Trees are migrating.
That is
the conclusion of a study of 86 eastern tree species conducted by scientists at
Purdue University and published in mid-May. Not to worry, however. Unlike, say,
the great caribou migrations, you won’t have to take immediate evasive action
if you’re in the way of an advancing forest.
None-the-less,
the researchers found that, in the past 30 years, many species have already
migrated 20-25 miles to the west and north. They claim the trees are heading
west in response to increased rainfall in the central part of the country, and
north in response to higher average temperatures.
A
recent article in the Minneapolis StarTribune declared: “Climate scientists
predict that, even if global carbon emissions are held to the rates agreed upon
in the Paris Climate Accord, average temperatures will rise by 2 to 4 degrees
Fahrenheit by the end of this century. That means the pines of northern
Minnesota would give way to a hardwood and grass ecosystem, said Lee Frelich, a
University of Minnesota professor who studies climate change and forests.”
And
that’s if we’re lucky.
There’s a worse-case scenario
rearing its ugly head. “But if carbon emissions and climate change continue to
accelerate, then in time, northern Minnesota will instead look a lot like
Kansas, Frelich said, and no boreal species will survive long term.” One
pictures a Wizard of Oz II of the
not-so-distant future, in which another ‘Judy Garland,’ also born in Grand
Rapids, Minnesota, gets blown away by a twister, and, after being carried aloft
from the sunflower state to northern Minnesota, turns to her little dog,
saying: “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Oh, wait, I guess we are.”
According to the article, scientists
from the Nature Conservancy- and other assorted organizations- are petrified that
“The giant, long-living pines are disappearing” from northern Minnesota,
“replaced by more southern species like red maple as tree species across the
country move in response to rapid changes in temperature and moisture brought
on by 100 years of rising carbon levels in the atmosphere.”
They are not going to stand idly by
either. They are “embarking [no pun intended, I’m sure] on a project to plant
400 acres with cold-loving evergreens like jack pine and tamarack in carefully
selected ‘conifer strongholds’—places that they predict will stay cooler or
wetter or have better soil, increasing the chances that a few of each species
will survive for the next generation as Minnesota grows warmer.”
A few of each species will survive
for the next generation? I assume they mean the next generation of trees, not
humans. Do these trees, like college kids, really need “safe spaces” in which
to take refuge? From “rapid” changes in temperature? After all, it was just 4
and 5 years ago that most Minnesota lakes experienced two of their latest
ice-outs in recorded history. Back to back. Moreover, in December 2014,
International Falls, Minnesota, set a new record of 8 days with a temperature
of less than -30F. That same winter,
just a couple years ago, was the coldest Duluth had suffered through in 141
years! I’m reasonably certain that trees aren’t setting out on their migratory
path in an attempt to bask in those temperatures. In fact, according to a local
tree service I talked to, some trees and shrubs died in the extreme cold
that winter. (Oh, sorry, global cooling, just what global warming predicts. Climate
change, you know).
Funny, though, the modern
“scientific” notion that pine trees, in particular, can’t survive in warmer
temperatures. Arkansas, North Carolina and
Alabama all list a pine as their state
tree.
I googled “trees migrating north
and west,” and the top two results of my search were:
1)
“Climate change is causing trees in the eastern
U.S. to move north, west”- USAToday.com, and
2)
“American Trees Are Moving West, and No One
Knows Why”- theAtlantic.com
Oh, come on, which is it? The science is indisputable, or no
one has a bleeping clue?
I clicked on each of the two. The USAToday’s headline was
actually the most amusing: “Fed up with climate change, trees are moving north
and west.” The trees are “fed up?” Is this possible, or is this possibly “fake
news?” The ensuing article opined, “It’s getting so hot that even the trees are
heading north.” To the “tree line,” perhaps? (Oddly, this is the opposite of
recent human migration in the U.S. Fed up with government bullshit, high taxes,
and political correctness run amok, the rust belt states have been hemorrhaging
people to the southern states).
Experts want us to believe, against all evidence, that pine
trees will soon be extinct in the northern climes, and that northern-tier
states will soon be rife with okra and cotton.
I don’t know about you, but I’m “fed up,” too. I’m pining for sanity and integrity.