This week, Congress will be voting an appropriations bill that is slated to include provisions that would that would significantly harm national forests. These appropriations are part of a wider deal to reform federal spending on the wildfire budget, allowing more disaster funds to be used for fire fighting. What this means, however, is that… Read more
As a human species, we seem to be doing our best to overwhelm the natural balances of the earth: we waste about 1/3 of all food produced (and up to 40% in the U.S.), we cut down 46-58,000 square miles of forest a year, and scientists predict global temperature increases as high as 8.6° by 2100. Yet,… Read more
The Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC), headed by retired UVA Senior Scientist Rick Webb, seeks to keep Virginia politicians, government bodies, and Dominion on their toes concerning environmental effects of pipelines and natural gas infrastructure. To identify potential problems, DPMC runs a civilian air force that takes photographs of existing and planned infrastructure sites. In their latest investigative effort, the DPMC… Read more
Dominion has responded to concerns about impacts to the rare Cow Knob salamander with an extreme proposal to drill though Shenandoah Mountain. The so-called horizontal directional drilling would involve two separate sections of 1.3 and 1.1 miles. Damage to Cow Knob salamander habitat would not be completely avoided, a native brook trout stream would be… Read more
Barrens and Grasslands Robertson, P.A., A.L. Heikens. 1994. Fire frequency in oak-hickory forests of southern Illinois. Castanea, 59-3:286-291. Homoya, M.A., 1994. Indiana Barrens: Classification and Description. Castanea, 59-3:204-213. Heikens, A.L., K.A. West, P.A. Robertson. 1994. Short-term response of chert and shale barrens vegetation to fire in southwestern Illinois. Castanea, 59-3:274-285. DeSelm, H.R. 1994. Tennessee Barrens…. Read more
Biomass Energy – Atmosphere China, S., C. Mazzoleni, K. Gorkowski, A.C. Aiken, M.K. Dubey. 2013. Morphology and mixing state of individual freshly emitted wildfire carbonaceous particles. Nature Communications. Jacobson, M.Z. 2014. Effects of biomass burning on climate, accounting for heat and moisture fluxes, black and brown carbon, and cloud absorption effects. Journal of Geophysical Research:… Read more
Biomass Energy – Forests and Crops Hudiburg, T.W., B.E. Law, C. Wirth, S. Luyssaert. 2011. Regional carbon dioxide implications of forest bioenergy production. Nature Climate Change. Schulze, E.D., C. Korner, B.E. Law, H. Haberl, S. Luyssaert. 2012. Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral. GCB Bioenergy. Holtsmark,… Read more
Carbon Sequestering – Forests Lamlom, S. H., R. A. Savidge. 2003. A Reassessment of carbon content in wood: variation within and between 41 North American species. Biomass and Bioenergy 25:381-388. Smith, J. E., L. S. Heath, K. E. Skog, R. A. Birdsey. 2006. Methods for calculating forest ecosystem and harvested carbon with standard estimates for… Read more
Carbon Sequestering – Old Growth Forests Luyssaert, S. E., D. Schulze, A. Borner, A. Knohl, D. Hessenmoller, B. E. Law, P. Ciais, J. Grace. 2008. Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature Letters 455. McGarvey, J.C., J.R. Thompson, H.E. Epstein, H.H. Shugart. 2015. Carbon Storage in old-growth forests of the mid atlantic: toward better understanding… Read more
Climate Change – Ecosystems Deser, D., R. Knutti, S. Solomon, A.S. Phillips. 2012. Communication of the role of natural variability in future North American climate. Nature Climate Change. 2:775-780 Beschta, R.L., D.L. Donahue, D.A. DellaSala, J.J. Rhodes, J.R. Karr, M.H. O’Brien, T.L. Fleischner, C.D. Williams. 2012. Adapting to Climate Change on Western Public Lands: Addressing… Read more