Downed trunks and branches. Power outages. Storm-damaged yards and roadways blocked by tree limbs. Severe weather may be putting trees in our way lately, but we need them.

In the News is a Planet Change selection of the latest news on climate change, nature, our environment and the impacts of a changing planet. Continue reading to delve into all that we find interesting this week.

Among the signs of a spring come early in 2012, are the arrival of ramps – a garlicky wild leek favored by chefs buying local ingredients.

In the News is a Planet Change selection of the latest news, stories and images on climate change, nature, our environment and the impacts of a changing planet. This is what we’ve found and what we’re reading. What about you?

A new book, “A Great Aridness,” takes a closer look at the changes underway in North America’s Southwestern landscapes and what lessons this region’s experiences offer for the future.

If you live in the American Southwest, 2011 indeed was the year of fire for you. Arizona, New Mexico and Texas all had record fires. The “mega-fires” in these states burned an area larger than New Jersey.

As 2011 comes to a close, no year-in-review retrospective would be complete without noting the many wild and memorable weather events of the past 12 months. A dozen disasters totaled more than $1 billion in damages each this year, setting a record. You can watch the CBS News interview with Conservancy Lead Scientist M. Sanjayan about the year’s remarkable weather in this post.

Reminders of a changing climate not far away even on vacation.

Fire, lightening, hail and flood make for an exciting summer trek, and a close call, in the back country of Utah.

In the heat of the recent Wallow Fire, now Arizona’s largest fire on record, Sue Sitko, The Nature Conservancy’s Northern Arizona Conservation Manager, was granted access to visit some local towns that were directly threatened by the fire. Much of the forested area around these towns had been thinned as part of the White Mountain [...]

Check out this interview with The Nature Conservancy’s Anne Bradley, forest conservation program director in the Conservancy’s New Mexico chapter.
Bradley talks about how trees can help by not only storing carbon and pulling carbon from the atmosphere but also by helping nearby communities better adapt (by, for example, helping to maintain or improve the availability of clean drinking water to people at lower elevations).

To avoid further temperature increases, we would need to cut carbon pollution by 80 percent – to the amount we polluted in 1950.

Find out how climate change, west-nile virus and mosquitos are conspiring against the Island Scrub-Jay. And what’s being done to help.