Natural Resource Management

Michael S. Stevens is the Co-Founder and Principal of Pioneer Mountain Group, an environmental consulting firm based in Hailey, Idaho. PMG provides a range of management, conservation, scientific and natural resource production and marketing services to clients including non-profit organizations, investment firms, and private landowners. The firm’s current projects are in the western United States, Latin America and Canada.

If our objective is to limit the amount of carbon dioxide that accumulates in the atmosphere, it is important to think about both sides of the equation -- how much is emitted and how much is taken up and stored.

This past week in Lima, EIA launched a new report entitled “The Laundering Machine: How Fraud and Corruption in Peru’s Concession System are Destroying the Future of its Forests”. The full report is available in both English and Spanish as PDFs posted on EIA’s homepage. In addition, we have created a digital version that contains links to many pertinent official documents, news stories, videos and other supplementary information.

Current ecological thought suggests the more diverse a plant community is, the more productive it is. But scientists don’t fully understand why this is so. “We’re exploring the possibility that plant-soil feedbacks may also be a critical but underappreciated factor in plant community development,” says Andrew Kulmatiski, assistant research professor in Utah State University’s Ecology Center and Department of Plants, Soils and Climate. Read the full story

The United States and Puerto Rico account for 80% of the total value of Peruvian timber sales, said Andrea Johnson, forest campaign director of the Environmental Investigation Agency. Read the full story

When most people look at a forest, they see walking trails, deer yards, or firewood for next winter. But scientists at the Harvard Forest and Smithsonian Institution take note of changes imperceptible to the naked eye -- the uptake and storage of carbon. What they’ve learned in a recent study is that an immense amount of carbon is stored in growing trees, but if current trends in Massachusetts continue, development would reduce that storage by 18 percent over the next half century. Forest harvesting would have a much smaller impact.

Nutrient pollution isn't only a Gulf problem, said Glynnis Collins, the executive director of the Illinois-based Prairie Rivers Network, another group involved in the suits. She said nutrient-rich waters have led to toxic algae blooms in many places. "They can sicken people, pets and livestock," Collins said. "It's a worldwide story. We have to get a handle on it. It's crazy not to." Read the full story