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Forests

Algarve goats are indigenous to Portugal.

Could Goats Help Solve Portugal’s Wildfire Crisis?

About 11,000 goats are involved in a pilot program to help reduce overgrowth that fuels forest fires

Unlike seeds of other plants, orchid seeds (above, a seed packet) do not contain the nutrition they need to sprout. They get it from fungi.

Why the Conservation of Orchids Is No Simple Matter

Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast visits with researchers working to understand the conditions these threatened plants need to grow

The character of Smokey Bear first appeared in 1944.

A Brief History of Smokey Bear, the Forest Service’s Legendary Mascot

How the beloved figure has become a lightning rod in a heated environmental debate

A Large Fire Is Raging Through the Everglades

Officials are concerned about reduced visibility on motorways and respiratory issues for people in residential areas

Bald cypresses along the Black River in North Carolina.

North Carolina Bald Cypresses Are Among the World’s Oldest Trees

Some of the trees along the Black River provide a window into climates dating back thousands of years

Future of Space Exploration

The Space Station Just Got a New Cutting-Edge Carbon Mapper

The OCO-3 instrument will watch Earth’s carbon levels change throughout the day

A starfish floating on the coral reef, Dominican Republic.

One Million Species at Risk of Extinction, Threatening Human Communities Around the World, U.N. Report Warns

A global assessment compiled by hundreds of scientists found that humans are inflicting staggering damage on the world’s biodiversity

The scene after a fire at Ashdown Forest in East Sussex

Fire Tore Through the Forest That Inspired Winnie the Pooh’s ‘Hundred Acre Wood’

Officials are confident England’s Ashdown Forest will recover from the blaze

Cool Finds

This Is the World’s Tallest Tropical Tree

The yellow meranti in Malaysia’s Sabah state is 330 feet tall and weighs more than a jetliner

Meet Juliet, a Sehuencas water frog recently collected from the Bolivian cloud forest.

Cool Finds

A Year Later, Match.com Profile Pays Off for World’s Loneliest Frog

The 2018 Valentine’s Day stunt raised funds for an expedition that located five new Sehuencas water frogs, including a mate for lonesome Romeo

Redwood forest in California, similar to some of the terrain Josiah Gregg and his team crossed at the height of the California Gold Rush.

The Ill-Fated Expedition of a 19th-Century Scientist to Explore the California Wilderness

Even facing exposure and starvation, Josiah Gregg insisted on stopping to take measurements and observations, much to his companions’ distress

Cool Finds

Fruit Flies First Began Feeding on Our Fresh Produce About 10,000 Years Ago

It turns out the insects love marula fruit found in south-central Africa, which attracted them to human caves

Viking tar kiln.

New Research

Was the Vikings’ Secret to Success Industrial-Scale Tar Production?

Evidence suggests that the ability to mass-produce tar bolstered their trade repertoire and allowed them to waterproof and seal their iconic longships

Pando Grove in fall.

Pando, One of the World’s Largest Organisms, Is Dying

Mule deer and cattle are eating saplings before the clonal grove can regenerate

New Research

This Humongous Fungus Is as Massive as Three Blue Whales

A new estimate suggests this mushroom is 2,500 Years Old and Weighs 440 tons

Mugging for the camera

Cool Finds

World’s Largest Forest Antelope Photographed in Uganda for First Time

The lowland bongo and other mammal species were recorded during the first camera trap survey of Semuliki National Park

New Research

Ancient Mayan Clearcutting Still Impacts Carbon in Soil Today

Even 1,000 years after a forest regrows, the soil beneath still won’t hold as much carbon as it once could, a new study suggests

Trending Today

Fire Closes Yosemite Valley Indefinitely

Smoke and flames from the Ferguson Fire have closed the roads to the National Park’s most popular attraction at the height of tourist season

Trending Today

The Science Behind California’s “Fire Tornado”

The spinning mass of smoke filmed near Redding, California, is much taller, wider and lasted longer than average fire whirls

The darker the purple, the more Indigenous control.

Indigenous Peoples Manage One Quarter of the Globe, Which Is Good News for Conservation

Despite making up 5 percent of the world’s population, indigenous peoples maintain large swathes of land, two-thirds of which are still in a natural state

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