and is republished here by permission.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society has long managed its land in western Massachusetts as crucial wildlife habitat. Nature lovers flock to these forests to enjoy bird-watching and quiet hikes, with the occasional bobcat or moose sighting.
But in 2015, the conservation nonprofit presented California’s top climate regulator with a startling scenario: It could heavily log 9,700 acres of its preserved forests over the next few years.
The group raised the possibility of chopping down hundreds of thousands of trees as part of its application to take part in California’s forest offset program.
The state’s Air Resources Board established the system to harness the ability of trees to absorb and store carbon to help the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
This story was co-published with MIT Technology Review.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society has long managed its land in western Massachusetts as crucial wildlife habitat. Nature lovers flock to these forests to enjoy bird-watching and quiet hikes, with the occasional bobcat or moose sighting.
But in 2015, the conservation nonprofit presented California’s top climate regulator with a startling scenario: It could heavily log 9,700 acres of its preserved forests over the next few years.
The group raised the possibility of chopping down hundreds of thousands of trees as part of its application to take part in California’s forest offset program.
The state’s Air Resources Board established the system to harness the ability of trees to absorb and store carbon to help the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Mass Audubon promised to preserve wildlife. Then it made millions claiming it could cut down trees
By Lisa Song and James Temple ProPublica and MIT Technology Review,Updated May 10, 2021, 3:31 p.m.
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The Massachusetts Audubon Society has long managed its land in western Massachusetts as crucial wildlife habitat. Nature lovers flock to these forests to enjoy bird-watching and quiet hikes, with the occasional bobcat or moose sighting.
But in 2015, the conservation nonprofit presented Californiaâs top climate regulator with a startling scenario: It could heavily log 9,700 acres of its preserved forests over the next few years.
21 students at East Bay high school get COVID after attending off-campus event
By KTVU Staff article
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - An East Bay high school is grappling with a COVID outbreak that s infected almost 2 dozen students and forced another 100 into quarantine.
Twenty-one students at Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek have the virus, John Nickerson, superintendent of Acalanes Union High School District, said.
The explosion in cases was tied to an off-campus event, he said.
Nickerson said the students tested positive in the last two weeks of April. The origin of the cases seems to have been a single off-campus (and non-school) event that the students who tested positive attended or in some cases their siblings attended, he said in a statement. There does not appear to have been any on-campus transmission of COVID-19.