Forests

"A bipartisan group of senators is urging President Obama to encourage Canada to forge an agreement on a new softwood lumber trade deal."

"Wildfires, long considered a problem exclusive to the West, now threaten many other parts of the country as extreme weather becomes more commonplace and more people live in areas at risk for wildfire."

"Forest fires are burning longer and stronger across the western United States, lighting up the landscape with alarming frequency. Residents are forced to flee, homes are incinerated, wildlife habitats are destroyed, lives are lost. Last year, the Forest Service spent more than half its annual budget fighting fires."

"Trees believed to have been extinct in Britain have been discovered at the Queen’s official residence in Scotland."

"Firefighters worked to control a wildfire on Tuesday in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco Bay area that has forced hundreds of residents to evacuate, despite its relatively small size, officials said."

"More than half of the 751 million acres of forestland in the United States are privately owned, most by people ... with holdings of 1,000 acres or less. These family forests, environmental groups argue, represent a large, untapped resource for combating the effects of climate change."

"Indonesian forest fires that choked a swath of Southeast Asia with a smoky haze for weeks last year may have caused more than 100,000 deaths, according to new research that will add to pressure on Indonesia's government to tackle the annual crisis."

"Unspoiled lands are disappearing from the face of the Earth at an alarming pace, with about 10 percent of wilderness regions - an area double the size of Alaska - lost in the past two decades amid unrelenting human development, researchers said on Thursday."

"JAKARTA -- Dozens of Indonesian men, suspected of being hired by an oil palm plantation company, threatened to kill environmental investigators checking on fires on Sumatra island, the environment ministry said."

"At a campground in northwestern Montana, 30 people are groggily gearing up for a day of mushroom picking."