Forests

Updated June 17: Forest Service Reverses Decision

Updated May 31: Behind the Decision Allowing Chainsaws

FORESTS, TREES, & PLANTS

The Situation
Sierra Nevada & Rockies
Massive Western Forest Mortality

Dying Sierra Trees, from UC Merced, can they survive another drought?

Drought, Beetles, & Mortality Justifies Chainsaws?

Forest Service Sued over Decision to use Chain Saws in Wilderness Areas,
The Journal, May 22, 2019.

MAIN POINTS

"A coalition of conservation groups has sued the U.S. Forest Service for its recent decision to allow chain saws for trail work in two wilderness areas in Southwest Colorado."

PACIFIC NORTHWEST FOREST HEALTH "100 YEAR PLAN"

Oregon Old Growth

What needs to be saved: Old Growth Forest. OSU College of Forestry.

Human Growth Drives Climate & Weather Changing Too Quickly for Ecosystems

NW Forest Plan 25 Years Later: Wildfire Losses Up, Bird Populations Down,
Oregon State University, February 4, 2019.

MAIN POINTS

100 Year Plan
“Twenty-five years into a 100-year federal strategy to protect older forests in the Pacific Northwest, forest losses to wildfire are up and declines in bird populations have not been reversed.”

Old Forests
“...importance of continuing to prioritize the safeguarding of older forests...forests characterized by a complex structure that includes multiple canopy layers, large trees, downed wood and snags.”

FOREST NEWS

Forests Responding to Multiplex of Changes

Trees travelling west: How climate is changing our forests,
Ecological Society of America, August 1, 2018.

“...studies on the impacts of global temperature rise have suggested that the range of trees will migrate poleward and upward.”

“...different combinations of changes in temperature and precipitation can result in different impacts, and different species can have different responses.”

"...found that 73 percent of tree species have experienced a westward shift while 62 percent have experienced a poleward shift. It appears that the shifts are largely associated with changes in moisture availability."

“The results suggest that changes in moisture availability have stronger near-term impacts on forest dynamics than do changes in temperature.”

Note

I’ve been watching the predominant direction from which our seasonal precipitation comes shifting from the Northwest to the Southwest over the past forty years.

 UPDATED
October 4, 2017

ORIGINAL REPORT
September 29

ANOTHER DANGER to BACKPACKERS & to THE FORESTS

Vast Industrial Operations
Illegal with Illegals

Marijuana growing in state’s national forests,
Mountain Democrat, September 29, 2017.