There has been extensive debate about whether the sustainable use of forests (forest management aimed at producing a sustainable yield of timber or other products) results in superior climate outcomes to conservation (maintenance or enhancement of conservation values without commercial harvesting) Most of the relevant research has relied on consequential life-cycle assessment (LCA), with the …
Long-term exposure to air pollution is linked with brain shrinkage. Not surprisingly, a US study shows that with only a small increase in fine particulate matter pollution (known as PM2.5) a clear association was evident of brain damage linked to impaired cognitive function. Anyone who had to endure the Morwell mine fire smoke, or the …
If you haven’t been paying attention, I don’t blame you for at first not believing this. After all, companies go to great lengths to greenwash their image and present themselves as progressive and environmentally responsible, even while they turn your land to deserts and your oceans into dead zones. Unfortunately, as Mark Twain once famously said: …
Soil plays a big role in the global carbon cycle, but how much or how quickly forest soil carbon pools decline after logging is poorly understood. This may have serious implications for how carbon emissions from deforestation are accounted for. The U.S. Forest Service, for example, currently operates under the assumption that forest soil carbon …
Naturalist Tim Low says Australian birds are noisier, more aggressive and more intelligent than any other birds in the world. Tim is a biologist, environmentalist and prize-winning writer, and co-editor of Wildlife Australia magazine. His latest book reveals some startling facts about the unique nature of Australian birds – they are distinctive and powerful, and …
Once the landscape was well endowed with mature large trees and the wildlife that evolved to make use of these trees were numerous. Now they are extremely rare and becoming more threatened with every burn, with every logging operation and a government fearful that a falling tree could mean litigation. We all know that rare …
This recent scientific report (Jan 2014) shows how Australia’s land mammals have extinctions suffered an extraordinary rate of extinction. We have lost over 10% of the 273 endemic terrestrial species over the last 200 years compared to only one native land mammal from continental North America going extinct since European settlement. “A further 21% of …
Achieving biodiversity objectives can be a challenging aspect of fire management because different flora and fauna species may require varied fire regimes in order to maintain viable populations, and trade-offs may be needed to satisfy other objectives. This report describes major findings of a project investigating the relationships between aspects of fire regimes on selected …
Scientists have found the number of animals moved to make way for building projects far outnumber science-led relocations to recover populations The relocation of animals to make way for land development rarely succeeds and could be driving some species towards extinction, according to a new study. An international team of scientists found that “mitigation …
Australia’s superb lyrebird clears litter and seedlings from the forest floor, reducing the likelihood and intensity of bushfires, new research suggests. The birds’ activity also preserves their preferred habitat of an open forest floor, says fire ecologist, Dr Steve Leonard of La Trobe University . “They’re reducing fuel by their foraging,” he says. “Our hypothesis …
