• Forest golfers make an extreme sport of a gentleman's game

    Michal Cizek / AFP - Getty Images

    "Forest Golfers" take part in a golf tournament in a forest near Uvaly village, east of Prague, Czech Republic, on September 23, 2012.

     

    Michal Cizek / AFP - Getty Images

    Agence France Presse reports — A club roughly hewn from a freshly chopped cherry branch, a tennis ball and a buddy to play with is all it takes to make golf an extreme sport that would test the skills of even top professional players.

    Over the last decade, a group of Czech "forest golfers" have pioneered a novel approach to this gentleman's sport in the wilds of Bohemia on terrain that would usually be out of bounds on a regular golf course. Read the full story.

    Michal Cizek / AFP - Getty Images

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  • California environmentalists say logging a burned forest near Tahoe threatens rare woodpecker

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    A rare male black-backed woodpecker near its nest in a dead tree on the edge of where the Angora fire burned near South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

    AP reports that conservationists are pressing the US Forest Service to postpone cutting until after nesting season in August:

    “There are some other unlogged areas they could fly to as long as the nest core area was protected, but if that’s gone, the chicks would just starve to death,” said Rachel Fazio, a lawyer for the group who argued their case last May 14 before a three-judge panel at the federal appellate court in San Francisco.

    Fazio said it is ironic that the Forest Service and the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science are co-hosting the third annual Lake Tahoe Bird Festival on Saturday at the Taylor Creek Visitor Center just a few miles from the woodpeckers’ nest.

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    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    A sign warns hikers they are entering an area that is being cleared of dead trees burned in the 2007 Angora fire near South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Rare woodpecker chicks in burned forest stands at Lake Tahoe won't survive if the U.S. Forest Service proceeds with a contentious post-fire logging project, according to conservationists pressing the agency to postpone cutting around the trees until after the nesting season in August.

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    In this photo taken Monday, May 28, 2012, trees that have been cleared as part of a post-fire logging project are seen stacked for removal at the site of the 2007 Angora fire near South Lake Tahoe.

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    Chad Hanson, executive director of the John Muir Project, marks a tree, slated to be removed, that holds the nest and chicks of the rare black-backed woodpecker, at the site of the 2007 Angora fire near South Lake Tahoe.

  • Forest burns in Switzerland after fire starts in car repair shop

    Adrian Streun / Reuters

    A forest fire is seen next to the southwestern village of Visp April 26, 2011, following a warm winter, combined with unusually high temperatures and no rain over the last month, the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss reported.

    Jean-christophe Bott / EPA

    Smoke rises from a forest wildfire in Visp, southern Switzerland, 26 April 2011. The fire broke out in a car body company leaping over to the nearby forest. Fire brigades from different adjoining villages fight the fire, which is not yet under control, with the help of helicopters.

    Denis Balibouse / Reuters

    A fireman sprays water in a burned car body repair workshop next to the southwestern village of Visp April 26, 2011. On Tuesday afternoon a fire erupted in the workshop and later spread to the nearby forest, local police reported.

    Click here to read the story.

    Here's an article in a Swiss blog about recent fires in Switzerland.