Woodland - Spring 2013 - (Page 6)

news on the ground © bob KeeFeR/SHUTTeRSToCK.Com Seedlings by amanda cooke up in smoke? 9,211,281: That’s the number of acres burned by wildland fire last year, the third worst fire season by acreage in the past 52 years. According to new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) research, extreme fire years like 2012 will likely begin to occur two to four times per decade by 2050. “2012 was a very dry year. The dryness is associated with turning forests and grasslands into a flammable mixture of dead materials,” said NASA scientist Doug Morton. “Climate models project an increase in fire risk across the U.S. by 2050, based on a trend toward drier conditions that favor fire activity and an increase in the frequency of extreme events,” Morton said. Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires in the western United States have more than doubled since the 1980s. NASA’s newest predictions for both low- and high-greenhouse-gas-emissions scenarios indicate longer and stronger fire seasons across all regions of the country during the next few decades. Morton presented burned-area estimates produced from observations by NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in December. medicine’s new needles Sources: NASA.gov and the National Interagency Fire Center 9,211,281 LAST YEAR © eVgeNY DUbINCHUK/SHUTTeRSToCK.Com ACRES BURNED Bacterial infection at the site of implanted medical devices and prosthetics continues to irk doctors and chemists alike. New research suggests that Douglas-fir needles could be the key to solving this biomedical puzzle. Chemists at India’s Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology are developing an antimicrobial, self-sterilizing material derived from the tree’s needles, which could be used to coat medical devices to prevent infection. The researchers have used an extract from Douglas-fir together with silver nitrate solution to generate antimicrobial nanoparticles destined to coat materials used in medicine. When the Christmas trees begin to appear next holiday season, perhaps you’ll have a different view of Douglasfir needles. Source: ScienceDaily.com 6 woodland • Spring 2013 http://www.NASA.gov http://www.ScienceDaily.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Woodland - Spring 2013

Woodland - Spring 2013
Contents
Overstory
On the Ground
Faith and Forestry
Take a Hike!
Tools and Resources
Forests and Families

Woodland - Spring 2013