Giving Invasives the Cold Shoulder
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Posted By Allan Britnell
Barely six months after the official surrender of Japanese forces ended the Second World War, Winston Churchill gave a speech in March 1946 at Westminster College in Missouri where he famously stated that, “an iron curtain has descended across the Continent,” coining a term used ever since to describe the divide that existed between eastern and western Europe during the Cold War.
Yet for all of the hardship and agony that iron curtain brought to the continent it bisected for half-a-century, researchers have recently concluded that it did have one unintended benefit: It was remarkably effective at reducing the spread of invasive species.
No Bull About this Re-engineering Project
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Posted By Allan Britnell
An ambitious Italian effort is underway to re-engineer the auroch, a wild cattle species that’s been considered extinct for nearly four centuries.
Finally: less logging in Algonquin
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Posted By Conor Mihell
The ink is nearly dry on a new forest management plan for Algonquin Provincial Park that will increase the amount of logging-free area in Ontario’s most popular park. In November, the Algonquin Forestry Authority, the Crown consortium responsible for managing and planning logging activities within park boundaries, and the Ontario Parks Board proposed to increase the total area off limits to logging by 98,000 hectares, thereby boosting Algonquin’s “protected” area to just under half of the its 770,000 hectares. The proposed 10-year management plan is currently up for discussion on the province’s Environmental Bill of Rights website, and is expected to come into force this summer.
