Forest Research and Outreach Blog

Forests in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range are being stressed by many factors that put them at risk. High-severity wildfire, drought stress, insect outbreaks, disease, and a backdrop of changing climate are a few.

Reposted from UC News Climate disruption has arrived, bringing challenges that once seemed unimaginable: wildfires so large and hot that they create their own weather, record-breaking heat waves and a vanishing Sierra snowpack.

Reposted from the UC Riverside news Project examines microbes' role in greenhouse gas emissions Scientists have found microbes living in the charred soil that wildfires leave behind.

Reposted from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences news A study found that redwood trees have two different leaves that serve different functions. The peripheral leaf, left, focuses on photosynthesis while the axial leaf is devoted to absorbing water.

Posted from the UC Berkeley News Dense stands of Douglas fir trees surround South Twin Lake in California. Decades of logging and fire suppression have shifted the composition of forests in the region, favoring fire-sensitive softwoods, like fir, over fire-resistant hardwoods, like oak.