Tree Huggers

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/1528571

The paper is here

The high-resolution, 3D model not only details trees' location, type and size, but simulates how local conditions such as street orientation, street width and building height influence their shading benefits.

Improved understanding of how tree placement impacts shading could help planners plant and maintain trees more strategically to maximize climate benefits and distribute them equitably, said Alex Kobald, project lead and associate director of the Design Across Scales Lab in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.

Tree Folio, NYC explores the street tree and urban canopy as a form of city infrastructure.

The lidar scan is linked to the city's 2015 tree census, which counted more than 666,000 public, curbside trees greening more than 131,000 blocks.

Most importantly, Tree Folio, NYC enables users to simulate the shade any street tree produces over an entire year, computing the extent to which it shades public ground or building facades, or lives entirely in shadow itself-thus adding no net cooling benefit.

"It's not just that there are fewer trees in Ozone Park, but that the trees that are there aren't in the right places," Kobald said.

This has caused quite a stir in Australia. More articles and photos in the follow-ups.

https://aussie.zone/post/1177300

https://aussie.zone/post/1177412

https://aussie.zone/post/1177903

https://aussie.zone/post/1177908

cross boosted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3252404

“Pictures of a massive, centuries-old tree on the back of a logging truck in Tasmania have sparked calls from environmentalists for Anthony Albanese to visit the area to see damage being inflicted on native forests.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20230816012031/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/science/redwood-trees-logging-california.html

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/989240

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/989239

With value measured in cows, we would struggle to make a living from Thiaki even though rainforest was among the most biologically valuable pieces of land in the country.

The nearest town is Malanda, 15km to the north by road. While it hadn't been easy to turn lush tropical rainforest into paddocks - some individual settlers worked at it for decades - how could you turn paddocks back into rainforest? Local efforts on the Atherton Tablelands to restore degraded land back to rainforest were heroic but ad hoc.

Work commenced apace to design the reforestation research plan for the foundations of a brand-new rainforest that uses different mixes and numbers of native species with different planting densities.

On 28 January 2011, a bunch of academics and a crack team of planters with dirt under their fingernails and dreadlocks like flowing lianas, assembled to build the foundations of a rainforest with 30,000 plants, and to create the conditions for a phoenix to rise once more from the ashes.

The clearing frenzy of the first 20 years of the 20th century brought about the near extinction of the upland rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479723004334

• Reforestation success can be improved by enhancing tree planting methods
• Low sapling survival rates lead to high replacement costs and can hinder reforestation efforts
• Damage to fibrous roots during handling affects sapling survival
• Initial soil properties and conditions have a greater impact on sapling survival than adult traits
• Careful planting methods result in better sapling survival rates in the longer term
• Factors such as seedling survival, root growth, and seedling quality play a significant role in tree establishment
• Non-native grass removal and shade increase soil moisture and seedling performance during forest restoration

A bit of a local focus, but every community in the world should be doing this now so we can be properly prepared.

An eclectic mix of activists take a stand to protect an old growth forest from logging at Warner Creek in the Willamette National Forest of Oregon, blockading the logging road and repelling the State Police. Over months a community builds around the illegal blockade as it develops into the Cascadia Free State and similar actions spread across the region. Years after its release, Pickaxe has become a classic document of the potential for grassroots direct action to achieve victory against the forces of both government and big business. Lovingly crafted by the participants themselves, the film expertly presents every moment, from confrontation to celebration.

Alt link: https://archive.org/details/pickAxe_201810

This excellent documentary takes us into another world; the world of rogue loggers and firefighters turned eco-warriors. The story begins as an arsonist burns 9000 acres of protected old-growth public forest in Oregon that can not be logged unless it burns. To stop the proposed "salvage" logging of this incredible ancient forest, citizens are moved to blockade a road and keep the government out. After facing down a bulldozer and the State Police, the fort now known as the gateway to the Cascadia Free State becomes the focus for a developing community dedicated to protecting ancient forests throughout the mountains of Oregon.

The film shows confrontations with disgruntled loggers, mass arrests and a 75 day hunger strike. Back at Warner Creek activists build teepees and remain a living blockade on the logging road through the winter and ten feet of snow. Political pressure begins to shift and the White House promises a deal but not before Federal Agents come to bust the camp and destroy the fort. The story resolves with incredible footage of a mass jail break-in and unconditional victory for the forest. This inspiring documentary is two years in the making, and crafted from footage shot by more than two dozen people involved in the struggle to save Warner Creek. Principal photography and direction are by guerilla videographer Tim Lewis, award winner at WorldFest in 1998. Codirector/producer Tim Ream was involved in the action on and off the screen.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/902277

Arborists using chainsaws have been hard at work creating new hollows for threatened wildlife in storm-affected areas of the Wombat State Forest.

Hollows carved into trees could soon become home to species like the greater glider, brush-tail phascogale and Red-browed tree creeper, which lost important habitat in the June and October 2021 storms that affected more than 80,000 hectares of the Wombat State Forest.

'The idea is that these carved hollows will more closely replicate natural hollows, which can take 100 years to form naturally.

We hope to learn from this trial to see if these chainsaw-carved hollows can also be useful after planned burning activities or fire recovery to ensure the habitat is maintained or restored.

Supported by $67,000 of DELWP recovery funding, the Yarra Ranges Council is installing 60 modular nest boxes and multiple wood hollows across six locations in Lilydale, Mt Evelyn and Montrose as a part of its storm recovery works.

DELWP has supported the Yarra Ranges Council with detailed species information and advice to determine the most suitable habitat for installing tree hollows.

More than 100 native species depend on natural tree hollows, so protecting large, old, hollow-bearing trees and surrounding habitat is critical.

This organic matter, composed of decaying leaves and branches, airborne particulates and moisture, is called canopy soil or arboreal soil.

"This is the first study to look at the distribution patterns of canopy soils across forests and one of very few studies that have sought to examine canopy soil properties."

Murray says tree canopies in the tropical montane forest systems are especially dense, with thick moss, soil and an abundance of epiphytes - plants that grow on other plants - often referred to as "Air plants" - that are not parasitic and have little or no attachment to other obvious nutrient sources.

"I initially conducted surveys to assess canopy soil abundance from the ground with binoculars. But it was really necessary to climb up into the trees to get an accurate picture of what was going on."

"I think canopy soil stores 0.4 to 4 percent of total soil carbon in the forests where it is found, which is not being counted in ecosystem carbon budgets."

Mentored by USU Biology Professor John Stark and former USU faculty member Bonnie Waring, the latter now with Imperial College London and an author on the paper, Murray says the team's results indicate both climate and tree size play an important role in canopy soil abundance, carbon stocks and chemistry.

"Climate, particularly fog and temperature changes, appear to drive canopy soil abundance across forests, while tree size determines canopy soil abundance within a forest," she says.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/864414

Renowned conservation organisation Rainforest Rescue has announced the winners of their international rainforest photography competition, The Canopy Awards 2023.

Australian photographer Benjamin Maze's image of a towering myrtle beech tree from a low-angle perspective within the Blue Tiers Forest Reserve in North-East Tasmania was selected by judges for the Canopy Awards' Grand Prize.

The Canopy Awards represents the pinnacle of rainforest photography and are designed to enhance and promote the art and technical mastery of the subject, help raise awareness about the nature and culture of rainforest habitats and above all, encourage their protection.

Convened by Rainforest Rescue Ambassador Darren Jew the Canopy Awards judging panel comprised multi-award-winning nature photographer Georgina Steytler, acclaimed landscape photographer and last year's Grand Prize winner Matt Palmer, and conservationist Steven Nowakowski whose photography in the Wet Tropics has raised awareness internationally of the fragility of rainforest ecosystems.

Kristin Canning, Rainforest Rescue's Partnerships Manager, concluded, "Being a part of the Canopy Awards is a natural extension for Rainforest Rescue's partners, with the collective resources of our amazing sponsors helping to champion rainforest awareness. Their support not only made the Awards possible but shows their respective strong commitments as champions of ecologically conscious businesses."

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/science/p/1171656

Tropical trees use social distancing to maintain biodiversity: Tropical forests often harbor hundreds of species of trees in a square mile, but scientists often struggle to understand how such a diversity of species can coexist.
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-tropical-trees-social-distancing-biodiversity.html

#science #biology #botany #ecology #plants #computationalmodeling

Too appropriate not to post! We need this competition in more places.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/761252

WWF-Australia's Trees Scorecard exposes inadequate forest restoration in NSW and QLD, with NSW scoring the lowest at 24%.

The World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia has released Australia's first national Trees Scorecard to assess which states and territories are leading in protecting and restoring trees.

New South Wales and Queensland ranked Very Poor in the scorecard, making them Australia's worst clearers of trees.

Australia has the highest rate of deforestation in the developed world.

The scorecard assesses how all jurisdictions, state, territory, and federal, are performing in forest protection and restoration.

No state ranked higher than average, prompting WWF-Australia to call for strong leadership to halt and reverse forest loss.

Forests accumulate and store vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and protect biodiversity, giving them a defining role in controlling the global average temperature.

Writing in Nature, Peng et al. report the true carbon cost of wood harvests, which have reduced more carbon storage in vegetation and soils than any other practice except agriculture.

Economic modelling of the global carbon cost of harvesting wood from forests shows a much higher annual cost than that estimated by other models, highlighting a major opportunity for reducing emissions by limiting wood harvests.

The researchers set out to understand how Toronto residents' satisfaction with urban trees and tree management is influenced by factors such as canopy cover and visual greenness.

Amid a push from many world cities to increase the number of urban trees, the results might come as a surprise: our delight in urban trees increases at larger neighbourhood scales and is more dependent on canopy cover and visual greenness than previously thought.

The researchers found that satisfaction with urban trees was more closely linked to VGVI than tree canopy cover, suggesting that it's not only about the number of trees but also how visible they are in our everyday lives.

Is a neighbourhood draped in a thick canopy of lush trees more pleasing to residents? Or do residents find a few trees scattered across their daily walk routes more satisfying? Can assessing residents' satisfaction with urban trees and their management lead to any improvements in urban tree strategy? The hope is that addressing these questions could lead to better-informed urban tree management decisions that directly impact the quality of city life.

While many studies rely on canopy cover to represent urban forest presence, our results suggest that this measure does not adequately capture how people are experiencing urban trees.

Particularly in urban environments with a varying density of buildings that may block views of trees, canopy cover may overestimate how people's ability to see trees in their neighbourhood.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/917806

New research shows how reforestation and afforestation projects can be more effective in cutting carbon, restoring ecosystems, creating jobs, and providing other environmental and social benefits.

At least in the US, I never seem to see a new tree show up.