Michigan researchers have found the wreckage of two ships that disappeared into Lake Superior in 1914 and hope the discovery will lead them to a third that sank at the same time, killing nearly 30 people aboard the trio of lumber-shipping vessels. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced the discoveries this month. Ric Mixter said, “It solved a chapter in the nation’s darkest day in lumber history”. …The vessels owned by the Edward Hines Lumber Company sank into the ice-cold lake on Nov. 18, 1914, when a storm swept through as they moved lumber from Baraga, Michigan, to Tonawanda, New York. …Video footage from the Curtis wreckage showed the maintained hull of the steamship and still shining gauges — all preserved by Lake Superior’s cold waters. “We’re the first human eyes to see it since 1914, since World War I,” one team member said.
CONCORD —Snow may be gone from most backyards across the state, but New Hampshire’s forests and fields haven’t greened up yet, signaling the start of wildfire season statewide. To help remind people of the potential dangers that wildfires present, the N.H. Division of Forests and Lands, along with the Northeastern Forest Fire Protection Compact, has designated April 16-22, 2023 as Wildfire Awareness Week across the northeast as well as in eastern Canada. Governor Chris Sununu recently issued a proclamation supporting the importance of wildfire awareness and the value of fire prevention efforts statewide. …“Smokey Bear says, ‘Only you can prevent wildfires,’” said N.H. Forest Ranger Nathan Blanchard. “Wildfire Awareness Week is one way to help remind people that by being responsible and working together, we can keep New Hampshire safe from wildfires.” …Eighty-three percent of New Hampshire is designated as forestland, making it the second-most forested state after Maine.
KING WILLIAM COUNTY, Virginia – A few years ago, the Forest Stewards Guild conservation group could buy an insurance policy to conduct controlled burns to cut wildfire risk for about $10,000 per year. No more. Dave Lasky, a former director of fire management for the group based in Colorado, said several underwriters had offered to provide a million-dollar policy but at an annual cost of $100,000 – well out of reach for private groups who do much of the burning to cut fire risks in the United States. These days, insurance “is either outrageous or unavailable,” he said. …Anxious insurers increasingly fear that preventive fires could escape – even if that happens very rarely. “Even if it isn’t actually that risky, the perception matters,” said Daniel Godwin, a fire management planning specialist with the U.S. Forest Service. …Problems accessing insurance are also a problem in the western United States.
The Lolo National Forest is moving ahead with a logging, forest thinning and prescribed burning project west of Missoula after responding to environmental groups’ concerns. The Sawmill-Petty Project includes 5,321 acres of logging — including 1,342 of clear-cut — and 11,558 acres of thinning and prescribed burning, sometimes in combination, for a total of 16,879 acres of work. The work is scattered across a slew of individual units west of Missoula and south of Interstate 90, from the Corral Creek drainage southwest of Frenchtown, through Alberton and almost to Tarkio. The project area extends from I-90 and the Clark Fork River on the north, southward up the Sawmill and Petty Creek drainages, and up to the heights of South Fork Petty Creek drainage. …The decision Tuesday noted that the project was modified after objections from environmental groups concerned about the impacts of logging and road-building on wildlife, including the federally protected grizzly bear and bull trout. 
To bolster its climate-friendly credentials, Europe is increasingly reliant on an energy source as old as fire itself — dead trees. …Much of the forests… are in the southeastern United States. A recently published a report on the future of biomass and biogas as a method of transitioning toward a carbon-free Europe by 2050. Mr. Göss found that as of today…“The larger part of the EU’s renewable energy mix is, made up of biomass … in different forms (liquid, gaseous, solid) and origins (wood, grasses, agricultural residues by-products, etc).” In the continent’s largest countries, biomass plants are cropping up in the thousands. …The sustainability of woody biomass — most notably trees — has been questioned by climate activists. …Despite these concerns, the European Union and its legislative body, the European parliament, have fully embraced the practice. …Tree farms in the southeast provide tens of millions of tons of biomass to Europe every year.
Solving the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are not separate issues. Animals remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide each year. Restoring species will help limit global warming, new science reveals. Protecting wildlife across the world could significantly enhance natural carbon capture and storage by supercharging ecosystem carbon sinks, 
