The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. It manages approximately 245 million acres of public land, most of which is located in the 11 Western States and Alaska.
The Oregon/Washington division has produced this fantastic video, titled ‘The Art of Burning Across Landscapes’ which looks at fire’s impact on our environment.
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Tags: wildfire management, Prescribed burning, USDA Forest Service, BLM, Bureau of Land Management

Sparks are flying in Idaho amid fears of an increase in major forest fires to rival the historic ‘Big Burn’ inferno of 1910. Governor Butch Otter is predicting disasters aplenty unless the state take control of the management of federal forests.

Despite the extensive work being done to control Idaho’s valuable timberlands by the timber industry and environmentalists in conjunction with federal government, Otter has voiced that only intensive logging will reduce the fire risk.

Addressing a group of Republican lawmakers earlier this week, the outspoken Governor stated “’We’ve got a devastating fire coming at us…”. Read More...

Tags: Gov. Butch Otter , Idaho Conservation League, federal forests

Yet more worrying news for Canada’s beleaguered forests was published earlier this week, when the findings of a study into tree growth rates in boreal areas cast some serious cause for concern.

Researchers looking into the effects of drought in northern forest regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have discovered that the increasing lack of precipitation in recent decades appears to be having a significant and profound effect.

A team of biologists from the University of Montreal, led by Dr. Changhui Peng, studied tree mortality and found significant increases of almost 5% per year over a 45-year period. Forests in western Canada were suffering significantly more than those in the East. Read More...

Tags: Canada, boreal forests, forest management, fire weather monitoring

We all know that trees are important. They provide valuable timber for multiple uses, from construction to furniture to paper and fuel. Trees are essential in the ecology of many ecosystems, providing food and shelter for countless species.

And they are of course, essential as repositories of carbon emissions, both human-made and natural in origin. This fact is far from inconsequential; trees cover around one third of Earth’s surface there is an enormous amount of carbon tied up in the planet’s forests and woodlands. In return, they produce vast quantities of oxygen – forests are not referred to as the ‘lungs of the planet’ for no reason.

With all the concerns surrounding climate change and human impact on various aspects of the environment, today’s scientists are looking at trees in greater detail than ever before. Read More...

Tags: Carbon sink, NASA, Satellite