Telpay is committed to being environmentally friendly through
responsible and sustainable practises. We all know switching from
cheques to electronic payments is not only a smart business decision but
it is also good for the environment. When you switch to electronic
payments you are no longer using paper products such as cheques,
envelopes and stamps.
In honour of Earth Day and our commitment to the environment, Telpay
is pleased to announce our Save a Tree – Plant a Tree Program, in
partnership with Tree Canada! Telpay encourages all Canadian businesses
to replace cheques with electronic payments through Telpay. As a green
incentive, Tree Canada will plant a tree to celebrate the 100th bill
payment milestone achieved by a Telpay customer. In addition, customers
will receive a certificate and will be listed as a “Telpay Green
Partner” on our website and on various social media platforms.
Tree Canada has been working with governments, communities, corporations
and individuals for over 20 years now to create greener and healthier
living environments for Canadians. They have planted nearly 80 million
trees and greened more than 550 schoolyards across the country. They
provide not only the resources to plant and care for trees in both urban
and rural environments but also education and technical expertise.
Source by http://www.telpay.ca/who-we-are/save-a-tree
orests cover almost a third of the Earth’s surface, including some
700+ million acres in the U.S. alone. They’re home to a huge variety of
plants and animals, provide people all over the world with food, fuel,
medicine and more.
But perhaps most important, forests provide us with oxygen and ensure
that the Earth’s temperature is livable. What can we do to return the
favor? Here are some simple ways kids can help save trees. 1. Use paper wisely.
We can save trees from being cut down by using less paper. How can kids help?
Make a space for reusable paper. Dedicate a spot in your home for paper that’s blank on one side. Then reuse it before you recycle it. Put the kids in charge!
Use scrap paper (preferably recycled, too) for coloring, drawing, sketching, etc.
Use both sides of paper (this one works great for homework).
Use cloth napkins.
Choose a reusable lunchbox instead of a paper bag, complete with reusable containers, metal utensils, a cloth napkin and a reusable water bottle.
2. Play and create with trash.
The Explorers love playing with cardboard boxes,
empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls – even shoeboxes. Boxes can
become forts and superhero headquarters, toilet paper rolls turn into binoculars and bird feeders, and paper towel rolls become spotting scopes and periscopes. 3. Borrow, share and donate books.
We read a lot around here, which translates into tons of books – and
therefore lots of paper. The library is a great alternative to buying
new, as are friends who are willing to swap books. Instead of holding on
to books when your kids have outgrown them, donate them to a used
bookstore, library or reading program. 4. Plant a tree.
Although planting trees is a popular Earth Day activity, fall is the season to plant trees and shrubs. Do your homework to make sure you pick the right tree for your space. 5. Visit the forest.
Our favorite way to pay homage to trees and forests is to spend time
with them. Visit a local state or national park – many of which feature
protected forest lands. During National Park week, admission to all 401 national parks is free. 6. Stay on the trails.
When you visit the forest, stay on marked trails. This will minimize
your impact on wilderness areas, preserving them for future generations. 7. Get your Smokey on.
Remember Smokey the Bear?
He’s still around, helping to prevent wildfires – which, by the way are
one of the greatest threats to forests. Smokey’s message is worth
repeating:
Only you can prevent wildfires,
Always be careful with fire,
Never play with matches or lighters,
Always watch your campfire, and
Make sure your campfire is completely out before leaving it.
Resources to Help Kids Discover More About Forests
Trees are critical for healthy and vibrant communities. Planting
trees helps make cities clean and green, but protecting the trees we
already have may be even more important: large mature trees provide many
more benefits than smaller young trees. Research
shows that mature trees capture more carbon, filter more particulate
matter to reduce air pollution, capture more stormwater, create shade to
mitigate the impact of urban heat islands and reduce energy use, and many other environmental and health benefits.
If you’re concerned about trees in your community being removed, here
are steps you can take for trees on public and private land.
If the city is removing a street tree:
Find out why the tree is being removed. Many cities post information regarding tree removals online, as well as dates for public hearings.
Be aware that sometimes trees need to be removed.
They may be dead, damaged, or diseased. They may pose a serious safety
hazard. The wrong species may have been planted, or the tree may have
been planted in an inappropriate location.
Check local municipal code for any tree protection ordinances. Ensure that appropriate municipal codes are being followed. Most codes can be found on your city’s website or check here.
Contact the city department responsible for removal.
Call your local division of urban forestry for information about street
tree removal. You can also write a letter of objection to your city
forester. Get a list of state urban and community foresters.
Contact your City Council representatives. It is
their job to help you communicate with the city and represent your
interests. Explain your concerns and reasoning, and be persistent.
Talk with your neighbors and inform them about any public hearings.
They may not know about the tree removal and the benefits that will be
lost. Urge them to contact elected officials and speak up. The more
people expressing concern in the community, the better the chance of
saving the tree.
Money talks. Determine the dollar value of the benefits provided by the tree in question using the National Tree Benefit Calculator.
Start a petition. Include names and contact information of supporters to send to your City Arborist or City Council representative.
Get the media on your side. Contact the press about
the tree removal to help generate awareness and explain why this tree
is important. A newspaper article, letter to the editor, blog post, or
TV news story can go a long way.
If the tree must be removed, work with the city or a local nonprofit
organization to ensure that another appropriate tree will be planted in
the same area or nearby to replace it. Find a tree organization near you.
If your neighbor, landlord, or developer is cutting down a tree on private property:
Talk with the property owner to find out the reason for the removal.
If the reason is aesthetic, share your concerns and information on the
benefits of trees. If they believe the tree poses a hazard of some sort,
see if you can compromise or help find a feasible solution to keep
the tree.
Rally support from neighbors. The collective voice
of many neighbors may encourage the property owner to preserve the tree.
This may be especially helpful in apartment complexes. A strong
response from residents may help convince a building manager or owner to
preserve trees.
Private trees of a certain species or size may be protected by city law.
Check your city’s municipal code for ordinances related to tree
protection. If a tree is protected, inform the person planning to remove
the tree, as they may not know about the law. If the ordinance is being
violated, you can also call the City Arborist for assistance. There may
be fines and replacement requirements for removing protected trees.
Ensure enforcement of any law.
Consult a professional. Homeowners may want to
remove a tree because they believe it is poses a hazard or will cause
damage to a structure. You can hire an arborist or other tree care
professional to assess the situation. They can often find a way to
mitigate hazards and save the tree. Keep in mind that there will likely
be a fee for the consultation. Find a qualified arborist here or here.
If the tree is cut down, consider working with your neighbor or landlord to plant a new tree. Evaluate the site to determine if another appropriate tree can be planted in the same location or nearby.
In general, remember to look into your city’s municipal code for any
tree protection ordinances. If there aren’t any, lobby your City Council
to enact an ordinance protecting certain types of trees in certain
situations. Learn more about tree ordinances.
If your city has an ordinance or once one is enacted, help to make
your fellow citizens aware of it and involved in enforcing it. You can
also check if your city has an urban forestry program. If not, write or
call your Mayor and Council to encourage them to create a program to
promote and protect the urban tree canopy.
Source by http://actrees.org/resources/local-resources/save-a-tree/
As you cut back on water use during this historic drought, you may
not realize the impact this will have on your landscape trees.
Trees in irrigated landscapes become dependent on regular watering.
When watering is reduced – and especially when it’s stopped completely –
trees will die.
Tree loss is a very costly problem: not only in expensive tree removal, but also in the loss of all the benefits trees provide. Your trees provide an immense range of health, energy, environmental and economic benefits:
Trees improve air and water quality
Trees provide shade to the landscape and reduce water needs
Trees help keep your home cooler
Trees slow stormwater runoff and help recharge groundwater
Trees reduce soil erosion
Trees add value – sometimes thousands of dollars’ worth – to your home and neighborhood
Trees take a long time to grow. Without helping our
trees through the drought, we risk losing these benefits. While the
drought may not last long, it can harm or kill trees, and it will take
10, 20 or even 50+ years to grow trees and get back the benefits.
How to save your trees
Lawn trees can and must be saved during the drought. What you can do:
Deeply and slowly water mature trees 1 – 2 times per month
with a simple soaker hose or drip system toward the edge of the tree
canopy – NOT at the base of the tree. Use a Hose Faucet Timer (found at
hardware stores) to prevent overwatering.
Young trees need 5 gallons of water 2 – 4 times per week. Create a small watering basin with a berm of dirt.
Shower with a bucket and use that water for your trees as long as it is free of non-biodegradable soaps or shampoos.
Do not over-prune trees during drought.Too much pruning and drought both stress your trees.
Mulch, Mulch, MULCH! 4 – 6 inches of mulch helps retain moisture, reducing water needs and protecting your trees.
What else you can do to save water and your trees:
If you prefer, instead of soaker hoses or drip lines, you can put
out several 5 gallon buckets with 5 holes drilled into the bottom of the
buckets.
Set the buckets under the tree toward the edge of the canopy area and use a hose to fill with water.
This water will then seep slowly into the ground. The number of
buckets will depend on your soil type as well as the size and species of
tree.
Trees in sandy soils need to be watered more frequently than trees in clay soils.
Convert your spray irrigation system to a drip system so you do not have to depend on the manual hose timer. If you want help with converting your system, consult the manufacturer’s manuals and website for your irrigation system or talk to an irrigation specialist.
Remove the lawn or sheet mulch the lawn underneath your tree. Trees
actually prefer wood chip mulch and the “duff” created by their own
leaves. Learn how here.
Helpful Videos from California ReLeaf, Save Our Water and the U.S.Forest Service
California ReLeaf, Save Our Water, and the U.S. Forest Service have
partnered together to create two how-to videos to show California
residents how to best care for their trees during this historic
drought: tips on watering mature trees and watering young trees.
Source by http://saveourwater.com/what-you-can-do/tips/landscaping/save-our-water-and-our-trees/
Roughly 3,500 years ago—right about the time the Ancient Phoenicians
were hitting their stride—a tiny cypress tree, no bigger than a fist,
sprouted in the swamplands of Central Florida. 3,500 years later, in
2012, that very same cypress burned to the ground.
Known as “The Senator,” this majestic, 118-foot tall tree was one of
the oldest organisms in the world. Over the course of its long life, it
survived hurricanes, disease and logging sprees, serving as a landmark
for Seminole Indians, a tourist attraction for curious Victorians, and a
spiritual epicenter for pilgrims hoping to bask, literally, in the
shade of history. Investigators later charged a 26-year-old woman with setting the fire.
Here are some of the world’s oldest and most amazing trees that remain.
1. Old Tjikko (Sweden)
Karl Brodowsky/Wikimedia Commons
The world’s oldest known living tree sprouted sometime during the
last Ice Age, roughly 9,550 years ago. This 16-foot spruce in the
Dalarna province of Sweden may look more like a Charlie Brown Christmas
Tree, but don’t be fooled: this little guy’s root system got started
back when the British Isles were still connected to Europe by an ice
bridge. According to Wired, geologist Leif Kullman, who discovered the tree, named it after his dead dog.
2. Methuselah (California)
Oke/Wikimedia Commons
Methuselah, a bristlecone pine tree from California’s White
Mountains, is thought to be almost 5,000 years old—and the oldest
non-clonal tree in the world. The exact location of the gnarled, twisted
Methuselah is a Forest Service secret, for its protection (that might
not be it above). In 1964, a slightly older tree by the name of
Prometheus was accidentally felled by a scientist who didn’t realize the
tree was as old as it was.
3. Llangernyw (North Wales)
Emgaol/Wikimedia Commons
Llangernyw, a lush, 4,000-year-old yew tree, was inducted into a list
of 50 Great British Trees by the UK Tree Council in 2002, which, as far
as tree honors are concerned, is a pretty big deal. Llangernyw was
planted in what is now a North Wales churchyard way back when the
Egyptian Pyramids were still considered a new development.
4. Zoroastrian Sarv (Iran)
The Zoroastrian Sarv, a tree in central Iran, is an Iranian National
Monument. The 4,000-year-old cypress took root right about the time
ancient people in Central Asia were inventing wheels with spokes, and
over the course of its long life, witnessed the advent of modern human
civilization.
LuckyLisp/Wikimedia Commons
The Tree of One Hundred Horses, this enormous chestnut near the Mount
Etna volcano in Sicily, is thought to be between 2,000 and 4,000 years
old. Its inimitable name comes from an old legend where 100 drenched
knights and their sopping steeds sought refuge from a thunderstorm
beneath the tree’s protective branches. It’s almost believable: This
truly massive tree holds the world record for girth, clocking in at 190
feet in circumference—nearly the length of a hockey rink.
Source by http://mentalfloss.com/article/29879/6-oldest-trees-world
1
of 4Don Houk, a resource adviser for the
Paradise fire, walks through an area of big trees that burned. Days
after the fire passed through here, plenty of places still smoldered.
(Hal Bernton / The Seattle Times)
In this hot, dry
summer, even the Queets rain forest in Olympic National Park is burning.
It’s a rare spectacle, but one that could become more common.
PARADISE CREEK, Olympic National Park — Fire crews call them
“cat faces,” deep holes that flames have burned into the trunks of the
centuries-old Sitka spruce and hemlock growing here in the Queets River
valley.
The trees may smolder for days — spouting smoke from their bases
before finally toppling to the ground with a thunderous crash that
sounds like a bomb has gone off. Related: Fire crews attacking blazes in all parts of state
“They are falling down regularly,” said Dave Felsen, a
firefighter from Klamath Falls, Ore. “You can hear cracking and you try
to move, but it’s so thick in there that there is no escape route if
something is coming at you.”
This year, even the Queets rain forest, a place that typically receives more than 200 inches of rain annually, is burning.
The fire started after a warm winter prevented most of the snowpack
from forming, followed by an exceedingly hot, dry spring that primed the
forest for ignition. The result of this unusual alignment is what now
ranks as the largest fire since the park was established, and might burn
through the summer.
Mostly, it creeps through a forest floor thick with needle cast and
downed logs, then, whenever the humidity drops low enough, flares to
take afternoon runs up steep, forested slopes.
The fire is a reminder that even these ancient forests in one of the
wettest places in North America have a burn cycle, although it’s
measured in hundreds of years.
After
a meager snowpack and a hot, dry spring, wildfires are burning in the
Queets River valley rain forest for the first time in park hisotry. (Hal
Bernton / The Seattle Times)
It also may be a harbinger of things to come as temperatures warm in an atmosphere increasingly influenced by greenhouse gases.
East of the mountains, where the drought threatens agriculture,
some researchers have concluded that climate change is already creating
a longer fire season that’s forecast to intensify in the decades ahead.
On the western side of the Cascades, there is more uncertainty about
how climate change will affect fire cycles. Major fires have flared in
the past on the Olympic Peninsula and elsewhere. These burns are more
infrequent, however, so there is less information to base future
forecasts upon.
But if the snowpack in this region shrinks due to warmer winters, fires are expected to be more frequent.
“If we get the kind of temperatures that are projected, we will see
more fires on the west side, and we will have longer fire seasons. I
think that it’s inevitable,” said David Peterson, a biologist at the
Forest Service’s Fire Sciences Laboratory in Seattle.
The Olympic Peninsula was hard hit by this year’s snowpack drought.... (Kelly Shea / The Seattle Times)
More
The changes that can take place when the climate shifts — even for
just one year — are starkly apparent on the Olympic Peninsula, which has
seen record low stream flows for June and early July.
The Queets, the largest river flowing off the west
side of the Olympics, is running at less than a third its normal volume.
Hikers who typically face a waist-deep ford to start the upriver trail
now cross the ankle-deep Queets in water as warm as a swimming pool.
Farther up the Queets valley, the trail crosses creek after creek
that this time of year should be flushing cool snowmelt into the river.
Instead, many are dry beds of cobbled rocks.
All of this is bad news for the wild salmon runs, steelhead, bull
trout and cutthroat trout that make the Queets one of the most fabled fishing rivers in the state. As the fish seeking cooler water stack up in deeper holes, this makes them too easy to catch.
“We’re
actively considering closures of the rivers to fishing because of the
extreme low flow conditions,” said Sam Brenkman, an Olympic National
Park fishery biologist.
As temperatures push into the high 80s, a few misguided banana slugs
venture out onto the baked turf of the valley trail, while herds of elk
seek what relief can be found by wallowing in the river.
Learning from fire
In the high country, park scientists say that the lower reaches of
the glaciers are bare and melting even as the higher reaches remain
blanketed in snow.
“We are going to see a massive loss of glacier ice this year at the lower elevations,” said Bill Baccus, a park scientist.
Baccus said the Olympic Park glaciers, the initial source of the
Queets and many other rivers, have shrunk in area by about 35 percent in
the last 30 years. In the decades ahead, they are expected to survive
in truncated forms in the higher reaches of the mountains.
For those who fight wildfires, this large rain-forest burn is a rare
spectacle, and an intriguing laboratory for what they might be facing
more often in the future.
“Few people in our profession have ever seen this kind of fire in
this kind of ecosystem,” said Bill Hahnenberg, the incident commander,
in a morning briefing to crews. “The information you gather could be
really valuable.”
The Paradise Fire is burning on the west side of Olympics, where the tremendous amounts of rainfall support many of the park’s biggest, oldest trees.
Some hemlock and Sitka spruce can measure 30 to more than 50 feet in
circumference. The Douglas fir, while less abundant, can live for more
than 1,000 years and reach heights of more than 200 feet.
The fire was first spotted in the Queets drainage back on June 15. It
was believed to have been started a full month earlier by lightning. By
the time firefighters responded, it had spread through 200 acres.
Sources: ESRI, USGS, Google Earth, inciweb.nwcg.gov
It has now exceeded 1,200 acres as it burns east deeper into the valley and up the slopes.
Fire can help renew the forests, creating new spaces where light can
penetrate and nurture the understory. And the goal in the Queets is to
contain the fire, not put it out.
So far, much of the Paradise fire has been spread by lichens that
mantle the trees. Their abundance reflects the spectacular amounts of
moisture in this forest.
This year, the lichen are dry like kindling. They pass the fire from
treetop to treetop, and downed wood help spread along the forest floor.
As the summer progresses, there is still the potential for a crown
fire that can spread in dramatic fashion as treetops are engulfed in
flames.
For firefighters, the big concerns are that winds could shift,
enabling the fire to jump the Queets River, then head south through more
old growth or spread west into valuable timber lands outside the park.
Old ways don’t work
Fire crews say the blaze is difficult to fight with traditional
tactics, such as clearing out an area down to bare earth to try to
prevent a fire’s spread.
“Once you get up on a slope, there is so much stuff on the ground and
so many big trees that a fire line is neither practical or safe,”
Felsen said.
Felsen is part of a Northern California-based crew that specializes
in wilderness fires where the objectives may be to let the fire burn
within certain areas. During a June tour in the Queets, they worked long
days deep in the backcountry, then returned to a base camp that was
kept stocked via helicopter so cooks could produce meals such as
bratwurst and fresh salad.
They spent much of their time monitoring the fire from a safe
distance, gathering observations that were relayed back to a command
post based in Port Angeles.
They found a stupendous amount of wood to feed the fire on each acre of land.
But on many days, the fire acted like a kind of slumbering bear,
slowly burning in a patchwork that leaves behind plenty of green spaces
within the old forest. The charred remains of one giant old tree, for
example, sat just a few yards away from a green bush full of ripe
salmonberries.
Even with mild fire, the Sitka spruce trees of the rain forest may be
vulnerable. Their thin bark offers less protection than that of more
fire-adapted species such as Douglas fir.
Moreover, they have relatively shallow root systems that may get singed by fire, leading to the trees’ death.
If fire does become more frequent in the rain forests, researchers
say, the mix of trees could change. The number of younger trees, as well
as more fire-tolerant species such as Douglas fir, could increase.
“Once a tree is mature, it can tolerate some climate swings,” said
Evers, the BLM fire ecologist. “But the problem comes when you lose
those trees due to fire. The climate may have shifted enough that you
don’t get the same species back.”
Source by http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/burning-rain-forest-raises-concern-about-future/
Jeremy Radachowsky is assistant director for the Latin American and
Caribbean Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). He
contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
In 1998, in one of my first real experiences in the tropics, I
volunteered as a research assistant to track tapirs in Corcovado
National Park. One of Costa Rica's wildest and wettest protected areas,
the park had a reputation for getting a lot of rain — up to seven meters
of rain each year.
The year I arrived, it stopped raining.
After a month passed with no precipitation, park guards at the remote
biological station started scratching their heads. After two dry months,
they started to become concerned. After the third bone-dry month, they
rerouted the water pipes and started rationing water. Claimed by fire
As the months wore on, I watched as the forest understory withered and
the creek beds dried up. The tapirs and peccaries confined movement
patterns to stay near large rivers, gnawing on tree roots for nutrition.
El Niño — a cyclical warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific that influences global climate — had arrived.
But that year, the effects of El Niño were more extreme. Many of
Central America's protected areas succumbed to forest fires. For
example, 40 percent of Guatemala’s Laguna del Tigre National Park burned
in a period of a few weeks. Jaguars, tapirs, and peccaries were forced
to abandon their territories for islands of unburnt habitat as slow
moving reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates died in the fires.
Park managers and local communities were unprepared for the
unprecedented climatic conditions. They did not have the technical
capacity, the organizational structures, or the flexible financing to
react quickly. Arboreal mammals, such as monkeys, anteaters and
kinkajous succumbed to smoke inhalation, and even highly mobile birds
were devastated since the fires hit during the height of their nesting
season.
Eventually, in late May, the first drizzle blanketed the forest, ending
the drought. The forest came back to life. The tapirs feasted on fresh
greenery. We danced in the rain to celebrate the event, but the climatic
extremes of 1998 demonstrated the increasingly devastating impacts of
El Niño combined with the effects of global warming, serving as a taste
of things to come.
There are only about 300 wild scarlet macaws (Ara
macao cyanoptera) left in Guatemala, all of which nest in an area of the
Maya Biosphere reserve that is extremely vulnerable to forest fires. Credit: Chris Packham/WCSGuatemala
The hottest year on record
At that point, 1998 was the hottest year since regular climate records
began. Although global warming has not conclusively been proven to
induce El Niño events, most of the hottest years on record have occurred
during El Niño years, including 1998, 2005 and 2010. What is so
remarkable about 2014 is that it broke all previous records without even
being an El Niño year. Global average temperature is a meaningful indicator of climate change. However, we should also be concerned about the fact that climate change results in more extreme climatic events.
For example, recent El Niño years have brought severe droughts to
Central America, Australia and Indonesia, while other regions such as
the southwestern United States, southern South America, and the Horn of
Africa have endured increased flooding events. Global warming
exacerbates the intensity of El Niño events, making extreme events like
the 1998 "Super El Niño" twice as likely.
As wildlife withers, rescue is underway
Even more worrisome is the vicious way climate change, El Niño, and
local land-use dynamics can reinforce each other to undermine the
ecological health of a given area. In Central America, many forests have
been fragmented for cattle ranching and African oil palm, resulting in
more arid landscapes and more flammable remnant patches of forest.
Once fires begin in dry, highly flammable forests, aerosols in the
smoke bind to water vapor in clouds, creating tiny droplets that cannot
join together to form rain drops. Even when conditions are right for
precipitation, a smoky, rainless haze hangs over the burning forest as
if to tease the burning animals below. [Worst Megadroughts in 1,000 Years Threaten US ]
All over the world, extreme events and long-term warming caused by
human-forced climate change compound the myriad threats to wildlife,
including habitat loss and degradation, hunting, poaching and disease.
The good news is that there are tangible actions that we can take to
mitigate the impact of climate change in critical ecosystems.
In areas where ecosystems and people are most vulnerable, WCS works
with local communities to help mitigate the impacts of climate change on
livelihoods via a process called ecosystem-based adaptation. For
example, WCS has implemented programs for fire monitoring and management in Guatemala,
helped to establish locally managed marine areas in Fiji, supported
rangeland management in Mongolia, and spearheaded planning for climate
adaptation and mitigation in Africa's Albertine Rift and Burma.
Entire bodies of water in Guatemala's Maya
Biosphere reserve dry out during extreme climatic events, putting
wildlife and forest communities at risk. Credit: Roan McNab/WCS Guatemala
Global fire safety
In the Guatemala effort, we worked in the Maya Biosphere reserve, where
fire regularly escaped from agricultural plots and people were
purposefully igniting forests to sabotage and convert them. In addition
to the impacts on wildlife, escaped fires threatened to destroy the
livelihoods of legitimate forest community residents, who depended upon
timber and non-timber forest products for income and subsistence.
If you're a topical expert — researcher, business leader, author or innovator — and would like to contribute an op-ed piece, email us here.
During the dry season, WCS and partners used over-flights with small
aircraft to detect and map threats, including forest fires, illegal
clearing, illegal logging and illegal roadways. We implemented an early
fire warning system and burn calendar for community fire management,
incorporated satellite "hotspot" monitoring of forest fires, developed
fire brigades, and created fire breaks to combat fires. The efforts were
extremely successful at limiting the number of escaped agricultural
fires and rdeucing fire incidence.
In 2013 — a very bad year for forest fires in the rest of Guatemala —
in the area where we intervened, fires were reduced by more 84 percent
as compared to the historical average. In 2014 there were almost no
wildfires, whatsoever.
Still, huge challenges remain. Riding on top of a baseline of higher
average global temperatures, just imagine what the next major El Niño
might bring. NOAA is predicting a 50 percent to 60 percent chance of an
El Niño event for 2015. Will wildlife be ready? Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was
originally published on Live Science.
Source by http://www.livescience.com/50061-conservationists-fight-global-rise-in-wildfires.html
Evolving over millennia, tropical forests are one of the greatest
storehouses of nature's diversity on Earth; of all of the world's land
species, around two thirds live in forests. Many of these rare creatures
- orang-utans, tigers, jaguars, forest elephants and rhinos - are
increasingly threatened by extinction.
But the importance of forests stretches far beyond their own boundaries. Forests help to regulate the Earth's climate
because they store nearly 300 billion tonnes of carbon in their living
parts - roughly 40 times the annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil
fuels.
When they're destroyed through logging or burning, this carbon is
released into the atmosphere as the climate changing greenhouse gas,
carbon dioxide. The destruction of forests is responsible for up to a
fifth of the world's greenhouse gas emissions - more than every plane,
car, truck, ship and train on the planet combined.
Forests also regulate water flow and rainfall so we depend on them to
grow our crops and food. The loss of forest in one part of the world
can have severe impacts in another; forest loss in Amazonia and Central
Africa can severely reduce rainfall in the USA Midwest, for example.
With so many of the world's forests already destroyed, we urgently
need to protect what is left. Yet industry is still relentlessly
converting forests into disposable products that end up in our shopping
baskets - while pushing species to the brink of extinction, destroying
the lives and livelihoods of forest communities and exacerbating global
climate change.
Greenpeace is campaigning for zero deforestation, globally, by 2020.
To achieve this, we challenge destructive industries to change their practices, and we inspire consumer action to demand that our food, paper and timber products aren't linked to forest destruction.
We lobby political power holders
to take the co-ordinated international and local political action
that's needed to protect the world's forests, the rights of the people
who depend on them, biodiversity and the climate.
We work alongside indigenous communities at the frontline of forest destruction - in the Amazon, the Congo, Indonesia - to investigate, document, expose and take action against forest destruction.
With the help of hundreds of thousands of supporters, we've won some amazing victories. Deforestation of the Amazon for soya and beef has significantly reduced due to the soya and cattle moratoria, the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada has been protected and is being sustainably managed, 80,000 hectares of northern Finnish reindeer grazing forests have been protected, and, thanks to pressure from our supporters, multinational giants like Nestlé and Unilever have changed their palm oil sourcing policies to help protect Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands.
In recent years, the possibility of a global political framework to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) has moved firmly onto the international political agenda. Greenpeace is campaigning for the right deal - which, if achieved, could benefit biodiversity, people and the climate as well protecting the world's forests.
But, in the minute it has taken you to read this page, a forest area
the size of 35 football pitches has been destroyed. Our Earth's
extraordinary and irreplaceable forests need to be protected, urgently.
Source by http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/
Sometimes,
we are overwhelmed by the extent of damage humans have caused, and we
are not sure if an individual can make any impact.
Yes you can, there are millions of people just like you, who
are learning about the issue and taking little steps to help.
Additionally, many governments, organizations and societies are making
great strides in helping reducing deforestation, and encouraging forest
plantations.
But there is still a lot to do.
Due to the extent and nature of forest destruction, efforts to stop
deforestation and preserve them are best achieved at government and
organization levels. This means that laws, rules and regulations from
countries can help to enforce the preservation of forests. Laws on
farming, timber and wood, as well as land use must be encouraged and
enforced.
Here are a few things you can also do to help.
Make
a conscious effort to share information with others (friends at school
and family members) on deforestation and its' effects. Some of your
friends may laugh at you and say it is silly to think that you can solve
problems like this. But that is OK, things work better when responsible
people don’t give up. Stand up for what you believe in.
Join
organizations, forest-preservation societies and pressure groups that
aim to help preserve the rest of our natural resources. When more people
work together, the impact is greater.
Reduce
the use of artificial items, recycle more and re-use items. Wood,
paper, plastics and many other things we use everyday at home can be
linked to natural resources being destroyed. This means that if we all
recycle more, there will be less dependence on the environment (and
trees). It also means that companies and governments will import less
raw-materials from the forest regions of the world.
There is a fun way to remember the most important points in forest preservation called TREES which means...
Teach others about the importance of the environment and how they can help save rainforests.
Restore damaged ecosystems by planting trees on land where forests have been cut down.
Encourage people to live in a way that doesn't hurt the environment.
Establish parks to protect rainforests and wildlife.
Support companies that operate in ways that minimize damage to the environment.
Thank you for learning with us. You can also see more of our lessons below.
Source by http://eschooltoday.com/forests/deforestation-prevention-tips-for-kids.html
