Category Archives: Environmentalism

If California’s timber industry falls, will anyone hear it?

Lands owned by state and federal government now contribute little to California’s wood supply (see the graphic below). Private landowners (the green area) now carry nearly all the burden for California’s timber harvesting and its wood demand. (Source: California Forestry Association CA Timber Harvest Statistics 1978-2009.) As previously noted on this site: Our California forestsContinue reading “If California’s timber industry falls, will anyone hear it?”

Ugly Duckling In The Woods By William Keye

This is an op-ed piece that William Wade Keye* submitted to the Sacramento Bee at the beginning of July, in response to two articles (“State to assess Battle Creek logging activity and effect on salmon” and “Troubled waters of Battle Creek“) and an editorial (“Governor needs to keep pledge at Battle Creek”) they published highlightingContinue reading “Ugly Duckling In The Woods By William Keye”

Trees ain’t thermometers

I used to work on Mountain Home State Forest in the southern Sierra. MHSF has about 3000 specimen-sized sequoia within its boundaries. Dendrochronolgists often visited to see the stumps from logging in the mid to late 1800s. These were often over 2000 years old when they had been cut. The Dendrochronolgists were interested in theContinue reading “Trees ain’t thermometers”

Plants moving to lower and warmer elevations in a warming world

A news release out of the University of California at Davis says, “study shows plants moved downhill, not up, in warming world.” In a paper published last month in the journal Science, a UC Davis researcher and his co-authors challenge a widely held assumption that plants will move uphill in response to warmer temperatures. ItContinue reading “Plants moving to lower and warmer elevations in a warming world”

A no CARB diet

California has created a market out of thin air. On December 16, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) endorsed (by a vote of 9-1) the cap-and-trade regulation with the goal of reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions under Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions of 2006 law. The regulation limits emissions from sources responsible forContinue reading “A no CARB diet”

200 countries, 200 years, 4 minutes

Do you wonder what the future will hold? Maybe the keys to the future reside in the past. Hans Rosling is a Swedish medical doctor who spent 20 years helping poor Africans get healthy. You might think after seeing famine firsthand he would be pessimistic. Dr Rosling defines himself as neither an optimist nor aContinue reading “200 countries, 200 years, 4 minutes”

Hottest year on record the quietest fire year in US since 1998

Image via Wikipedia This is interesting, don’t you think? The U.S. is on track for its quietest wildfire year since 1998 (3.3 million acres), and firefighter deaths (7 firefighters) are the lowest on record, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. USA Today reports, “The USA is on track for its quietest wildfire year sinceContinue reading “Hottest year on record the quietest fire year in US since 1998”

If California’s timber industry falls, will anyone hear it?

Lands owned by state and federal government lands contribute little to California’s wood supply (see the graphic below). Private landowners (the green area) now carry nearly all burden for California’s timber harvesting and its wood demand. (Source: California Forestry Association  CA Timber Harvest Statistics 1978-2009.)   As previously noted on this site: Our California forestsContinue reading “If California’s timber industry falls, will anyone hear it?”

Leaving on a jet plane

According to PR Newswire there is an “initiative to promote aviation biofuel development in the Pacific Northwest” that “will include an analysis of potential biomass sources that are indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, including algae, agriculturally based oilseeds such as camelina [wildflax], wood byproducts and others.” Because biomass sources absorb carbon dioxide while growing andContinue reading “Leaving on a jet plane”