American Forest Foundation Blog

It's Friday: Here's Your Week in Trees

• Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away last weekend in Kenya. Maathai’s movement helped plant an estimated 45 million trees. This great leader supported women’s development and economic independence through the process of environmental restoration (AllAfrica.com).
• A new Forest Service study confirms wood is the greenest of green building materials (AFF blog)
• Autumn is upon us! This week, the color yellow entered the leaf peeping season’s palette in New York City (New York Times City Room blog).
• Hemlocks in the eastern United States are still increasing despite the spreading woolly adelgid infestation (Science Daily).
• A Georgia company announced that it has developed technology that turns wood waste (such as chips) into motor fuel (New York Times)
• The 2011 Grantham Prize awardee, James Astill, has been honored for his coverage of threats to the world’s forests. Astill traveled to Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Uganda to research the Economist Magazine’s special report (Twitter’s @BizJournalism).
• Forests in Indonesia produce 9.4 million tons of food per year, including rice, soybeans, maize, nuts, fruit, tuber, and medicinal plants. About 48.8 million Indonesians live around forested areas (The Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies).
• Your moment of Zen: Gisele Bundchen and Brazilian students plant seedlings in a Sao Paolo rainforest (POPSUGAR).

Would you like to see your tree news included here next week? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or email me at acooke@forestfoundation.org. Thanks!