1 - One of the most famous early examples of engineered wood was the "Spruce Goose," the giant cargo plane Howard Hughes developed during World War II. It was made of a plywoodlike material, called Duramold, that proved to be lighter and stronger than aluminum.
2 - The tallest redwood is believed to be 369 feet tall, more than 2,000 years old, and has a circumference of 26 feet.
3 - The oldest living tree is Methuselah, a bristlecone pine in eastern California. It's more than 5,000 years old, according to Champion Tree Project international.
4 - Satellite imagery of the Gulf Coast shows that Hurricane Katrina destroyed about 320 million trees in Mississippi and Louisiana, an unprecedented loss of forestland that will reshape the region for generations, Louisiana researchers told the Los Angeles Times. The death of the trees from wind damage and soaking in saltwater will release about 367 million tons of carbon dioxide as they decompose–about the same amount that is absorbed yearly by all U.S. forests, according to a study in the journal Science.
5 - The federal government is debating whether to move control of the U.S. Forest Service from the Agriculture Department to the Interior Department, which manages national parks. Some see this as another sign that Washington won't allow more logging any time soon.
