"Chestnuts harvested from high branches on a chilly fall morning look typical: they’re marble sized, russet colored and nestled in prickly burs. But many are like no other nuts in nature. In a feat of genetic engineering, about half the chestnuts collected at this college experiment station feature a gene that provides resistance to blight that virtually wiped out the American chestnut tree generations ago."

"Winds that have fanned California’s wildfires have calmed, helping firefighters contain blazes that have destroyed homes and forced mass power outages since late last month."

"A fresh spate of Southern California wildfires roared to life on Thursday, destroying homes and forcing evacuations, as the region faced a second day of explosively fierce Santa Ana winds that have fanned flames, displacing thousands of residents."

"Authorities in Peru have charged five men in the timber industry with the 2014 murders of four indigenous activists who had battled illegal logging in the Amazon jungle."

"Even after several years of devastating wind-driven fires in Southern California, forecasters fear that the next two days could bring new levels of danger."

"If the timber industry in Alaska is looking to harvest more trees, the Trump administration's proposal to open roadless areas in Tongass National Forest to logging might not be the way to get there."

"In 1991, flames swept into the Oakland and Berkeley hills, killing more than two dozen people and destroying more than 2,000 homes."

"Look up the next time you’re in a park — any park — in the Mid-Atlantic. You’re likely to see vines climbing toward the treetops. These invasive vines can be deadly — not just to the trees they are overtaking, but to the larger ecosystem."