Plants’ Rights

In September, Ecuador became the first country to extend constitutional rights to nature. The extent of nature’s rights is unclear, putting less emphasis on defending specific species than on the rights of ecosystems. Ecuador’s new Constitution may go as far as granting broad protections to simple life forms like algae and bacteria.

NYTimes.com

Key to Wisconsin Woody Plants for the iPod

A new tree and woody plant identification tool, developed by The University of Wisconsin's Dept of Botany, is available. The free software program can be downloaded to your iPod. Portable and easy to use, this guide contains all the states native trees and shrubs, as well as common exotic species.
Click here for More Information

Return Of The Oaks

An exciting article by Rose Rankin, recently published in the Northwest Quarterly, Return of the Oaks eloquently describes the efforts being made to save the “majestic but disappearing trees”.

McHenry County Nursery, Glacier Oaks Nursery, The Land Conservancy of McHenry County, McHenry County Conservation District are just a few of the organizations committed to making sure these old forests and historic trees - their conservation and regeneration - make a comeback.

Click here to read about the Chicago Gateway Green TREEcago project.

A Dose of Nature for Attention Problems

'Parents of children with attention deficit problems are always looking for new strategies to help their children cope. An interesting new study suggests that spending time in nature may help. A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child's concentration skills. The researchers evaluated 17 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who all took part in three 20-minute walks in a park, a residential neighborhood and a downtown area.'

The researchers found that a "dose of nature" worked as well or better than a dose of medication on the child's ability to concentrate.

Read more at Alliance for Community Trees

U.N. Environment Programme Launches Green Economy Initiative

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Green Economy Initiative, also known as the 'Global Green New Deal,' was launched last week with an emphasis on investing in clean technologies and 'natural infrastructure,' such as forests and soils.

The initiative emphasizes five sectors that it claims are likely to generate the biggest transition in terms of economic returns, environmental sustainability, and job creation.

Within the next two years, the Green Economy Initiative plans to deliver a comprehensive assessment and tool kit for the world's nations to make the transition to a green economy.

Read more Alliance for Community Trees

Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

The annual cost of forest loss is between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests preform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide

Some conservationists see it as a new way of persuading policymakers to fund nature protection rather than allowing the decline in ecosystems and species to continue.

Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year.

Read more at Community Forestry Resource Center

Shade Trees Can Protect Coffee Crops

Sustainable farming that employs shade trees may improve crops' resistance to temperature and precipitation extremes that climate changes are expected to trigger. The study focuses on coffee production, although their conclusions could be applicable to other economically important crops, including cocoa and tea, which also were traditionally grown under shade trees.

Scientists believe that the intensification of coffee production has made that crop more vulnerable to higher temperatures and changes in precipitation. The evidence suggests that trends toward increased use of pesticides and less reliance on shade trees, make the crop more susceptible to weather.
The benefits of shade trees appear greater in more marginal growing areas. Further efforts are needed to determine where a return to more traditional agroforestry techniques is likely to protect the livelihoods of farmers threatened by climate change.

Read More at www.aibs.org

Hope for Ash in beneficial insect

"Three species of wasps collected from ash trees in China have the potential to save ash trees in North America.

In mid-June, Purdue University researchers, armed with permits from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, began to release 200 of the first wasp species in an ash forest near Rousch Lake in Huntington.

These wasps lay their eggs into the eggs of emerald ash borers. As the wasps feed, grow and develop, they eventually kill the ash borer eggs."

"While researchers are optimistic about the study, Cliff Sadof, Purdue professor of entomology, said any control benefits could be a few years away."

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