earth’s climate than complex carbon capture and storage schemes, and more effective than planting new trees.
Large areas targeted for forest restoration in Africa are covered by savanna and grassland, which provide important ecosystem services that would be lost should they be converted to forests.
Protecting forests means protecting a rich biodiversity of plants, animals and the livelihoods of many people.
Burnt trees can be logged and turned into timber and other wood products. But removing them from the forest can have negative impacts on the wildlife.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Restoring western forests – thinning out small trees and dead wood – is an important strategy for reducing the risk of massive wildfires. But these projects aren’t fast, easy or cheap.