EJToday is SEJ's selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, updated every weekday. SEJ also offers a free e-mailed digest of the day's EJToday postings, called SEJ-beat. SEJ members are subscribed automatically, but may opt out here. Non-members may subscribe here. EJToday is also available via RSS feed. Please see Editorial Guidelines for EJToday content.
"Shift in Boreal Forest Has Wide Impact"
Daily Climate, 03/29/2011"Vegetation change underway in northern forests as a result of climate change creates feedback loop that prompts more warming, scientists say."
"Pittsburgh's Ash, Oak Trees Expected To Die Off"
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 03/28/2011"Woodpeckers are already very busy, digging emerald ash borer larvae out of the city's ash trees and loving it."
Georgia Tree Farm Helping To Re-Establish American Chestnut
Macon Telegraph, 03/24/2011Rock keyboardist and tree farmer Chuck Leavell is planting chestnut trees bred to withstand the blight that killed billions of American chestnuts since 1904.
"Conservationists: Forest Planning Rule Strips Wildife Protections"
ENS, 03/11/2011"Conservation groups are concerned that new National Forest Management planning rule announced by the Obama administration last month takes away the single most important measure to ensure wildlife protection afforded by the 1982 regulations they will replace."
"Swiss NGO Links Los Angeles Killing to Timber Corruption in Malaysia"
ENS, 03/10/2011"Protests over timber corruption that has made a billionaire of the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and enriched his family at the expense of the state's indigenous and other citizens have spilled over to the streets of San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa and London." Now there are charges of a political murder on US soil.
"Tongass in Alaska To Get Federal Roadless Protection"
LA Times, 03/09/2011"The federal rule protecting the nation's last remaining stretches of roadless wilderness will apply now to the largest and grandest of the national forests under a court ruling in Alaska, which threw out the exemption granted to the Tongass National Forest."
"Climate Change Takes Toll on the Lodgepole Pine"
Green (NYT), 03/01/2011"Rising temperatures, drought and the spread of destructive insect pests will shrink the North American range of the lodgepole pine nearly 10 percent by 2020, a new study finds."
"In Wyoming, Push To Mine Rare Earths in US Forest"
AP, 02/21/2011"A Canadian company hoping to compete with China's near-monopoly of rare earth elements — metals critical for everything from U.S. military weaponry to wind turbines — wants to open a strip mine inside a national forest in northeast Wyoming."
In U-Turn, Cameron Abandons Plan To Sell Off England's Public Forests
Guardian, 02/17/2011"David Cameron has ordered ministers to carry out the government's biggest U-turn since the general election by abandoning plans to change the ownership of 258,000 hectares of state-owned woodland."
"Oregon Groups Pan And Praise Forest Service's New Planning Rule"
Portland Oregonian, 02/15/2011"The U.S. Forest Service believes proposed revisions to its forest planning rule will accelerate timber sales and provide rural jobs while protecting watersheds, wildlife and quiet spaces for recreation."
"Amazon Drought Threatens To Speed Warming"
Sydney Morning Herald, 02/04/2011"Scientists fear billions of tree deaths in the Amazon caused by drought could turn the forest from a carbon sink to a carbon source."
"Official: England's Forest Sell-Off Will Cost More Than It Saves"
UK Independent, 02/03/2011"Selling off England's public forests could cost the nation more than it would save, according to an official government document that emerged last night."
"U.S. Taking Canada To Arbitration Over Softwood"
Toronto Globe & Mail, 01/19/2011"The Obama administration opened an aggressive new legal front in the enduring trade fight over lucrative softwood lumber exports, accusing Canada of violating a 2006 deal by allowing British Columbia to sell vast quantities of cut-rate, Crown-owned timber to lumber companies."
"Spread of Deadly Virus Tied to Forest Decline"
NY Times, 01/13/2011The mysterious "sudden aspen decline" that is decimating many western forests also seems responsible for a spike in deer mouse populations that is hastening spread of the sin nombre virus, a still-rare hantavirus that kills some 40 % of the humans it infects.
"Growing a Forest, and Harvesting Jobs"
NYTimes, 11/23/2010"Three decades ago the Zapotec Indians here in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico fought for and won the right to communally manage the forest. Before that, state-owned companies had exploited it as they pleased under federal government concessions."

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