Articles tagged as Forests | Smithsonian Magazine

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

May 9, 2019

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

May 6, 2019

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

May 6, 2019

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

May 2, 2019

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

April 9, 2019

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

January 16, 2019

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

December 17, 2018

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

December 7, 2018

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

October 29, 2018

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

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

October 18, 2018

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

October 15, 2018

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

October 1, 2018

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

August 21, 2018

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

August 9, 2018

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

August 1, 2018

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

July 23, 2018