The boreal biome, the sweeping band of conifer forest just south of the Arctic Circle, is a key region for studying climate change—and not just the impacts. Certainly, with boreal forest fires growing more frequent and boreal permafrost melting dramatically, the area is responding very visibly to the rise of carbon in the atmosphere. Yet the trees and permafrost themselves are vast reservoirs of carbon. Ecologists like Scott Goetz of the Woods Hole Research Center and Ted Schuur of the University of Florida are keen to understand how climate change is altering the way the boreal biome adds to and takes up carbon from the atmosphere. This science bulletin highlights ongoing experiments in Alaska that aim to unravel these complex feedbacks so scientists can better predict outcomes as climate change continues. From the American Museum of Natural History.

Growing trees is not totally the job of Mother Nature anymore! Making sure logging doesn’t tax future growth too much is an ever more increasingly important task. Using a relatively new high tech invention, the helicopter, to harvest hasn’t been around that long but offers an interesting alternative to logging. We look at growing, managing and cutting of the new sustainable forest.

This episode of The Green Interview features Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a unique blend of rigorous scientist, reverential philosopher, and Irish bard who profoundly understands the intertwined life of a forest. Beresford-Kroeger, raised in Ireland, now lives with her husband on a 160-acre farm and forest in Merrickville, Ontario where she has planted and observed, more than 6,000 species and varieties of flowers, shrubs and trees, including varieties she has bred specifically to survive in a changing northern climate. She is passionate about the preservation of rare and near-extinct plants and the medicines they provide, and strongly advocates the use of “bioplans,” aimed at re-foresting cities and rural areas with trees that provide medicinal, environmental and nutritional “eco-functions.”

Having witnessed land clearing firsthand in Africa and South America, tropical biologist Bill Laurance thought he had seen everything—the worst that deforestation has to offer. But, as he explains in this eye-opening program, what has been allowed to happen on the Indonesian island of Sumatra amounts to “ecological Armageddon.” In addition to Laurance’s testimonial on the size and scale of forest removal, viewers also learn about aggressive land-acquisition tactics used by palm-oil and paper-producing corporations and the impact on local communities dependent on small-scale agriculture. The fate of endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger is also discussed in the context of extreme, and potentially irreversible, habitat destruction.

In 1970, the paper industry set its sights on the lush forests of Tasmania—beginning what environmentalists call a chain saw massacre that still cuts down 8 million cubic meters of timber each year. This program documents the ongoing fight to save the coveted woodlands, championed by a diverse group of activists. Viewers learn about early on-site protests that met with violence and abuse, as well as a wider and increasingly sophisticated Internet campaign against Gunns Limited, a corporate giant in the wood products industry, urging investors not to fund the company’s new pulp mill project. Will a real winner emerge from this bitter conflict, and will the weapons be legal or lethal?

The third largest freshwater lake on the planet has been invaded by numerous exotic species over the last century. "Lake Invaders: The Fight For Lake Huron" is a documentary which explores the threat to Lake Huron's ecosystem and the innovative solutions employed by biologists. Biologists from around the Great Lakes describe invaders such as the sea lamprey, alewife, zebra mussel, quagga mussel, goby, and killer amphipod. They describe the damage caused by these invaders and efforts to manage Lake Huron's ecosystem and multi-million dollar fisheries. The film also follows DNR biologists out on the lake for their annual survey of fish populations. The result is a mix of good news and bad news, but the main concern is preventing another wave of invasions through Great Lakes shipping channels.

The northern rain forests of the Republic of Congo are the habitat of the largest concentration of gorillas anywhere in the world. The region is also home to the IFO timber company and its employees, who rely on IFO for their income as well for the schools and medical center that IFO has established there. Environmentalists are concerned about tropical timber harvesting, but without IFO the human residents of the rain forest would be plunged into poverty. Can the rain forest be harvested without destroying the great apes’ habitat? This program examines the sustainable forestry practices successfully put into place by IFO in the Congo Basin—it also addresses the problems that might occur if the logging company were simply to shut down.

"The ecosystems of seasonal forests undergo drastic change twice a year. In spring and autumn, the entire biotic community must transform itself at exactly the same time—and it can only do this if all its animal life is working together in perfect accord. This program observes the vast biome of North America’s seasonal forests over the course of one year. Highlights include footage of flying squirrels leaping from tree to tree in the fall, a lynx’s strategies for surviving the winter, the significance of caterpillars to the forest canopy, and the importance to the forest of a bear’s fishing exploits."

In Cameroon, the largest exporter of African wood to Asia and Europe, illegal and unregulated logging by foreign companies is posing a real threat to the country's most valuable economic and ecological resource.

Inspired by Timothy Egan’s best-selling book, “The Big Burn” is the dramatic story of an unimaginable wildfire that swept across the Northern Rockies in the summer of 1910. The fire devoured more than three million acres in 36 hours, confronting the fledgling U.S. Forest Service with a catastrophe that would define the agency and the nation’s fire policy for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. As America tries to manage its fire-prone landscapes in the 21st century, this film provides a cautionary tale of heroism and sacrifice, arrogance and greed, hubris and, ultimately, humility, in the face of nature’s frightening power. Distributed by PBS Distribution.

It’s a tale of tragedy and heroism—and mind-blowing incompetence. Eric Campbell tells the story of one of the world’s deadliest wildfires and the Greek government's failure to adequately handle it.

This video segment examines the history of fire in one of the most fire-prone, drought-afflicted areas of our world: Australia. What is the best way to manage bushfires? Explore the volatile debate of prescribed burning: does it reduce the risk to life and property, or simply destroy ecosystems?

The California wildfires of 2018 took a worrisome trend to a new extreme, claiming lives and more than a million acres. Scientists investigate how forestry practices, climate change, and drought may contribute to the rise of deadly megafires.

Among the largest, most pristine areas of tropical woodland on the planet, the Congo Basin forests could easily fall prey to shortsighted and exploitative commercial interests. This program looks at sustainable lumber production initiatives taking root in the region, with a focus on cutting-edge forestry management as well as economic growth through increased cooperation between local concession holders. Viewers join a planning team and a chain-saw crew in the remote woodlands of Gabon as they take great care to preserve the fragile ecosystem, and another team of advisors as they set up meetings between small African foresters—who, despite initial skepticism, see a need for collective economic leverage.

This program with Bill Moyers looks at the ongoing debate on how we manage the rapidly disappearing old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. Is the timber industry pressuring the forest service to cut trees in violation of environmental laws? Are environmentalists hurting the economy of the Pacific Northwest? What effect has overcutting on private land during the 1980s had on our environment? Featured in the program are environmentalists, politicians, and industry representatives who debate these issues.

When seasonal rains sweep across South America, the Amazon River and its tributaries overflow their banks to create an ecosystem unlike any other—a place where, for six months out of each year, land-dwellers and water-dwellers mingle. This program joins an expert Amazon biologist in a journey into the flooded forests of the Amazon Basin to film dolphins navigating through treetops, a male “water monkey” releasing a cloud of babies from the nest in its mouth, and the usually lethargic three-toed sloth swimming agilely among branches. The video also explores the depletion of the region’s natural resources, both by indigenous inhabitants struggling to survive and by outsiders eager to clear land for mass crop production. A National Geographic Production.

In this film, Bernice Notenboom leads an expedition across the vast Amazon Rainforest to better understand the mega droughts and tree deaths that threaten its survival. Meet scientists who explore the rainforest's root system, the forest canopy, and monitor the rising carbon dioxide levels. The Amazon rainforest is reaching the tipping point and with global warming, it could soon be in a deep state of crisis.

The sun glints on crystal clear waters, mist floats above the towering falls that flow into a lush green basin. Today, the incomparably beautiful Amazon rainforest is a vast laboratory for experiments that are redefining the relationship between humans and nature. But what's the worth of this invisible commodity? And who should profit from it? This glorious, cinematic film looks for answers as it plunges into a sensory journey through the rainforest.

The first documentary in the collection plots the course of the river, from its source to its delta. In a succession of spectacular images we see the extraordinary geographical route that the Mekong takes, from the Tibetan plateau, down the mountains of the Yunnan Province in China, then through the tropical valleys and virgin forests of Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand before reaching the green plains of Vietnam. In the tropical forest, nature abounds with wild animal species, rare plants, and flowers. In Laos', whole villages still pray to the Gods of Trees while in Thailand a hunter shows how the hunting of Asian elephants for preservation, now forbidden, was practiced.

Beautiful, complex, and enigmatic, rain forests are time capsules from the ancient Earth. They carry the genetic inheritance of millions of years of evolution, and although they are home to half the world’s living species, much of their elaborate web of life is still waiting to be discovered. Filmed in woodlands on the slopes of Australia’s Mount Warning, this program provides a stunning example of rain forest habitat as it examines the area’s unusual wildlife. Viewers are treated to detailed and awe-inspiring scenes of the Albert’s lyrebird mimicking the calls and sounds of other species, the regent bowerbird undergoing its elaborate mating rituals, a carpet python hunting and preying as only it can, the caper white butterfly in various life stages, and much more. A gorgeous exploration of the biosphere’s vulnerable and mysterious treasure trove. (55 minutes)

Called “Absolutely brilliant!” by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, this documentary tracks the war being waged by entomologists, ecologists, government officials, and private citizens against the Asian longhorned beetle—a nonnative species of insect that could destroy one third of America's trees. In addition to illustrating how these beetles do their damage, Bugged stresses the vigilance and cooperation needed to identify infestations and halt their spread. Interviewees include Ann Hajek and E. Richard Hoebeke, of Cornell University; Joseph Gittleman, Clint McFarland, and Phillip Lewis, of the USDA; and other concerned individuals. A useful case study for introducing the concept of invasive species!

This program investigates the importance of soil by looking at its characteristics, ability to decompose organic materials, and role in the carbon cycle. Due to natural and unnatural disturbances in soil, erosion has become a concern for conservation scientists.