http://www.physorg.com/news202626863.html
Research by Cornell on the threat to our Ash trees.
Earle Rich            Mont Vernon, NH

We went kayaking on Haunted Lake in Francestown today. The weather was about perfect for temperature although the wind came up as we headed back. It was blowing the wrong way, of course.
Along with lots of flowering water lilies, there seemed to be a lot of strange growths on the bottom of the lake. We [...]

http://www.physorg.com/news199362347.html
Last winter’s weather around the North America was unusual for the cold that rolled down the east coast, heavy snows in the midwest, little snow for the winter olympics and I saw actual snow in Florida. This article is a pretty good description of the oscillating patterns that come out of the Pacific.
Looking back is [...]

NASA has released a cool new map (see it here) showing forest heights around the world, taken from satellite data. The Northeast’s trees are relatively short, because of species type more than logging history, it seems:

Temperate conifer forests — which are extremely moist and contain massive trees such as Douglas fir, western hemlock, redwoods, and sequoias–have the tallest canopies, soaring easily above 40 meters (131 feet). In contrast, boreal forests dominated by spruce, fir, pine, and larch had canopies typically less than 20 meters (66 feet). Relatively undisturbed areas in tropical rain forests were about 25 meters (82 feet), roughly the same height as the oak, beeches, and birches of temperate broadleaf forests common in Europe and much of the United States.

As you may know, Maine and New Hampshire are, respectively, the two states in the US with the largest percentage of surface area covered by trees, part of the Great Northern Forest.

Sometimes it seems that the list of environmental problems never stops growing - it’s the “wet blanket” effect that, I think, makes a lot of people anti-environmentalist; they’re so tired of hearing bad news that they just pretend it’s all “tree-huggers” and can be ignored without feeling guilty.
Anyway, here’s another problem to add to the [...]

I can’t say I’ve noticed much problem with pine trees where I live, but this McClathy News Service story (read it here) says two species of fungus - white pine needle cast and brown spot needle blight - are thriving due to the wet winter and spring, causing many pines to drop their needles and [...]

AP had a story this week about a Forest Service program to plant Dutch Elm Disease-resistant elm trees in forests, as a first step toward returning the iconic American tree to our landscape (here it is). Speaking as somebody who has written about such efforts for a couple of decades, the interesting part to me [...]

This link is a May, 2010 update on the power generated (near projection) and the noise issue that has received a lot of publicity. A survey of neighbors returns mixed results, fully described in the report.
http://www.foxislandswind.com/pdf/052010FIECWindPowerUpdate.pdf
Earle Rich              Mont Vernon, NH

(Note from Dave B., since we can’t add comments: The weirdest part of the report is [...]

Amish farmers in Pennsylvania, who would seem to be as “green” as you can get (no mechanized vehicles, no electricity) are under EPA investigation because their practices of spreading manure for fertilizer is causing too much runoff into waterways. From this NY Times story:
Runoff from manure and synthetic fertilizers has polluted [...]

And now for the latest chapter of It’s a Small World, Environmental Edition: I went out into some fields this morning and couldn’t figure out who was burning brush. Turns out the smoke was due to wildfires in Quebec (Globe and Mail story here), which is causing hazy skies throughout northern New England.
There are [...]

Vermont is on the verge of outlawing felt-soled wading boots, part of an attempt to prevent anglers from inadvertently spreading the slimy invasive weed didymo (”rock snot”) from stream to stream. Here’s the Free-Press article, which notes that Alaska has already imposed a ban. The problem is that felt is very hard to clean, unlike [...]

New Scientist has an article (here it is) about two Dartmouth researchers doing a real-world experiment manipulating reality to see what it does to evolution - in this case, to some small lizards on some tiny Bahamas Islands. Among other things, they wrapped some islands in mesh to keep out predators, and imported predators on [...]

From the NH Department of Environmental Services: Do you live near a lake or pond? Are you interested in collecting lake samples, conducting your own water quality tests and understanding the test results?
Attend the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Volunteer Lake Assessment Program (VLAP) annual workshop. Participants will learn about VLAP and how to [...]

The “Katrina of oil spills” spreading in the Gulf of Mexico right now is a reminder that (a) we in New England use a lot of oil, because we heat our homes with it more than any other part of the country, and (b) we almost had a huge offshore refinery at the Isles of [...]

Here’s a regional angle from a national story that I hadn’t thought of: Pres. Obama’s surprising decision to open up offshore drilling continues to protect Georges Bank, the fisheries-rich area on the far side of the Gulf of Maine. Here’s a story from Foster’s Daily Democrat.