Forests

"A top oil trade group submitted a policy wishlist to top DOI appointees. The Department is moving quickly to give industry what it wants."

"The U.S. Congress has passed hundreds of laws protecting federal public lands over the past century through bipartisan efforts and with the support of local governments. Now, President Donald Trump’s administration and some Republican lawmakers in Congress are pushing policies and legislation that upend these protections."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will close its flagship, but deteriorating research site in Maryland as part of a major reorganization aiming to shift 2600 employees away from the nation’s capital area, the agency announced this week. At the same time, USDA said it plans to shutter most of its forest research stations around the country. "

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks."

"Federal wildlife officials approved a plan last year to protect northern spotted owls by shooting other owls, but it has faced pushback from animal rights advocates and lawmakers — including conservatives. Now lawmakers could kill the plan."

"As Brazil prepares to host the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon city of Belém in November, President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva is under pressure to veto a measure that could have a huge impact on the world's largest tropical rainforest."

"In a rugged patch of the Appalachian Trail in eastern Tennessee, volunteers size up a massive, gnarled tree lying on its side. Its tangled web of roots and dark brown soil, known as a root ball, is roughly the size of a large kiddie pool."

"Forests play a major role pulling planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. As the world heats up, some forests are becoming emitters in their own right." 

"A wildfire burning in a sparsely populated region of central Oregon has become the largest fire this year and is on the verge of surpassing 100,000 acres to become what’s officially known as a megafire."

"The U.S. Forest Service faced criticism from current and former employees who say federal workforce reductions under the Trump administration have left fire teams understaffed, as the country grapples with decade-high U.S. wildfire numbers this year."