Wired
24 December 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
Montana, United States
After a fungus has nearly wiped out the whitebark pine species in North America, scientists and conservationists are coming together to restore the species. The trees offer food to various animal species and are important to drinking and agricultural water supplies. A pilot project in Montana has planted up to 125 acres each year of whitebark pines, but the restoration process is expensive and time consuming. By combining traditional seed collecting efforts with gene sequencing, scientists hope to make these trees resistant to the fungus.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/in_the_pastures_of_colombia_cows_crops_and_timber_coexist/2746
Lisa Palmer
Yale Environment 360
13 March 2014
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Colombia’s National Development Plan for cattle ranching seeks to reduce pasture land from 94 million acres to 70 million acres while increasing cattle numbers from 23 million head to 40 million. The program focuses on planting trees on grazing land and the "cut and carry method," whereby farmers grow fields of shrubs and distribute the fresh cuttings to cows in pastures. The result is greater cattle productivity and a more eco-friendly farming system.
http://www.ensia.com/photos/to-everyones-surprise-forests-are-returning-to-malawi-heres-why
Didem Tali
Ensia
26 May 2015
Photojournalism / Under 800 Words
The people of Malawi count on wood for cooking, cleaning, and sanitation, which contributes to the country’s ranking as fifth highest in the world for deforestation. Once thought unsolvable, the people of the country are planting trees, benefiting from water filters, and using efficient cookstoves.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/aug/03/ethiopia-restored-drylands-migration-eroded-deforested
Cathy Watson
The Guardian
3 August 2016
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Environmental refugees in Ethiopia flee their country because there are no jobs without healthy land. A group of former refugees have returned to Ethiopia with a business venture in Gergera to improve the land by regreening efforts, foresting, and building water conservation systems. The new businesses demonstrated such positive effects that the region is now on the brink of resettlement due to improved environmental conditions.
http://e360.yale.edu/features/commerce-saving-native-plants-appalachia-black-cohosh-climate-change
Nancy Averett
Yale Environment 360
2 March 2017
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As climate change continues to threaten the survival of native plants species and the health of the eco-systems they support, the North Carolina Arboretum’s Germplasm Repository is taking a clever new approach to the preservation of native plant seeds: pushing to capitalize on their commercial value. Plant physiologists like Joe-Ann McCoy know that the best method for saving many species may also create jobs and boost local economies, when businesses start leveraging the medicinal uses of native plants for products like herbal supplements.
https://www.fastcompany.com/40450262/these-tree-planting-drones-are-about-to-fire-a-million-seeds-to-re-grow-a-forest
Adele Peters
FastCompany
10 August 2017
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Villages along the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar have spent years replanting mangroves in at attempt to restore their ecosystem and guard against the negative effects of climate change, but it is a labor intensive and time-consuming process. Now, with the help of specially-designed tree planting drones from startup BioCarbon Engineering, as many as 10,000 trees can be planted in a single day, using technology that not only distributes seeds in special pods, but is able to calculate optimal soil conditions, locations, and species of tree most likely to survive in any given area.
https://ensia.com/features/golf-courses
Travis Wood
Ensia
8 November 2017
Text / 800-1500 Words
More golf courses are closing than are opening, allowing the rare opportunity to have open space in an urban environment. Restorations are becoming popular to allow wildlife and humans to make use of the natural space through the encouragement of different animals and plants to inhabit the same area as well as the development of parks and bike paths to foster human use.
http://e360.yale.edu/features/reclaiming-appalachia-a-push-to-bring-back-native-forests-to-coal-country
Elizabeth McGowan
Yale Environment 360
14 December 2017
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Tearing down trees to save a forest? While that may not sound like a solution, it could in fact be the key to restoring the former forest that inhabited the Appalachian region in the Eastern United States. “Ripping so deep might seem extreme, but it’s the only way to give these native trees a chance,” says Chris Barton, co-founder of non-profit Green Forests Works and a professor specializing in forest hydrology and watershed management, by means of explaining the ongoing effort he and other researchers, scientists and non-profits are making to reclaim native forests in this region.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/in-india-agroforestry-is-a-win-for-both-tigers-and-villagers
Cathy Watson
Scientific American
1 February 2018
Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words
Agroforestry, is the practice of planting trees around crops, which can yield many benefits to farmers and the environment. In India, agroforestry is helping tigers stay alive.
https://www.theguardian.com/working-in-development/2018/jan/25/bunch-of-rioters-brazil-radical-farmers-agroforestry
Ignacio Amigo
The Guardian
25 January 2018
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In Brazil, 45% of agriculturally viable land is owned by 1% of tenants. To combat this inequitable ratio, the Landless Workers’ Movement formed and took a stand for seizing lands that are "not fulfilling a productive or social use." The group successfully reclaimed an area known as Mario Lago and has since begun a reforestation process alongside agroforestry which has allowed for an increase in diversity of food produced. The farmers haven't stopped there, however. To sell their produce, they have implemented a system of turning the consumer into a co-producer thus ensuring economic stability.
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/08/china-plants-billions-of-trees-in-the-desert
Vince Beiser
Mother Jones
1 October 2017
Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words
Overfarming, over-grazing, climate change and population growth are all to blame for turning Duolun County in China's Inner Mongolia region into a bigger desert than it was to begin with. With 87 percent of the area turned into desert, sandstorms began to be the norm and would often engulf the neighboring region of Beijing. The Duolun project attempts to stop this by embarking on a tree-planting mission. Not without it's limitations and criticisms, this solution is by no means perfect, but it's somewhat of a start that has seen Duolun reportedly increase to 31 percent forested land.
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