Forests

The goldspotted oak borer has spread across Southern California since its discovery in 2008 in San Diego County, where it has slaughtered more than 80,000 trees.

"The Biden administration on Tuesday laid out for the first time a set of broad government guidelines around the use of carbon offsets in an attempt to shore up confidence in a method for tackling global warming that has faced growing criticism."

"Half of the world's mangrove ecosystems, with trees whose roots stretch down into brackish water, are at risk of collapse. That's according to the first assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a leading scientific authority on the status of species and ecosystems. The new report finds that sea level rise fueled by climate change is the biggest risk."

"An analysis of two carbon credit projects in the Brazilian Amazon has found that they may be connected to illegal timber laundering."

"The proposed version of the $1.5 trillion omnibus unveiled last week by House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) includes several priorities of big agribusiness — proposals that frustrated both right-aligned groups such as the Heritage Foundation and left-leaning ones including the Environmental Working Group amid progressives’ and populists’ broader dislike of what they see as crony capitalism at the U.S. farmstand."

"More than a third of the Amazon rainforest is struggling to recover from drought, according to a new study that warns of a “critical slowing down” of this globally important ecosystem."

"Jade Stevens stands at the edge of a snowy cliff and takes in the jaw-dropping panorama of the Sierra. Peaks reaching more than a mile high form the backdrop to Bear Valley, a kaleidoscope of green pastures mixed with ponderosa pines, firs, cedars and oak trees."

"It’s a grim — and familiar — start to wildfire season in Western Canada as tinder-dry forests go up in flames."

"The threat from a wildfire near Canada’s oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, appeared to be easing on Wednesday, a day after it forced thousands of residents to evacuate and stirred memories of a damaging blaze nearly a decade earlier."

"As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate."