Douglas fir die-off in Southern Oregon gives a glimpse into the future of West Coast forests | It’s one example of how our changing climate is affecting forests in the region.
Hey guys we cut down all of the trees and replaced them with the most profitable monoculture we could. Now these climate is killing the trees that were never meant to grow here in such numbers! Should we bring back the trees that should grow here? Nah, find a strain of highest profitable monoculture that is the most drought resistant!
Can't be letting those worthless pine trees grow there just because they're native and drought resistant!
In my early twenties I was looking for a field of work that was semi environmentally friendly. I had grown up in southern Alberta where it's all factory farming, mono culture crops, and O&G. For a minute (as a prairie kid) I thought tree planting might be a good way. Basic research even back then showed me that young women who expect to get pregnant within the next fifteen years should not be handling seedlings because the fungicides and pesticides dusted on the root balls are so toxic. Then there's the GMO monoculture of the species of trees they're replanting with.
End of the day I didn't feel like contributing to the next wave of suburb and luxury condo developments. Rednecks always like to say "they grow back" when we talk about protecting old growth forests and it's obvious that trees (individually) can be grown on a given plot of land (like wheat in a season on the plains)... But the conversation ends when we talk about how it takes millennia to grow the type of environmental diversity primal forests have established.
Oh no! Pine Beatles and drought and other things are affecting our crop of trees! Who could've predicted such a thing!?? Bailout please.
Thanks for the link. My takeaway is the emphasis on the need for policy mandates to include climate awareness so that industry and local community decision-makers know they have "cover" to use the new information rather than keep using projections and methods that don't take climate change into account at all, but are socially and professionally "safe".