Sunday 29 April 2018

Trees Are Dying ‘Coz Of Climate Change

Not only humans suffer from climate change, other living things on this planet also suffer and endure the negative impact of global warming and climate change even if they have nothing to do with its hastening progress. Trees are silent and imposing figures in our environment but you might be surprised how much they likewise suffer, get hurt and even die because the severe changes in our environment and weather systems are so sudden and drastic that they sometimes fail to adapt and it can cost them their lives as well without us humans really knowing or maybe we simply just do not care. However, the statistics do not lie. There are countless tree casualties as climate change become a reality of our modern times and we experience one terrible disaster after another.

Our planet is becoming more and more inhospitable as the years go by and it is evident with the number of trees dying at an alarming rate. The hot temperature in itself makes the trees weaker and the accompanying long periods of drought continuously deprive them of the water they need to stay hydrated and healthy. It’s a sad reality in different parts of the country. Forests are filled with either dying or dead trees but it seems that this crisis is far from over as droughts are only expected to worsen and go on for long as the planet continues to get warmer.

Ponderosa pine and pinyon forests in the American West will die at an increasing rate as the world grows warmer, becoming less and less resilient when they are weakened by higher temperatures, according to new projections.

Although these forests now withstand short droughts, warming temperatures increasingly stress the forests, which means they will no longer survive the shorter droughts they once endured.

And future droughts will be hotter as the planet warms.

“We’re saying that if the climate warms a little more, things don’t get a little different, they get very different,” said Henry Adams, a plant biologist at Oklahoma State University and lead author of a new paper, published in Environmental Research Letters in a special edition of the journal titled “Focus on Tree Mortality in a Warming World.” “You get an acceleration in the rate of mortality.

(Via: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/science/trees-climate-die-offs-west.html)

Trees are suffering in silence because of negligent and abusive human behaviors that have accumulated over a short span of time. This phenomenon of trees dying because of global warming is not just happening in the United States but in different parts of the globe and it has been going on for decades. The changes we are seeing now are happening far quicker than they did in the past. It is just proof of how much damage we have incurred to the environment. The trees outside your homes are not the only ones at risk. Entire forest ecosystems struggle and the consequences are more life-changing. As we lose more trees and valuable rainforests and the wild that is the cradle of millions of species of organisms on the planet, our very existence is also threatened and is highly compromised and we have to act now before it is too late.

“The number of dead and dying trees has continued to rise, along with the risks to communities and firefighters if a wildfire breaks out in these areas,” said Randy Moore, Regional Forester of the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region. “It is apparent from our survey flights this year that California’s trees have not yet recovered from the drought, and remain vulnerable to beetle attacks and increased wildfire threat. The Forest Service will continue to focus on mitigating hazard trees and thinning overly dense forests so they are healthier and better able to survive stressors like this in the future.”

As Christmas fast approaches in the mountain area, it begs to ask if this season’s moisture will be of any help. About town, you can hear the buzz of worried citizens asking when the rain will come.

Their worry is rational.

(Via: http://www.sierrastar.com/news/local/article189253274.html)

Not only are extreme weather the only thing that poses a big threat to trees and the wildlife but random bizarre acts of nature like wildfires can quickly engulf acres upon acres of grassland, trees, rainforests, and even rural communities. The thing is we need more trees now than ever as our carbon output far exceeds what can only be tolerated by nature. These excess carbon emissions are trapped in the atmosphere that in turn contributes to the warming of the planet and the worsening of climate change, a terrible cycle to be in right now but is also our own doing, so we have no one else to blame for it.

In the rare case a tree needs to be uprooted because its presence endangers the lives of the people around it and surrounding properties especially in progressive cities and urban areas, then that’s when you should consider removing a tree but it should always be done by a professional. http://www.allcleartree.com/removal can help you with it or other related services that involve trees in general, so don’t hesitate to contact them for help.

Trees Are Dying ‘Coz Of Climate Change is courtesy of http://www.allcleartree.com/



source http://www.allcleartree.com/removal/trees-dying-coz-climate-change

Sunday 22 April 2018

Trees Don’t Stand A Chance From Bark Beetles

We know that the forest ecosystem or virtually anywhere in the outdoors is home to thousands if not millions of organisms both visible and not visible to the naked eye. In a single tree, there are numerous organisms that live there and depend on it for survival. Unfortunately, not all the time the relationship is symbiotic or beneficial for both. For example, bark beetles have overtaken millions of trees in California and have resulted in the demise of these trees. It truly is unfortunate and really sad news but these things happen especially when there are severe weather changes. In this case, a severe drought is affecting California and the change in the season did little in improving the situation. Millions of trees have already perished and much more are in danger of dying next.

What is all the fuss about bark beetles? I’m sure not all of you are well-versed on the different insects that thrive in the world. We probably could only name a few and remain clueless about the millions and billions more that live under our radar. Some gain recognition because of instances like this, for instance. Along with bark beetles, the widespread wildfire in certain parts of the state does not help either and has wiped out acres upon acres of trees. Pine trees, in particular, are the most widely affected by bark trees. It is such an irony because pines are more in-demand at this time of the year when many families are eager to buy their own real Christmas tree in celebration of the holiday season.

The number of trees killed by bark beetles and severe drought in California reached a new high in the latest count, but foresters say a few more wet and cold winters like last year’s would make a big difference toward restoring forest health.

An additional 27 million trees have died throughout California since November 2016, bringing the total number of dead trees to 129 million on 8.9 million acres, the Forest Service said this week in a joint statement with Cal Fire.

“The number of dead and dying trees has continued to rise, along with the risks to communities and firefighters if a wildfire breaks out in these areas,” said Randy Moore, regional forester for the Pacific Southwest Region. “It is apparent from our survey flights this year that California’s trees have not yet recovered from the drought and remain vulnerable to beetle attacks and increased wildfire threat.”

(Via: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article189641729.html)

Rain can definitely help turn the situation from going to worst from worse. There’s nothing more you can do from a felled tree because of a bark beetle infestation. These trees usually turn blue and harden from fungus rendering it next to useless even if it looks fine structurally. Trees aren’t just vulnerable to bark beetles because there are much more that can threaten their existence. Trees weaken and die while the countless beetle populations are getting healthier and healthier by the minute. If you have a tree in your yard, contact experts like http://www.allcleartree.com/trimming at the first sign of a possible insect infestation so they don’t get worse. You not only save your tree from its premature demise but save the neighboring trees as well from getting infested.

To date, the Tree Mortality Task Force have collectively felled 860,000 trees, 480,000 were removed by the Forest Service. Of the 480,000 trees felled by the Forest Service 258,787 have been removed from the Sierra National Forest alone.

The dead trees continue to pose a hazard to people and critical infrastructure, mostly centered in the central and southern Sierra Nevada region of the state.

The focus of tree removal has been primarly for immediate threats to public safety in a sort of triage response. It is acknowledged by officials that more work and funding is needed ahead.

(Via: http://www.sierrastar.com/news/local/article189253274.html)

Since the problem is so widespread, it needs the collective effort of the related agencies and the support from the federal government to address the issue. We need as many healthy and standing trees out there to help us combat the rapid progression of climate change that poses a bigger threat to these trees including us. More often than not, whatever we see in our environment is just the result of our habits and us humans are the ones who are mainly responsible for all the major changes happening in the world right now. Insect infestations have been there for ages but trees have survived since then but the mere act of surviving is even more difficult for them now with everything in the environment acting as stressors to their very existence.

Trees Don’t Stand A Chance From Bark Beetles is republished from allcleartree.com



source http://www.allcleartree.com/trimming/trees-dont-stand-chance-bark-beetles

Friday 13 April 2018

Trees Weather Ice Storms This Winter

Most people stay indoors once the winter season starts. Nobody in their right mind would prefer to stay outdoors for long aside for a few minutes to an hour or two of frolicking and playing in the snow but other than not would be considered rather foolish. You can easily get sick if you are overexposed to the cold. Even animals hibernate or shy away from the snow unless you are really furry and don’t mind the extremely low temperature. What many of us don’t notice is how plants react to this change in season. We all know that trees start shedding leaves and changing colors at the onset of fall. However, the rapid progression of climate change these days is doing more damage to forest trees than they usually had to endure each winter in the past. Weather events worsen such as ice storms that can take its toll on the plant life out in the great outdoors.

Now that winter has come, just what do trees have to endure? During ice storms, tree limbs can get frozen and the heavy weight of the ice can be destructive and cause these tree limbs, or if unfortunate enough, the tree itself, break off and fall. It is even more damaging if there are human properties like vehicles or a part of the house under these frozen trees as they may receive the impact and end up damaged too. It is a reality many homeowners living in the northern part of the US and in Canada since they experience a real cold and snowy winter. People can even get killed if they happen to be right under these frozen trees at the time they take the fall and they usually get killed in an instant. It has happened before and may happen now with climate change making natural weather phenomena act up and becoming more destructive than they already were.

But scientists still don’t know the long-term impact of ice storms on forests. “Our forests are tremendously resilient,” said Rustad, an ecologist with USDA’s Forest Service. “We think they can recover from a light icing, but extreme icing or repeat icing might exceed their capacity to recover.”

Forests are very valuable in the fight against climate change. An intact forest acts as a carbon “sink,” absorbing huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. But when trees are crippled by a severe ice storm — and branches topple — the damage depletes carbon stores, and makes it more difficult for the trees to take in carbon. It also hampers the trees’ ability to repair themselves. “Trees can’t take up as much carbon and they lose what they have stored,” Rustad said. “The impact of these extreme events reduces the vigor of trees, threatens their mortality, and weakens their effectiveness as a carbon sink.”

(Via: https://www.popsci.com/climate-change-tree-ice-storm#page-2)

In reality, the forest and all the plant and tree life in it knew how to deal with weather changes since time immemorial. But because humans have been so greedy and triggered the premature onset of climate change, even the natural resiliency of the entire forest life is being tested. Experts even notice that they now struggle to recover because of continuous heavy snowing and icing and it spells bad news for all of us knowing how much trees help in taking in carbon and consequently releasing oxygen making it possible for life to prosper in the planet.

"Trees have a certain amount of stored carbon," she says. "With one icing, they have enough reserves to re-foliate and recover."

But back-to-back severe icing events can be devastating to a forest's carbon reserves. Climate change scientists forecast that ice events will increase in frequency.

Still, Rustad is hopeful about forests, and the ability of science to influence policy.

"Our forests are tremendously resilient," Rustad asserts. "I grew up in the days of acid rain. So scientists embarked on a couple decades of exhaustive research and we passed the Clean Air Act, and reduced sulfur emissions by 80%."

(Via: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-trees-impact-ice-storms-climate.html)

While ice storms happen naturally to places that snows during winter, it has gotten worse and worse in the midst of climate change. Let this be a lesson to us to be more conscious and cautious of our actions since it is not only us who are affected by its negative consequences but every living thing on the planet. For instance, we may see trees as tall and imposing objects in our environment but they live and breathe too and they suffer alongside us from the elements. We are actually a little better off as we can hide in the comfort of our modern homes but trees can’t go anywhere and have to endure whatever nature throws at them all year round.

When trees pose a threat to our existence and we see them already beyond help, it makes more sense to have these trees removed. However, let the experts do it and refrain from doing it yourself because there are a lot of considerations that you need to be mindful of so contact http://www.allcleartree.com/removal for help before anything untoward happens to you, your home, or any of your properties.

The following blog article Trees Weather Ice Storms This Winter is republished from AllClearTree.com



source http://www.allcleartree.com/removal/trees-weather-ice-storms-winter