Scientists are attempting to breed blight-resistant strains of the American Chestnut Tree using a method called backcross breeding. If successful, the Appalachian forests could once again have 100 foot tall chestnut trees in 50 to 100 years.
Read (National Geographic News)
Pikeville, KY leaders have recruited a coal company to flatten two mountaintops surrounding the Appalachian town in order to make room for expansion.
Read (All Headline News)
Planting forests to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere can have a range of side effects, including drying up streams and making soil saltier, according to a global study.
The team surveyed more than 500 places where new forests have been planted over the past half-century. In 13% of cases, streams dried up completely for at least a year. On average, plantations cut local stream flow by more than 50%.
Read (Nature)
Scientists have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf. The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food. Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to the shore. Their sea journeys leave them them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves.
Read (Sunday Times Online)
Swarms of fungus-eating snails have laid waste to miles of US coastal wetlands that are already reeling from drought, and it might get worse if the droughts continue.
Read (Nature)
Mountaintop removal coal mining, which had largely been relegated to the Appalachian back country, has been edging closer to major highways because of a mining boom sparked by higher coal prices, and that’s created a sort of reverse eco-tourism among people seeking to get their first up-close look at the practice.
Read (AP via Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
A “DEAD zone” devoid of life has been discovered at the epicentre of last year’s tsunami four kilometres beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean.
Scientists taking part in a worldwide marine survey made an 11-hour dive at the site five months after the disaster. They were shocked to find no sign of life around the epicentre, which opened up a 1000-metre chasm on the ocean floor.
Professor O’Dor thought the collapsing cliff had buried the food sources of bottom feeders, which in turn had an effect on larger predators. “No one has ever got to a site like this so quickly before,” he said. “It may just be that it takes a while for things to get back to normal. The sea is very cold at this depth, and typically the speed of life is proportional to temperature. Nothing happens very fast at 4C.”
Read (The Sydney Morning Herald)
A growing number of US cities are recycling now using a controversial system called “single stream” that boosts recycling rates and lowers costs. But critics say it also degrades some of the material being recycled.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Salem doesn’t have any kind of curbside recycling program. It has a facility that one can drive to and drop items into different bins. I seldom see anyone else using these when I drop my recyclables off. I’d think more people would participate if curbside pickup was available.
The Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge is unable to add new tracts of land to its 7,711 acre refuge, because of a lack of federal funding. It was conceived in 1996 to cover 20,000 acres of prime bald eagle habitat along the Rappahannock River in the [Northern Neck](http://www.northernneck.org/ “Northern Neck Tourism Council”) area of Virginia.
Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
Shenandoah Valley hunters say that deer are harder to find this year. Lack of food, coyotes, or a combination of the two may be the reason hunters have reported seeing fewer deer in the mountains around the valley this year.
Read (Harrisonburg Daily News Record)
A cat-sized mammal which appears to be new to science is spotted in the forests of Borneo. The animal is dark red, has a long muscular tail, and is believed to be carnivorous.
Read (BBC)
The city of Fredericksburg is considering a conservation easement on 4,500 acres it owns on the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers in 5 different counties. How and why did it acquire the land?
Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)
African elephant populations have surged since the end of poaching. Now scientists are testing contraception to limit numbers.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Fruit bats may be acting as reservoirs of the killer Ebola virus, responsible for several deadly outbreaks in central Africa. are more likely to pass the virus on to great apes such as gorillas and chimpanzees, which have been badly affected; however, it is also possible that bats could infect humans directly.
Read (BBC)
The [Friends of the Rappahannock](http://www.riverfriends.org/ “Friends of Rappahannock website”) is urging residents in Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange, Spotsylvania, and Stafford counties to support an easement to protect 5,000 acres of shoreline on the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers.
The city of Fredericksburg, which owns the land, is considering the easement, but the 5 counties have to cooperate because the land is in their counties. So far, Culpeper and Fauquier are definitely on board.
Read (Culpeper Star Exponent)