Hoolee Doolee ! We always knew fungi were critical components of a forest – but this talk shows fungi having talents way beyond soil/nutrient makers and holders. ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_worldThis fast talking guy’s info is mind-boggling. Well worth the 17 minutes of watching.
This research counters the logging industry argument that a young post-logging regrowth forest (and plantations) accumulate more carbon than a natural mature forest. It highlights the importance of old large trees in the carbon cycle. Read the research PDF at 2014_March-tree-growth_Nature.pdf
Environmental scientist Grant Harris has written up a paper on our sightings of Spencer’s Skink in very large, old Eucalyptus regnans trees in the Central Highlands. During March 2012, whilst undertaking an aerial survey of an overmature Mountain Ash Eucalyptus regnans in Toolangi State Forest, a Spencer’s Skink Pseudemoia spenceri was observed in the canopy …
Released in December 2013, the report into VicForests operations (the government’s logging monopoly), condemns its lack of protection of environmental values but excuses the drain it puts on the state’s finances. There’s no market for woodchips so trees are incinerated where they are felled. So why are they cut down? Among many other shocking findings, …
In the Strathbogie forests northeast of Melbourne, Murphy Fresh, a hydroponic tomato farm at Bridge Creek is buying up to 10,000 tons of native forest logs a year to chip and burn to heat their greenhouses. Murphy Fresh will be one of the largest, tomato grower in Australia when their new greenhouse is completed. They …
The economy has become a symbol for politicians to exploit rather than a system for them to manage. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s recent speech about Tasmania highlights that talking about the economy is something politicians like to do, but making good economic decisions has become an optional extra. His speech, to the forestry industry last …
Large old trees are critical organisms and ecological structures in forests, woodlands, savannas, and agricultural and urban environments. They play many essential ecological roles ranging from the storage of large amounts of carbon to the provision of key habitats for wildlife. Some of these roles cannot be replaced by other structures. Large old trees are …
Just before Christmas the State Government introduced new native vegetation policy that significantly weakens the protection of native habitat across Victoria. It did this despite more than 100 respected ecologists and scientists and a 70 strong force of local conservation groups pushing for the new land clearing laws to be overturned. Our remaining bushland and …
“It is a mistake to think that emissions from fossil fuels can be negated by increasing or protecting the storage potential of forests and other land based carbon.” So says a new report from Brussels-based NGO FERN. The report exposes the myth that fossil fuel emissions can be offset by planting trees or preserving forests. …
Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations1. Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon cycle—particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage—increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes across several scales of biological organization, from tree leaves to forest stands2, 3. …
