Amid trees marked for felling, a scientist spells out forests’ vital role in saving wildlife, humanity, and a warming planet
of the ancient yellow cedar felt like a cocoon with its soft floor of bark strips. A mother bear had molded this bed when she came each year to hibernate and to birth her cubs inside the 2,000-year-old tree. In the depth of winter, the shell of sapwood had protected them from the bone-chilling cold and blowing snow.
I followed in my grandfather’s footsteps. I studied forestry and took jobs in the Canadian Forest Service and lumber industry. Soon I was working alongside the powerful people in charge of the commercial harvest. But I found the extent of the clear-cutting alarming, and I felt conflicted by my part in it. On top of that, the spraying and hacking of the aspens and birches to make way for the more commercially valuable planted pines and firs were astounding.
In a series of breakthrough experiments conducted while dodging grizzly bears in western Canada’s rainforests, Simard discovered that trees are connected through vast fungal root systems known as mycorrhizal networks. Via this subterranean pipeline, they share carbon, water, and nutrients. The fungi extract sugars from the tree roots that they can’t produce on their own, and in return the fungi ferry water and nutrients to the tree roots and even farther, from tree to tree.
We ran and slipped across the steep slope to the small clear-cut carved out of the mountain, where the helicopter now hovered over a makeshift helipad. One of the defenders climbed up the platform and waved his arms as if to repel the aircraft. Old-growth forests like this one store twice as much carbon as century-old forests and six or more times as much as clear-cuts. As the old trees age, they continue to store carbon in their boles and sequester it into soils where it is protected. Added all together, the world’s forests and their soils store about 90 percent of global terrestrial carbon.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Some Austin restaurants forced to raise menu prices amid inflationAs the price of food continues to skyrocket, restaurant owners are having to raise their menu prices in order to continue making profit.
Read more »
Cocaine Nespresso factory: $50M worth of drugs found amid coffeeSwiss police say an investigation is underway after workers at a Nespresso warehouse found 500 kilograms (over 1,100 pounds) of cocaine, with a street value of $50 million, as they unloaded coffee beans that had arrived by train.
Read more »
NZD/USD eyes fresh two-year low under 0.6400 amid risk-aversion, China trade data eyedNZD/USD bears attack the multi-month low surrounding 0.6400, tested on Thursday, as the week-start trading fails to push back the sellers. The bearish
Read more »
Abortion funds gain support amid SCOTUS draft opinion leakAs grassroots efforts to support abortion seekers grow amid fears of Roe v. Wade being overturned, a San Antonio woman is helping fund abortions through her organization.
Read more »
Where to find baby formula in Puget Sound amid nationwide shortageParents of infants across the U.S. are taking to social media pleading for media coverage and political action while posting pictures of empty store shelves, as the country's baby formula shortage continues to get worse. FOX13
Read more »