Publication archives

Last year, U.S. Forest Service officials asked private entrepreneurs to "sharpen their pencils" and propose new money-making ventures for the cash-strapped Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. The response was less than overwhelming. The agency received only three proposals, despite the volcano's international notoriety and ongoing eruption.

The statistics in the Southwest read like a laundry list of bad news: Phoenix has been without rain for four months. Tucson is suffering through its driest winter on record, as is Albuquerque, New Mexico. Some Tucson homeowners have actually watered cactus plants to keep them alive. And that's raising a serious worry: The Southwest's spring wildfire season could come early.

Lee Frelich has been studying trees in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for the past 18 years. In that time the University of Minnesota hardwoods researcher says he's witnessed dramatic changes.

The Nature Conservancy is aiming to demonstrate it can both preserve one of the jewels of the Bad River Watershed and responsibly log it at the same time. At Caroline Lake, this means loggers cannot cut down every tree in sight but must save some for ecological reasons.

Illegal logging in Mexico's national parks continues to threaten millions of butterflies, despite a government crackdown, environmentalists warn. Mexico's government has taken drastic measures to protect the butterflies. It has formed a team of 17 park rangers, armed with assault rifles and body armour to protect the colonies of Monarch butterflies in Michoacan state.

Trade - An American-imposed tariff on Canadian spring wheat exports has been officially lifted, following a North American Free Trade Agreement decision late last year, the Canadian Wheat Board said Wednesday.

Federal and state officials are proposing to spray 133,275 acres in Cook County this summer in an attempt to slow the spread of destructive, exotic gypsy moths. The proposed treatment area is more than 40 times the size of the largest area previously treated in Minnesota.

Ann Arbor City Forester Kay Sicheneder recently did the math to figure out how many dead and dying trees the city can generally remove and replace in one year. The answer? About 1,000 trees a year.