Free Republic

Europe’s last primeval forest is facing what campaigners call its last stand as loggers prepare to start clear-cutting trees, following the dismissal of dozens of scientists and conservation experts opposed to the plan. Poland’s new far right government says logging is needed because more than 10% of spruce trees in the Unesco world heritage site of Białowieża are suffering from a bark beetle outbreak. But nearly half the logging will be of other species, according to its only published inventory. Oak trees as high as 150 feet that have grown for 450 years could be reduced to stumps under the...

An ancient mummified forest, complete with well-preserved logs, leaves, and seedpods, has been discovered deep in the Canadian Arctic... The dry, frigid site is now surrounded by glaciers and is completely treeless, except for a few bonsai-size dwarf trees... located on Ellesmere Island, one of the world's northernmost landmasses. The rangers had come across wood scattered on the ground from much larger trees than the few dwarfs currently in the area, including logs that were several feet long... When Barker and colleagues found where the scattered logs were coming from -- a slope that had been eroded by a river...

AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2007) – Lance Cpl. Mark Sheldon decorates his work section’s Christmas tree. It is a live tree and was provided by the National Christmas Tree Association’s Trees for Troops program. Sheldon is a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist with 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward). AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 14, 2007) – An ornament hangs from a live Christmas tree provided by the National Christmas Tree Association’s Trees for Troops program. AL TAQADDUM, Iraq (Dec. 15, 2007) -- Instead of seeing the brightly colored decorations and twinkling lights found on America’s streets during the...

Northern Refuge: White spruce survived last ice age in Alaska Sid Perkins Genetic analysis of white spruce trees at sites across North America suggest that that species endured the harsh climate of Alaska throughout the last ice age, a notion that scientists have debated for decades. ICE AGE SURVIVORS. White spruce trees, common in high-latitude North American forests today, endured in Alaska during the last ice age, a new genetic analysis suggests. Inset shows Alaskan and other sites (red dots) sampled in that study. iStockphoto; (inset) Anderson, et al. Picea glauca, the white spruce, is one of the most common...

SALMON, Idaho — In a state where pine and fir outnumber residents, the loss of several privately owned spruces should hardly excite attention, let alone spark a crusade emblematic of a new trend to protect trees on private land. But in the ski community of Ketchum, Idaho, a seasonal home for the rich and famous and the last resting place of writer Ernest Hemingway, a developer's plan to cut down three towering conifers on his property spurred the city to issue an emergency order last month outlawing the felling of mature trees. Resident Lara Babalis wanted additional assurances. She spent...

MANCHESTER, Conn. -- Frances Katkauskas never dreamed the 12-inch spruce tree she and her husband, Adolph, planted 50 years ago would one day be used as the world's most famous Christmas tree. But on Tuesday, she stood aside and quietly watched as the now 79-foot, 9-ton Norway spruce was cut down and placed on a trailer bound for New York and Rockefeller Center.

Workers Spruce Up the White House While President Spends a Month in Texas By Jennifer Loven Associated Press Writer Published: Aug 21, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is a mess. With President Bush away for a month, a noisy horde of sweaty construction workers and heavy machinery has descended to give the executive mansion a facelift - about 270 projects ranging from replacing the odd door knob to ripping up and repaving an entire driveway. The result is a far cry from the ship-shape home that only a few weeks before staged one of the most formal and...