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The entire grove of trunks is in fact one plant, a newly discovered Palmer's oak (Quercus palmeri) that researchers estimate is over 13,000 years old, making it one of the oldest plants on Earth... none of its 70 stems get more than a few feet tall, and it grows in a boulder pile that doubles as shelter from the area's buffeting winds. At first glance, the scientists thought it was an isolated grove of trees, but something didn't add up: None of them produced fertile acorns, so the plants couldn't reproduce... Genetic analysis confirmed their suspicion. Each of the 70...

Tech. Sgt. Jose Urquizaflores, 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group logistician, picks up a Christmas tree handed out by Airmen of the 332nd Expeditionary Force Support Squadron, Dec. 21. The Christmas trees were donated by The Dees Nursery and Florist Inc., located in Oceanside, N.Y. Photo by Senior Airman Chris Hubenthal, 332nd AEW. JOINT BASE BALAD — The spirit of the holiday season is alive here, as U.S. troops recently received 80 Christmas trees from Dees' Nursery and Florist in Oceanside, N.Y. The trees will be distributed to Army and Air Force units here, said Capt. Katie Garski, community service flight...

What about anybody at the conference, or hundreds of feet from the summit entrances, wearing a cross around a neck or on a bracelet? What about the Muslim wrap-around-all? What about a Hindu head covering?

WASHINGTON – The nation's top Forest Service official says national forests can store more carbon to slow global warming, but he warns that such a goal must be balanced against the risk of catastrophic wildfires. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell told a Senate panel on Wednesday that his agency is trying to manage forests to combat climate change while still easing the risk of wildfires.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2009) — Norwegian scientists have found “mummified” pine trees, dead for nearly 500 years yet without decomposition. Norway’s wet climate seems perfect for encouraging organic matter to rot – particularly in Sogndal, located on Norway’s southwestern coastline, in one of the most humid, mild areas of the country. In fact, with an average of 1541 millimetres of rain yearly and relatively mild winters, Sogndal should be an environment where decomposition happens fast. Not so. “We were gathering samples of dead trees to reconstruct summer temperatures in western Norway, when our dendrochronological dating showed the wood to be...

This is hilarious! Do these morons have a clue how many people laugh at them? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIULIJxVr7A&feature=player_embedded

"A team of researchers from the US, Denmark and New Zealand have discovered a process through which a prevalent biogenic nonmethane hydrocarbon compound emitted by trees—isoprene—forms atmospheric particulate matter (i.e., secondary organic aerosol). The results are published in the 7 August issue of the journal Science. Aerosols impact human health, due to their ability to penetrate deep into lungs, and impact Earth’s climate through the scattering and absorption of solar radiation and through serving as the nuclei on which clouds form, noted co-author Prof. John Seinfeld from Caltech. “So it is important to know where particles come from.” Emissions of...

Researchers have figured out a way to plug into the power generated by trees. Scientists have known for some time that plants can conduct electricity. In fact, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that plants can pack up to 200 millivolts of electrical power. A millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt. And although the popular potato or lemon battery experiments have shown that an electrical current can be generated by creating a reaction between the food and two different metals, power is harvested from trees through a different mechanism. "We specifically didn't want to confuse this effect with...

I was sick much of last month, still don't feel good, I'm just old, tired, aggravated and worn out, I suppose. First is a LITTLE BLUE HERON, next a GREAT BLUE HERON, different birds altogether. I love the color of the Magnolia seeds, nothing else quite like it.

August 13, 2002: Scattered around our planet are hundreds of creatures that have been to the Moon and back again. None of them are human. They outnumber active astronauts 3:1. And most are missing. They're trees. "Moon Trees." NASA scientist Dave Williams has found 40 of them and he's looking for more. "They were just seeds when they left Earth in 1971 onboard Apollo 14," explains Williams. "Now they're fully grown. They look like ordinary trees--but they're special because they've been to the Moon." How they got there and back is a curious tale. It begins in 1953 when...

Pine trees grown for 12 years in air one-and-a-half times richer in carbon dioxide than today's levels produced twice as many seeds of at least as good a quality as those growing under normal conditions, a Duke University-led research team reported Aug. 3 at a national ecology conference.

I never figured myself for some weepy tree hugger. Not when the village sent the letter about the big elm tree in our front yard, not when the Serbians showed up in the morning. "You feel bad. This I understand," said Bogdan Mijic, 23, whose father, Nedeljko, and Bogdan's younger brothers, Branislav and Borislav, run the County Tree Service in Stickney. "People feel sad," said Bogdan, blond hair cropped short, eyes far too old for a young man in his 20s. "They're sad. You lose something. I understand this." Bogdan lost something too, but of far greater value than a...

LOS ANGELES – Walt Disney Studios is turning box-office cash from its nature documentary "Earth" into seed money to plant trees in the rain forest. Disney had announced it would plant one tree in Brazil's endangered Atlantic rain forest for every viewer who saw the movie during its first week. According to Disney, the box-office tally hit $16.1 million, which translates to 2.7 million trees.

An art exhibition in Civic Center Plaza could kill trees and should be removed immediately, a certified arborist has warned city officials. Acclaimed artist Patrick Dougherty in March installed his “The Upper Crust” exhibit, which is 18,000 pounds of freshly cut willow saplings interwoven in the sycamore treetops. Tree advocates at the time expressed concerns that the exhibit could harm the trees, and a March 31 arborist report seems to validate those worries. “To protect the trees from possible harm, it is my recommendation that the sculptures be removed from the trees immediately,” certified arborist Roy Leggitt said in a...

President Barack Obama walks with former President Bill Clinton after he planted a tree while participating in a national service project at Kenilworth Aquatic Garden in Washington, Tuesday, April 21, 2009. At rear is Vice President Joe Biden President Barack Obama, who had finished planting his tree, walks over to watch first lady Michelle Obama plant a tree with volunteers as they participate in a national service project at Kenilworth Aquatic Garden in Washington, Tuesday, April 21, 2009. President Barack Obama watches as former President Bill Clinton plants a tree as they participate in a national service project at Kenilworth...

Trees in old growth forests across the West are dying at a small, but increasing rate that scientists conclude is probably caused by longer and hotter summers from a changing climate. While not noticeable to someone walking through the forests, the death rate is doubling every 17 to 29 years, according to a 52-year study published in the Friday edition of the journal Science. The trend was apparent in trees of all ages, species, and locations. "If current trends continue, forests will become sparser over time," said lead author Phillip J. van Mantgem of the U.S. Geological Survey's Western Ecological...

Simple logic: Jesus said "by their fruits ye shall know them." We take this to mean that a tree is bad because its fruit is bad, but in fact it's not a statement about what determines the objective condition of the tree. It's a statement about the empirical basis for our knowledge of its condition. If the tree bears bad fruit, it's a bad tree. Any fruit that comes from it is bad, since a bad tree cannot (does not have the power to) bear good fruit. Christ's assertion seems contrary to possible human experience. Don't we find bad cherries...

Trees in old-growth forests of the western United States are dying at twice the usual rate, and scientists say climate change may be to blame. In one of the largest-ever surveys of U.S. forests, ecologists analyzed data on nearly 60,000 trees in 76 old-growth forests. Set to be published Friday in the journal Science, the study reported a startling jump over the past few decades: regardless of type, size or elevation, twice as many trees are dying each year. And while death rates have increased, birth rates for new trees have remained stable — meaning there aren't enough new trees...

The power of viruses is well documented in human history. Swarms of little viral Davids have repeatedly laid low the great Goliaths of human civilization, most famously in the devastating pandemics that swept the New World during European conquest and settlement. In recent years, there has been growing evidence for the hypothesis that the effect of the pandemics in the Americas wasn't confined to killing indigenous peoples. Global climate appears to have been altered as well. Stanford University researchers have conducted a comprehensive analysis of data detailing the amount of charcoal contained in soils and lake sediments at the sites...

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head. Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill. But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last...

BERKELEY, CA (KGO) -- The final showdown is unfolding at UC Berkeley. As campus police move in on the tree sitters occupying the last of the remaining trees. There have been many violent confrontations between police and protestors. Objects thrown, weapons drawn, people arrested - it's all going down right now at UC Berkeley. Campus police in a cherry-picker are actively trying to get the tree sitters down from their perch in a redwood tree. A dramatic ending to the nearly two-year protest over the removal of trees to build a new university sports complex.

This video is just too great to ignore. I'm surprised they didn't make it to St. Paul to protest with the rest of the lunatics:

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico, The first of 400,000 trees are being planted to form a ``green wall' in protest of the fence the U.S. is building along the border with Mexico. The treeline will eventually stretch for 512 kilometres along the border between the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas. Coahuila Gov. Humberto Moreira Valdes says ``our wall is of life, and it competes with shame and hate.' The U.S. government says the fence is critical to security. Critics say it fuels animosity between the two countries and raises environmental and private property concerns. The mayor of a Texas border town...

The tree-sit that has been going on for more than 18 months in the oak grove near Memorial Stadium may have reached its end now that UCPD officers are attempting to take the sitters out. In the latest of several developments, an arborist harnessed on the end of a crane was mobilized onto one of the trees where he was attempting to cut down a structure in the tree when a tree-sitter began hitting him with a plastic bottle. The workman was pulled out of the tree by the crane. Two cherry pickers are also on the site, one of...

Black day of 1780 caused by distant wildfires, MU experts sayCOLUMBIA, Mo. – At noon, it was black as night. It was May 19, 1780 and some people in New England thought judgment day was at hand. Accounts of that day, which became known as 'New England's Dark Day,' include mentions of midday meals by candlelight, night birds coming out to sing, flowers folding their petals,and strange behavior from animals. The mystery of this day has been solved by researchers at the University of Missouri who say evidence from tree rings reveals massive wildfires as the likely cause, one of...

In the community of Shady Grove Woods, trees are becoming more and more scarce. Residents and other anti-Intercounty Connector activists marched through the neighborhood on Saturday, pointing out the trees that were cut down to make way for the six-lane highway. ‘‘It’s just that we didn’t have a say in it in so many ways and we’re not talking about a two-lane road, we’re talking about a major highway running through here,” resident Sam Chim said of the ICC. ‘‘We have a lot of nice, private woods back here and now we’re going to have a highway running through instead....

I 'm with Joyce Kilmer -- "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree." I'm even with city Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who recently waxed poetical before the Portland City Council on the "incredible" "show-stopping" trees growing in Portland. But before I could recall the last lines of Kilmer's poem -- "Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree!" -- Saltzman went on to say something that's creepy and chilling: "It sometimes pains me to think that we have no ability to control their destiny -- that a private...

Scientists to capture DNA of trees worldwide for database By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer Graduate student Natalia Pabon-Mora works at The New York Botanical Garden's Pfizer Plant Research Laboratory at the Bronx, New York facility Tuesday, April 15, 2008. A team of researches there is leading a global effort to barcode the DNA of every tree species on Earth, all 100,000 of them. The laboratory, with sweeping views of trees and a pond, reflects the work going in indoors. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) (AP) -- The New York Botanical Garden may be best known for its orchid shows and colorful...

The world's oldest living tree on record is a nearly 10,000 year-old spruce that has been discovered in central Sweden, Umeaa University said on Thursday. Researchers had discovered a spruce with genetic material dating back 9,550 years in the Fulu mountain in Dalarna, according to Leif Kullmann, a professor of Physical Geography at the university in northwestern Sweden. That would mean it had taken root in roughly the year 7,542 BC. "It was a big surprise because we thought until (now) that this kind of spruce grew much later in those regions," he said. Scientists had previously believed the world's...

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Call it an eco-parable: one Prius-driving couple takes pride in their eight redwoods, the first of them planted over a decade ago. Their electric-car-driving neighbors take pride in their rooftop solar panels, installed five years after the first trees were planted. This redwood tree was pruned to reduce the shade cast on solar panels in a neighbor’s yard. Trees — redwoods, live oaks or blossoming fruit trees — are usually considered sturdy citizens of the sun-swept peninsula south of San Francisco, not criminal elements. But under a 1978 state law protecting homeowners’ investment in rooftop solar panels,...

Charlton, N.Y. (Army News Service, Dec. 12, 2007) - Volunteers from the New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division spread holiday cheer by helping load donated Christmas trees bound for overseas troops and Army Families stationed across the United States. The five Soldiers joined local tree farmers, veterans and military Families at Ellms Tree Farms Nov. 28 to load a FedEx delivery truck with nearly 150 Christmas trees, all bound for Fort Drum, N.Y., and the Army's 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry). The Christmas SPIRIT Foundation and FedEx - in cooperation with the National Christmas Tree Association - organized...

Awhile back, I saw a fellow planting a tree to offset the effects of carbon dioxide emissions. What I couldn't figure out was how moving a tree from one hole to a different hole would have any effect on global warming. I decided to try this myself. After working all day moving a tree, I placed my thermometer next to the hole from which the tree came out, and took measurements. Next, I measured the temperature next to the hole with the tree in it. Believe it or not, the second hole showed cooler temperatures by approximately 10 degrees. I...

BERKELEY, Calif. -- On Sunday evening a Memorial Oak Grove tree-sitter fell from the supply-line that is used to ferry food, water and people into and out of the tree-sit protest. The traverse-line was created after the university erected a fence around the tree-sitters and spans from a tree inside the fenced in area to a tree outside the fence. Nathaniel Hill, the fallen tree-sitter, was moving on the traverse line to meet his father, Carl Hill, who had come from the east coast to visit his son. Hill was taken to Highland Hospital where he was treated for a...

Monica Barra went to South Los Angeles last month to attend a jazz festival. She went home with a free tree, a one-gallon African sumac that she lugged around on a Sunday afternoon past the shops and restaurants of Leimert Park. The college senior took the tree on an impulse, though each tree recipient was required to fill out a "pledge to plant," a form smaller than an index card and a signature feature of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's plan to plant 1 million trees across Los Angeles. "I just really like having trees and plants where I'm living," said Barra,...

U.S. Forest Service officials have released a plan to reduce destructive wildfire potential on about 8,100 acres of forest land east of Estes Park. The goal of the Thompson River Fuel Reduction Project is to reduce the spread and intensity of wildfires that could affect private property and municipal water supplies in and around the Big and Little Thompson rivers and to protect the forest’s ecosystem. Historically, small fires thinned forest undergrowth and kept the chances for a large wildfire to a minimum. But through much of the 20th century, people suppressed those fires. That left a more dense undergrowth,...

LIHUE, Hawaii - Bette Midler cut down more than 230 trees around one of her properties on the island of Kauai without a permit, and the state has recommended she be fined. The staff of the Board of Land and Natural Resources recommended $6,500 in fines for having the trees felled and for building a graded road without permits required for the land zoned for conservation use. The singer and actress will pay the fines and will follow a replanting program, her attorney Max W. J. Graham said. The actress and movie star, who was born in Honolulu, didn't realize...

The plan to use trees as a way to suck up and store the extra carbon dioxide emitted into Earth's atmosphere to combat global warming isn't such a hot idea, new research indicates. Scientists at Duke University bathed plots of North Carolina pine trees in extra carbon dioxide every day for 10 years and found that while the trees grew more tissue, only the trees that received the most water and nutrients stored enough carbon dioxide to offset the effects of global warming. The Department of Energy-funded project, called the Free Air Carbon Enrichment (FACE) experiment, compared four pine forest...

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered a group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from 8 million years ago which could provide clues about the climate of pre-historic times. Instead of petrifying -- turning to stone -- the wood of 16 Taxodium trees was preserved in an open-cast coal mine allowing geologists to study samples as if they were sections cut from a piece of living wood. "The importance of the findings is that so many trees got preserved in their original position in one place," Alfred Dulai, geologist at the Hungarian Natural History Museum...

-- A healthy American chestnut tree discovered on a New Hampshire farm may serve as the "mother tree" to bring back a species nearly wiped out by Asian blight.The tree was found on a 125-acre parcel owned by Bill and Nancy Yates. Bill Yates remembers 60 years ago when American chestnuts lined the road near his home before the tree was all but wiped out on the Eastern seaboard. American Chestnut Foundation officials hope to use the tree as a way to bring the tree back to New Hampshire. Leila Pinchot, the foundation's New England science coordinator, pollinated the 40-foot...

It's time for every patriotric American to wrap their trees with yellow ribbons and send a message to terrorists and Washington that we support our troops. I have a yellow ribbon around my tree for my grandson in Baghdad, but I intend to display another one for our captured, wounded, and KIA troops and for those serving in all foreign lands, but particularly Iraq and Pakistan. I hope all Freepers will join me in sending this message of support. Please, let's beribbon as many trees in America as possible. Thank you all.

Climate Change: Ronald Reagan once declared that air pollution comes from trees. He was right then and he's right now. Psssst: Trees can also contribute to global warming. Reagan's famous statement contributed to the conventional wisdom that Republicans are ignorant or uncaring or both on environmental issues. It also earned the Gipper considerable derision. His former press secretary, James Brady, once grabbed the president as they flew over a forest and said in mock alarm, "Look, Mr. President — killer trees!" Turns out, Reagan was right. Planting trees are said to be food for the environment and a tool to...

SIERRA VISTA — Andrew Cook’s tree-planting project came to life Saturday, as volunteers worked at an area veterans cemetery. Cook, 16, organized the project as part of his efforts to gain one of the highest honors in Boy Scouting, the rank of Eagle Scout. “I’ve been a Life Scout for three years, and this is something I needed to get done,” said Cook, who came up with a project to beautify the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery. “My mom always said I should go plant trees at the cemetery. But this project way exceeded my expectations.” The Buena High School...

All the media coverage of how we can live a green life, got me to thinking. According to the USDA:"Planting trees remains one of the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess CO2 from the atmosphere." Such a claim deserves some investigation. This is what I found. According to British Airways, a single round-trip flight of a 747-400D between London and NY puts 1.26 metric tons of CO2 per passenger into the atmosphere. This is 1260 kg/person. Again, according to the USDA, The average tree can take an average of 5.9 kg of CO2 out of the atmosphere per year....

Insect could help fight spread of tamarisk. residents who have battled with the invasive tamarisk, or salt cedar, could find relief in the form of a beetle. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is introducing a beetle - the only known natural enemy of the tamarisk. The beetle comes from Asia, where tamarisk first originated. The tamarisk is an invasive, nonnative plant that was originally brought to the United States from Asia to control erosion. But the noxious shrub is said to cover 10,000 acres in Montezuma County. It can have roots that run as deep as 100 feet and can...

Fattah announces his plan for trees and energy savings By Cynthia Burton Inquirer Staff Writer Democratic mayoral candidate U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah promised to be the man of 100,000 trees and many, many grass-covered roofs as he presented a plan that assumes he wins the 2007 mayoral race and the one in 2011.Yesterday at Bartram's Garden, the homestead of the city's legendary horticulturist, Fattah outlined his environmental proposal, which he said would lower the heat in summer, soak up floodwaters in spring, and save money year-round through energy efficiencies.Fattah's environmental outline reflects many of the ideas compiled by the Next...

Republicans are often wrongly labeled anti-environment by their liberal opponents and their records distorted. Take for example Ronald Reagan who was skewered for saying trees contributed to pollution. We now know he was right.Trees emit more hydrocarbons than cars. Some produce so much pollen that there is a campaign in the Southwest to rid the region of cedars. You can be fined $500 in Albuquerque for planting or selling cedars. And the EPA still doesn’t adequately consider natural “pollution” in its regulations. Considering that natural pollution sources often far exceed man-made varieties one can understand the lunacy of the claims...

In this dust-choked region, long seen as an increasingly barren wasteland decaying into desert, millions of trees are flourishing, thanks in part to poor farmers whose simple methods cost little or nothing at all. These gains, moreover, have come at a time when the population of Niger has exploded, confounding the conventional wisdom that population growth leads to the loss of trees and accelerates land degradation, scientists studying Niger say. From colonial times, all trees in Niger had been regarded as the property of the state, which gave farmers little incentive to protect them. Trees were chopped for firewood or...

The tree as a metaphor for personal growth. Tom was about to collapse. Three days of trekking through the desolate desert had taken its toll: fatigued and parched from a thirst that only a barren stretch of wilderness could produce. The sun blazing overhead was making his head spin. His stomach constantly reminded him of how empty it was. How long had it been since he had partaken of a decent meal? Just when he could barely take it anymore Tom noticed something looming ahead on the horizon. Could that really be a fruit tree? It must be a mirage...

The Christmas spirit has returned to Sea-Tac Airport. The Port of Seattle, which had been battered internationally for removing 14 Christmas trees last week in response to a rabbi's threat of a federal lawsuit, began reinstalling the displays Monday night.