There’s no better time to embrace nature than in the fall, the season of transformation. Over the past few decades, our forests have come under major threat due to a number of human-induced disturbances. Trees play important roles for not just our ecosystems but for our community as well. Turns out there are many health benefits from wandering around the woods.
October 19th is the International Day of Action on Bioenergy. Today we recognize Southern US forests at the international level for the way they protect us from climate change and storms like Hurricane Matthew, but we also recognize the ways that the bioenergy industry is exploiting our forests.
In southern Missouri’s Ozark Mountains, the spirit of the forest defending Bolala is alive and well in community members who helped protect part of the Mark Twain National Forest.
Our trees aren’t trash. On National Coffee Day, Dogwood Alliance joins with our partners at Environmental Paper Network to take action to raise awareness that using throwaway cups causes harm to people, forests, water and the climate.
We were lucky enough to hang out in the cool town of Athens, GA with other like-minded folks who were eager to learn more about how they can protect the forests in their backyard. This year, even more so, because three new wood pellet mills are proposed in and around the Athens area, which would clearcut Georgia forests, turn them into pellets, and either ship them to Europe to be burned for electricity OR burn them right here in the South.
