President Obama Should Include the Tongass In Alaska’s First Line of Global Warming Defense

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On October 6th, 2015
I began my career as forest ecologist in the 1990s, cataloging the remarkable web-of-life in the old-growth rainforests of Prince of Wales Island. Since then, I have worked with rainforest ecologists around the world to document exceptional places like the Tongass and how they can contribute to a global climate change solution. Last April, hundreds of scientists, including myself, sent President Obama a letter asking him to include the Tongass as Alaska’s first line of climate defense.
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Temperate Rainforests Down Under Owe Existence to Ancient Ark

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On December 9th, 2011
Some 38-45 million years ago, Australia broke off from its parent super-continent, Gondwana, and began drifting northward.  In its long and arduous journey, the ark rafted ancient species forced to cope with a cooling and drying climate.
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Bird Survey Suggests If You Plant It, They Will Come

By Robert J. Cabin / On April 15th, 2011
The results of last month's annual Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge Bird Survey indicate that birds may colonize reforested areas much faster than experts had predicted. This year's surveyors spotted all five of the common native forest birds and four endangered forest birds within sections of the refuge that two short decades ago had been treeless areas dominated by non-native plants and animals.
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World's Most Unique and Endangered Forest Needs Our Help

By Admin / On April 5th, 2011
No, it's not in Brazil or Borneo. It's actually in the good old USA, literally and figuratively clinging to a steep slope in a drainage called Mahanaloa Gulch on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. We need to stop twiddling our thumbs and SAVE THIS FOREST NOW. I first visited this mystical forest shortly after I began a postdoctoral fellowship in restoration ecology at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in 1996. To my novice eyes, this gulch contained a beautiful but bewildering quilt of plants.
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New Lessons from Old Europe

By David Wilcove / On October 9th, 2008
Scientists tend to distrust conclusions that are not based on empirical data and adequate sample sizes. So take what I'm about to say with a large grain of salt, since it is neither empirical nor based on sufficient data. The issue of sustainability is arguably the greatest challenge of our time. How do we provide for 6.7 billion people (rising to over 9 billion by mid-century) without inflicting irreparable harm to our environment?