By Paul Fattig, Medford Mail Tribune

The Ashland-based Geos Institute and the Conservation Biology Institute in Corvallis are teaming up to create an online center to track deforestation around the world. Known as the Global Forest Information Center, it will be on the Internet in a data-sharing system known as Data Basin — databasin.org.

The conservation institutes recently received a $50,000 grant from a private foundation to start building the cyberspace center, initially focusing on intact forests in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. The information, including maps, is expected to be available to policy makers, land managers and the public beginning this fall.   read more >