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Horticultural experts across Britain are becoming increasingly concerned about the adverse effects global warming is having on the country's best-known trees. Its claimed some species are battling to survive in the face of climate change.

Every spring, thousands of birds, some weighing a pound or less, set off on a journey of herculean proportions. They fly thousands of miles north, to breeding grounds in Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada and to U.S. destinations that include Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.

Glenn Juday stands next to a white spruce that sprouted from seed two years after Britain ceased hostilities against the colonies in the Revolutionary War, the last time fire swept through the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest. The 221-year-old trees are the monarchs of the northern boreal forest, rising 110 feet, and they have no business surviving on 11 inches of annual rainfall.

The frozen bogs of Siberia are melting, and the thaw could have devastating consequences for the planet, scientists have discovered.

The opportunity to preserve large tracts of forest land on the Cumberland Plateau is waning as timber giant Bowater Inc. continues selling off its holdings in the biologically rich region, conservationists say. South Carolina-based Bowater plans to sell 250,000 acres of its property on the plateau and another 100,000 acres in the Tennessee Valley.

The state is doing a good job of managing its forest lands in Eastern Washington and has earned a "green" certification from a national group, Lands Commissioner Doug Sutherland says. State forest lands in Western Washington were certified as green last year, and were recertified this year, said Sutherland, who runs the Department of Natural Resources.

The Derby Mountain fire burned hot enough in some spots to kill and cook trout right in the streams. But the worst effects of the big fire on area fisheries may be yet to come.

Many trees and bushes already are turning color and dropping leaves in parts of northern Minnesota, but officials are thinking about drought and fire danger rather than a beautiful fall palette.