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On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had "likely" played a role.
The addition of that single word "very" did more than reflect mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. It also added new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less over whether humans are warming the planet, but instead over what to do about it. In recent months, business groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The subject had a red-carpet moment when former Vice President Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," was awarded an Oscar; and the Supreme Court made its first global warming-related decision, ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate carbon dioxide.
Thanks to the effort and imagination of Dick Fox, I am pleased to have this collection of papers made available to forest landowners and other people with a broad interest in forest health.
These articles cover a range of topics, some general and others fairly specific. My purpose has been to touch on items that I sense are of current interest, to use the FOREST OWNER column as an opportunity for alerting New York forest owners of potential problems and, at times, to do nothing more than try and make a forest owner's walk through the woods a bit more interesting. In regard to the latter, I think it important for forest owners to appreciate that insects play many beneficial roles in forest communities and to realize that all insects which feed on trees are not necessarily "pests."
In order to be a good steward one must understand the biological components of a forest. Insects are but one of the diverse groups of organisms that interact to determine the character of a woodlot. Unfortunately, on occasion they compete with humans for resources of mutual interest. This is the point at which they are no longer mere curiosities but become pests. The best control measure is prevention. If we understand an insect and the manner in which it interacts with the forest well enough, we often are able to adjust our forest management activities accordingly. I hope these articles will stimulate readers to learn more about the entomological aspects of forest health.
On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had "likely" played a role.
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