Saturday, December 28, 2019

"In the 1970s, researchers started using the term “old growth” to describe complex, biodiverse forests at least 150 years old".........."Environmentalists prefer using the term to describe forests with large, old trees undisturbed by human impact"............. "Under the environmentalist’s characterization, much more forest would qualify as old growth"........ "The tension between these two definitions remains unresolved"

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https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__r20.rs6.net_tn.jsp-3Ff-3D0012KMILY7KwND6jA8xnJVDfLca8B0f6zQN0Hvw-2DcGIgFPPxHFt1FegZcPD...
Friday, December 27, 2019

In Regions with Winters that regularly feature both ice and snow events, which trees are best adapted to not only surviving, but thriving/

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https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__r20.rs6.net_tn.jsp-3Ff-3D0012KMILY7KwND6jA8xnJVDfLca8B0f6zQN0Hvw-2DcGIgFPPxHFt1FegZcPD...
Thursday, December 19, 2019

"Masting is what biologists call the pattern of trees for miles around synchronizing to all produce lots of seeds and nuts – or very few"..............."Trees make their food through photosynthesis: using energy from the sun to turn carbon dioxide into sugars and starch".............."There’s only so many resources to go around, though".............. "Once trees make a big batch of seeds, they may need to switch back to making new leaves and wood for a while, or take a year or two to replenish stored starches, before another mast event".................."Weather conditions appear to be important, especially spring weather".............. "f there’s a cold snap that freezes the flowers of the tree – and yes, oaks do have flowers, they’re just extremely small – then the tree can’t produce many seeds the following fall"............. "A drought during the summer could also kill developing seeds"..............."Trees will often shut the pores in their leaves to save water, which also reduces their ability to take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis"..............."Because all the trees within a local area are experiencing essentially the same weather, these environmental cues can help coordinate their seed production, acting like a reset button they’ve all pushed at the same time"

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https://earthsky.org/earth/mast-year-synchorized-seeds-trees Tons of acorns in your yard? It must be a mast year Posted by Eart...
Monday, December 16, 2019

"Mosquitoes are the world’s deadliest animal and cause immense suffering"............."Ideally, we should maintain their ecosystem functions while reducing their vector causing disease burden"

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https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/the-bizarre-and-ecologically-important-hidden-lives-of-mosquitoes The bizarre a...
Thursday, December 5, 2019

" Across the Americas, we kill more than 400,000 Coyotes a year"............"Despite this full-frontal assault, this adaptable predator is thriving beyond all expectations"............"Now, it's poised to enter South America!"............."Coyotes have dramatically expanded their range since 1900, carving out habitat in suburban and urban regions across the United States—including the greater Chicago, NYC and Washington, D.C, Montreal and Toronto. metro areas".............."Coyotes have colonized most of Central America in the past century".............."The Darién Gap, on the Panama-Colombia border is the final obstacle to their South American expansion"

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We kill more than 400,000 a year, but this adaptable predator is thriving beyond all expectations. Now, it's poised to enter South...
Tuesday, December 3, 2019

"Seismic lines, snowmobile trails, oil, gas and timber extraction and other human land altering activities fragment caribou habitat and facilitate their predator (wolf and black bear) movements(and killing success), simultaneously enhancing competition from white-tailed deer and moose".............."Restoring this altered habitat to optimum Caribou population carrying capacity is a long and drawn out affair that even when done in optimum fashion does not quickly mitigate predator impact on Caribou"............."Therefore, mitigation strategies that resist, or redirect Wolf, Bear, Deer and Moose movement where human land alteration has occurred can reduce the effects of those predators(and competing browsers) preying on Caribou".............."Therefore, by moving recreational snowmobiling trails, power lines et al. away from caribou habitat, may help draw wolves and bears away from caribou—thus, reducing those predators opportunistic killings of caribou-without the need to cull the Wolf and bear populations"

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https://phys.org/news/2019-03-disrupting-wolf-movement-effective-caribou.html https://phys.org/news/2019-11-habitat-threatened-caribou.h...
Monday, December 2, 2019

COYOTES, WOLVES AND COUGARS BLOG reader Dave Messineo is an amateur Ornithologist who has participated in two New York State Breeding Bird Surveys with several published breeding discoveries under his belt..............In his New York home region, he is locally known as an experienced and expert birder...............He is also a student of the environmental changes that have occurred since European colonization began in the Eastern USA, circa AD1600...........An advocate of restoring this region to its 17th century Eastern Woodland environment as much as possible, he has actively encouraged his Upstate NY farm to recover from a cattle farming cycle of close to 200 years..............Dave passionately refutes with solid facts my most recent Blog Post entitled FOREST MANAGEMENT AND BIRDS that opined on the need to create prairie openings in Eastern woodlands to bring back bird populations that have been declining since the turn of the 20th century..............A solid Op Ed articulation from Dave for your reading pleasure below

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Rick: .    There have a number of articles that encourage  opening the forest for the benefit of birds. ...