Nov022009
Martha’s Vineyard oak die-off - a sign of things to come?
Filed under Greenhouse gas by david brooks at 8:05 am
Monday mornings are never exactly uplifting, so let’s add this depressing tale: The Globe writes about roughly 500 acres of oaks on Martha’s Vineyard that died off due to insect blight and drought, and quotes researchers fearful that it’s a sign of things to come:
Scientists predict that in a warming world, insects will thrive, and droughts and other extreme weather will become commonplace. With the prospect of more numerous bugs feasting on weakened trees, (David Foster, a Harvard University ecologist) wonders whether the recent die-off is a harbinger of more catastrophic ones in the future.
Personally I don’t mind losing oaks, which make lousy leaf-peeping trees, but the wildlife that depends on their acorns to prepare for winter might disagree.
For years I’ve been writing about the sad fact that climate change is likely to make our climate more like the South (heck, it’ll even change our soil). It’s still shocking to see it happening.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:25 am
Lose the oaks, lose the heating bio-mass. More BTUs in oak than in a whole bunch of the fast growing poplar / birch pulpwood scrub.
Besides… the shade of rusty oak is soooo much better than the ubiquitious yellow of the generic decidious tree. (Do wish blogs had imbedded spell checkers!)
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:52 am
That is bad news. I knew Maples in the region were at risk due to climate change but didn't think Oaks were also in danger. We heat with wood so have a practical stake in this. Plus as mrwg posted Oaks are beautiful trees.
Not looking forward to the day when our 13 acres goes back to what it looked like 150 years ago - open fields.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Many people do not realize there was a big die off of all the green ash trees in the area a few years back. Try to find a mature ash tree in the forest. I read an article written for the state of Iowa awhile ago. It said that the ash tree has a number of natural diseases such as anthranose that usually infect the tree during the warm weather. However the ash trees normally coexist with these diseases which die off during the cold winter months when the tree is dormant. The following year the tree has to “catch” these diseases all over again. Now comes Gobal Warming. No longer is it normal for the temperatures to fall below 0 deg in the winter months. The diseases no longer die but just stay dormant in the tree. Come spring when the tree comes out of its dormancy, and at its weakest, its faced with already being sick with these diseases causing the tree tow weaken more and more each spring until it dies.
So we already have a forest that has lost its ash trees and many of its sugar mapels and is now facing the loss of oaks and hemlock….scary
November 5th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
And, of course, the American chestnut and American elm died off decades ago.
Sometimes I'm surprised there are any trees left ….