Aja Woodrow
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gulogogo.bsky.social
Aja Woodrow
@gulogogo.bsky.social
370 followers 200 following 56 posts
Birds, Mesocarnivores, Dry Forest Ecology, GIS
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
sophielgilbert.bsky.social
What do houses, energy, and sixty-pound salmon have in common? All of them are currently scarce but could be plentiful with the right changes to policy and practice. 🧪🐟🏘️🔋

How do we get to this "conservation abundance" future for nature and people? I have thoughts!

www.perc.org/2025/12/09/t...
The Case for Conservation Abundance | PERC
How fixing America’s affordability crisis points toward a conservation future defined by plenty rather than scarcity
www.perc.org
December 9, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
kate-mcginn.bsky.social
🦉🔥🌲 New Paper 🌲🔥🦉

We used a novel dataset by Dr. Anu Kramer, bioregional passive acoustic monitoring, and Bayesian occupancy modeling to examine the relative effects of disturbances on the distribution spotted owls in the Sierra Nevada. Give her a read!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Fuels management mitigates megafires to the benefit of old forest species
Climate change and fire exclusion have changed disturbance regimes in forest ecosystems globally. In many seasonally dry forests, fuels management can…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 9, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
grumpyunclesean.bsky.social
New paper by Garret Meigs and friends:
"Big trees burning: Divergent wildfire effects on large trees in open- vs closed-canopy forests"

From my read, one of the key take home messages is that dense forests, even if large trees are present, are still burning with a lot of high-severity effects🧪🌎🔥
Big trees burning: Divergent wildfire effects on large trees in open‐ vs. closed‐canopy forests
Wildfire activity has accelerated with climate change, sparking concerns about uncharacteristic impacts on mature and old-growth forests containing large trees. Recent assessments have documented fir...
doi.org
September 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
globalchangebio.bsky.social
Extreme Heatwave Causes Immediate, Widespread Mortality of Forest Canopy Foliage, Highlighting Modes of Forest Sensitivity to Extreme Heat

🔗 buff.ly/CfdgwRy
November 26, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
itsnotfairman.bsky.social
great editorial on risk aversion in forest management particularly on proactive fire management vs reactive fire suppression. Equally relevant to southern Australia. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Managing public lands requires a new kind of leader
Click on the article title to read more.
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
meadekrosby.bsky.social
To learn more about the Cascadia Partner Forum and its work promoting coordinated transboundary conservation in the face of climate change:
Cascadia Partner Forum
www.cascadiapartnerforum.org
October 30, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
mhurteau.bsky.social
Installed sensors at Teakettle this weekend. I broke down 5 times. The District Ranger requested that I tell ‘the truth’ about the fire and the forest. Here you go…
October 29, 2025 at 12:27 AM
gulogogo.bsky.social
This looks very useful for planning and communicating Dry Forest restoration treatments:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Brief Communication: RxGaming- A Flexible Open-Source Tool Using Aerial Lidar to Incorporate Tree Spatial Patterns in Mechanical Treatments - Journal of Forestry
Dry forest ecosystems in the western United States face the pressure of uncharacteristically severe wildfires and widespread drought-induced mortality as a result of fire exclusion, past management pr...
link.springer.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
camwalker.bsky.social
If you pay attention, ecological collapse is happening everywhere, in real time.

1/ Like here: Starved of water, taken down by insects, burned by repeated, abnormally intense wildfires, much of the ponderosa forest is turning into permanent grass & shrublands.

orionmagazine.org/article/twil...
Twilight Trees - Orion Magazine
An elegy for ponderosa pines in a changing west
orionmagazine.org
October 20, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
monicagturner.bsky.social
Excellent work led by @ttkeller.bsky.social and important for stewarding forests w/ high-severity #fire regimes @esajournals.bsky.social @uwmadscience.bsky.social
October 16, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
mhurteau.bsky.social
Excellent piece by Greg Weaver @fresnoland.bsky.social reporting the problems that led to the loss of Teakettle. We need to future-proof our land management agencies so that internal bureaucratic process and structure does not continue to cause inaction.
fresnoland.org/2025/10/14/g...
October 15, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
caryinstitute.bsky.social
#WFFRC member @brian-j-harvey.bsky.social is combining field + satellite data to create an atlas of wildfire burn severity across the Western US, to inform prescribed burning and future fire management strategies. #WFFRC is led by @caryinstitute.bsky.social www.caryinstitute.org/news-insight...
Building a burn severity atlas to track changing wildfires in real time
This summer, scientists bushwhacked their way to 80 sites in Colorado, New Mexico, and California that burned in 15 fires during 2024, collecting data to create an atlas of burn severity that will cov...
www.caryinstitute.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
thirstygecko.bsky.social
Very cool new research from @mekevans.bsky.social and Jamie Yazzie - 'Drought stress detected in tree rings suggests an impending tipping point for forests on the Navajo Nation' www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Drought stress detected in tree rings suggests an impending tipping point for forests on the Navajo Nation
Forests across the southwestern U. S. face escalating challenges from changing climate. The objective of this study, conducted in partnership with the…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
oregonoutdoors.bsky.social
Drought and insects have killed an unprecedented number of Oregon’s Douglas fir trees during the last decade, costing billions in timber value, damaging infrastructure and ramping up wildfire danger.

What is Douglas fir dieback? Where is it happening? What is being done? tinyurl.com/5n9amvx6
October 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
jdaldern.bsky.social
“collaborators were awarded over $5M to launch a prescribed fire across 3,300 acres…it would have been a key demonstration to show that planned fires can burn safely at a large scale…The groups were scheduled to start building fire breaks in September…But then the Garnet Fire ignited Aug. 24…”
‘All the trees are dead’: An ancient California forest has been wiped out
Old growth forests across the West are at risk of disappearing within 50 years. The Teakettle Experimental Forest is a tragic example in California.
www.sfchronicle.com
October 5, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
jgpausas.bsky.social
Sequoia sempervirens (redwood; world's tallest tree) is well adapted to high-intensity crown fires (eg 2020), but Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia; world's most massive tree) is adapted to surface fires only!
bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🧪🌍🔥🌿🌳🔥🪴 @botsocamerica.bsky.social
Sequoia sempervirens (Coast redwood) resprouting epicormically after a high-intensity fire Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia) with a fire scar in the base from a surface fire
September 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
clareboe.bsky.social
My research team recently published “Guardians and gardeners: Managing wilderness for the twenty-first century.” If you’re interested in wilderness philosophies, Indigenous stewardship, and the questions raised by climate change and fire - this one’s for you!

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Guardians and gardeners: Managing wilderness for the twenty-first century
PDF | The 1964 Wilderness Act is a landmark piece of legislation, providing robust protections from development, mechanization, and resource extraction... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
www.researchgate.net
September 22, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
gstaneff.bsky.social
September 25th, 2025 Forest and Friends in Bellevue WA.

Curious about trees and technology? So are we! Come on our and join us for a pint to talk forestry, startups, and what we can do to to create healthy landscapes and reduce wildfire severity and the smoke in our communities.
Forest and Friends, September 25th, 2025 · Luma
The end of September, kids are back at school, leaves are turning, daily weather is just a bit more random than usual, welcome to fall in the PNW! We’re…
luma.com
September 20, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
meadekrosby.bsky.social
For folks in the NW concerned about continued availability of federal climate tools and resources, check out my webinar next week w/ @guillaume-mauger.bsky.social:

Taking stock of available resources for understanding and responding to climate risks in Washington and the Northwest.

Register here 👇
Our Climate Future Webinars | Climate Impacts Group
A CIG Webinar SeriesWe’re building a just and resilient world where people and nature thrive in a changing climate. This new webinar series will expand access to 30 years of research, data, and tools,...
cig.uw.edu
September 18, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
meadekrosby.bsky.social
The NW Climate Adaptation Science Center recently convened 100 scientists & managers to synthesize what's known and unknown about the ecological impacts of the 2021 PNW heat wave, and what can be done to manage risks from extreme heat events.

Products now available! 👇 nwcasc.uw.edu/programs/act...
Too Hot to Handle? Managing the Ecological Impacts of Extreme Heat in the Northwest. Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. 2025 Deep Dive. Planning Committee: NW Climate Adaptation Science Center, UW Climate Impacts Group, US Geological Survey, WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Squaxin Island Tribe, Portland State University.
September 17, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
drkatemarvel.bsky.social
Humans: sometimes bad, sometimes good, capable of great. Me, in today’s @theguardian.com Long Read
www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...
‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster
Some days it can feel as if climate catastrophe is inevitable. But history is full of cases – such as the banning of whaling and CFCs – that show humanity can come together to avert disaster
www.theguardian.com
September 11, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
jenteo.bsky.social
Your daily Avian Hybrids story!

Complicated Cotingas: Can we resolve any phylogeny by just adding more data?
avianhybrids.wordpress.com/2020/07/29/c...

#ornithology
Complicated Cotingas: Can we resolve any phylogeny by just adding more data?
A recent genetic study tried to resolve the phylogeny of two bird genera by generating more data.
avianhybrids.wordpress.com
September 11, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
zacksteel.bsky.social
We do science at places like Teakettle in the hopes of informing better decisions. But moments like these make it feel like our science is just informing future historians of our decline.
September 10, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Aja Woodrow
zacklabe.com
✅ We have a new study out this week, which projects changes in cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning days across the Western United States, along with the associated risk of lightning-ignited wildfires (LIW).

+ #OpenAccess Paper (@agu.org): doi.org/10.1029/2025...
+ Summary: news.wsu.edu/press-releas...
Screenshot of Figure 2c in Kalashnikov et al. (2025, Earth's Future), which shows CESM2 ensemble distribution of projected changes in CG lightning and LIW-risk days averaged across ecoprovinces. Horizontal lines within boxplots indicate medians and whiskers represent spread of the 50 ensemble members. Text along the bottom shows ensemble-mean changes, with * indicating that a majority of grid cells have >75% ensemble agreement on the sign of change in that ecoprovince.
August 29, 2025 at 12:26 PM