New GOP bill aims at forest protections

Measure would exempt huge logging projects from environmental review Staff Report Logging projects as large as 10,000 acres could be rushed to approval without environmental reviews under a new bill proposed by Sen. John Thune, (R-S.D.). As introduced, the law would limit public comment and disclosure of the environmental impacts of large-scale logging projects. The

Wildfires in western Canada on near-record pace

More than 1 million acres burned so far Staff Report Canada is on track for a near-record wildfire season this year. So far, there have been more than 500 fires just in British Columbia, burning across more than 1 million acres. Firefighting costs have already reached more than $172 million, and weeks of warm and

GOP launches new assault on public lands

Proposed bill would cut environmental reviews for massive clear cut logging and block access to environmental justice Staff Report Once again, Republican lawmakers in Congress are trying to roll back long-standing forest protections on a piecemeal basis, knowing that the public would never stand for a frontal assault on fundamental public lands environmental regulations. The

Sunday set: Global change

Travel a little, learn a lot This set includes illustrations for some of my most recent stories in various environmental and climate news publications and if you’re a regular Summit Voice reader who is not on Twitter or Instagram, I’m providing a few links here. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how some

Sunday set: Forests

Trees are our friends Last week the UN celebrated the International Day of Forests as a way to acknowledge how important forests are to the world. To cynics, it may seem trite lip service by faceless bureaucrats. But in reality, it’s critical that everyone understands how important forests are for the planet. They cover about

Global warming hampers post-fire forest regrowth in Colorado

‘We are seeing the initiation of a retreat of forests to higher elevations’ Staff Report Global warming is likely one of the main factors that’s preventing some Colorado forests from regenerating after wildfires. When they started studying eight wildfire sites that burned across 162,000 acres of low-elevation forests along the Front Range, University of Colorado

Spruce beetles still on the march in Colorado

Global warming taking a toll on forests worldwide By Bob Berwyn Spruce beetles continued to expand in Colorado in 2016, at least in part due to global warming and drought, as well as the density of old-growth spruce forests. In all, spruce beetles were active across 350,000 acres of higher-elevation stands of Engelmann spruce statewide,

Sunday set: Euro-shrooms

Fantastic fungi One of the coolest things about mushrooms is that many species are true globalists, which means they grow in many different countries, on many different continents, wherever habitat and moisture are present in the right combination. The fungi in this set were all photographed in the forests of Austria this summer, but all

Massive forest death continues in California

Latest survey tallies more than 100 milion dead trees Staff Report California’s long-term drought has claimed another 36 million trees, the U.S. Forest Service said this week, announcing the results of a new aerial survey. Since 2010, more than 100 million trees have died across 7.7 million acres, the agency said. The die-off intensified in

Earth’s plants are soaking up more of our CO2 these days

Study suggests carbon uptake by forests has doubled since the 1950s Staff Report Scientists say they’ve place yet another piece in the complex global plant-carbon cycle, with a new study suggested that atmospheric CO2 levels have plateaued in recent years because forests and grasslands are removing more of the heat-trapping gas. The research was led