The Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation project, better known as PINEMAP, began in 2012 when Tim Martin, professor of tree physiology at the University of Florida, along with representatives from 11 southeastern land-grant universities and a host of other research cooperatives, proposed a five-year research project to determine…
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The US Forest Service has a useful web site that serves as a resource center for topics on climate change and how it is likely to affect forests and grasslands in years to come. The site includes a number of modules on climate science, impacts of changing climate, and how…
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The Washington Post reported this week that in spite of the giant sequoias appearing to be almost indestructible, they are finding many trees are dying from the prolonged drought that has plagued California that past few years. If it is too dry, tiny bubbles form in the tree sap, forming…
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While most people think of wildfires as a Western phenomenon, events this year have pointed out that the Southeast is also an area that is ripe for wildfires. An recent article by Lyndsey Gilpin at http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-southeast-is-becoming-a-wildfire-hotspot/ describes the increases in wildfires in the Southeast over time. The article discusses whether wildfires…
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High winds with gusts to 70 mph ahead of the cold front that is moving into the Southeast caused forest fires in North Carolina and Tennessee to flare up, resulting in a panicked evacuation of Gatlinburg TN late in the evening on the 28th. You can see pictures and video…
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While many parts of the Southeast are in very bad drought conditions, we are not the only place in the US that is being affected by drought. The drought in the Northeast, fortunately, seems to be waning as they go into the winter wet season. In northern California, El Niño…
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The Southeast Farm Press posted a story today about the negative impacts of the exceptional Southeast drought on the timber industry in Alabama (although the comments are generally true for the rest of the Southeast as well). It points out that the drought and fires will have take a severe…
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