Green Group discussion

https://www.care2.com/causes/hurrican...

Tree damage after Hurricane Maria.

How do palm trees survive most storms?

https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sc...

Torreya - an evergreen I haven't seen yet. This ancient conifer was devastated by Hurricane Michael - new sprouts are appearing but a fire could easily come through Florida with a lot of dead wood now on the ground.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-race-...

Science in the canopy.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/meet-the-...

The science report looks at fungi associated with tree roots.

https://www.ecowatch.com/scientists-w...

We've discussed invasive earthworms in other threads. A new series of studies finds they have moved right into the boreal (northern) forests. While worms eat leaf litter and their castings make great fertile compost, disturbing a balance is always a problem. The worry is that worms will put stored carbon into the air and dislodge the plants that thrive here under the forests.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/sc...

Deforestation and a two-minute video from Nat Geo in this article.

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/whe...

A trailer for the film about the hidden life of trees.

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/tre...

Awesome. LOVED the book, and looking forward to the series!

Btw, can't help "SF-geeking" out a bit. If you're inspired by this nonfiction account, I strongly recommend the following for an equally inspiring fictional account of life among intelligent trees: Orson Scott Card's classic "Speaker for the Dead."

Worth a read yes, but I warn it is gory at times.

The prospect of planting a belt of trees across sub-Saharan Africa. I am not sure how the trees will be protected from herd animals, wild animals and wildfires, though some villages will be involved in planting and caring. The idea is to halt desertification.

https://www.care2.com/causes/africas-...

Facts about the boreal (northern) forests.

https://www.care2.com/causes/30-fasci...

I just added Around the World in 80 Trees


by
Jonathan Drori
to the bookshelf. Heartily recommended by me.

A Spanish nature reserve La Mata-Torrevieja natural park, is going to have added management, to remove many dying pines and eucalypts - said to be thousands of trees.
I don't currently know why they are dying, but drought and added heat seems likely.
These trees, sitting drying out, would be tinder for fires, and Spain gets a lot of forest fires.
https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...

Reforestation can potentially remove all the carbon we need from the atmosphere and this study looks at where and how to do that; but we need to do it fast. Tree planting is not a substitute for reducing fossil fuel use.

https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-chan...

Clare wrote: "Reforestation can potentially remove all the carbon we need from the atmosphere and this study looks at where and how to do that; but we need to do it fast. Tree planting is not a substitute for re..."

More trees and less atmospheric CO2. Sounds like a win-win! I'm encouraged, also, by the feasibility of pursuing this without relying on any "magic" future geoengineering breakthroughs. Not a silver bullet... but this certainly sounds like a pragmatic part of the global mitigation plan.

How to plant enough trees in time to save us?
Planting seeds by drone is one way; we can also study forests and landscape by satellite and use AIs to speed up the work of finding suitable locations.

https://singularityhub.com/2019/07/16...

The Joshua Tree is not actually a typical tree but a yucca palm.

https://www.ecowatch.com/joshua-tree-...

As we'd expect, this plant is seriously endangered by climate change, and is migrating upwards to cooler climes. Its sole pollinator is a moth.

Wikipedia article on Joshua trees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca_b...

Thanks to author Kazuko Nishimura for drawing my attention to the oldest bonsai tree in the world.
Here's a list of the ten oldest!

http://www.oldest.org/nature/bonsai-t...

Alaska -
"future summers characterized by similar record high temperatures and extreme wildfires fueled by climate change could cause the irreparable changes within the forest, pushing cold-preferring iconic evergreen conifer trees out as broadleaf deciduous trees move in."

https://www.ecowatch.com/alaska-wildf...

The fires cause an additional problem to forests. A fire can be beneficial, clearing out old brush so it can be replaced by fresh bushes and new trees and plants. Some forests need fires to start new tree growth. The problem with fire is that if there is a second fire within 10 years of the first fire, the ground and the growth is not able to regrow with the same robust effort it gave after the first fire. If the second fire is bad enough, it can basically kill the forest and the new growth might have a lot less trees in it.

Also, a second fire uses the new growth as ladder trees to reach up to the canopy, which might otherwise go unburned.

Sago palms - cycads - are now blooming in the UK for the first time in 60 million years.

https://www.sciencealert.com/climate-...

The UN tells us that nature-based solutions, such as tree planting in judicious places, will benefit us in short and long term.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-an...

" Heatwaves, droughts and coastal storms are just three examples in which forests defend us from extreme weather, but there are far more. Carefully planted tree species can act as firebreaks, keeping trees next to farmland can protect crops from the erosive forces of intense rain, and forests can alleviate inland floods due to the sponge-like way they absorb water.
The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on land and climate change notes that land surface air temperature has risen nearly twice as much as the global average. Forests therefore play a critical role on the front lines of our efforts to guarantee resilience in a climate changing world. "

In California the trees which survived the drought are being hailed as the potential to save their species.

https://www.ecowatch.com/california-d...

" Individual members of any species can vary dramatically, something tied to genetic differences. That diversity comes in handy when environmental conditions change.
The drought, heat and beetle outbreaks in recent years put extreme pressure on sugar pines, creating a natural experiment that weeded out all but the toughest.
"I think what we're seeing is contemporary natural selection," Maloney said.
Now, she's trying to ensure their descendents survive. "

Forests are being killed by sea level rise, sometimes a good distance from the water. The water table becomes more salty.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...

Fungus that helps break down rotting wood and decaying matter in forests also makes Poplar trees grow faster when it is growing in between root cells.

https://www.energy.gov/science/ber/ar...

Gives the trees more energy from nutrients I imagine. I'll come back and read that one when I've more time, thanks.

Yes, it helps make the roots more porous in both directions. Probably self limiting, when the ground dries up the fungus probably reduces it's activity.

Last night my husband looked up from his computer and asked me if I knew why trees made coal and the Earth will never have any more coal than it does now. I said I understood the process, but what was he referring to about the future?

I hadn't been told this before, but I picked it up right away. When the first trees grew, they grew really fast and covered land, but as they died...
"There was nothing yet to rot them," I said.
So the organisms that eat dead wood hadn't evolved yet and trees fell on top of one another and lay there and pressed the lot down. That's why the deep layers of coal happened.
"But today we have fungi and bacteria and little insects like woodlice that all eat dead wood. They are called detritivores because they eat debris. So that can't happen again."

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...
I don't know if this is what Allan was reading, but the whole story is here - focused on bacteria.

Preserving tree habitat preserves the biosphere for all the other plants and creatures; like a Florida swampy forest of cypress, hosting the ghost orchid and its pollinator moths.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...

Re trees and coal, Allan tells me he was watching something on YouTube.

The endangered wax palm in Colombia.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-...

Interesting article. "With the area now safer and more accessible following the 2016 peace deal with the Farc rebels, farmers are moving back and the scientists fear for the future of the national tree." The area where the most palm trees might be located was protected by civil unrest, not by civilian authority. The trees are protected, people are prohibited from using the branches for anything but the landowners are free to clear the land for any purpose. The land is cheap in it's undeveloped state but as soon as the land is cleared the value goes up so there is no incentive to not develop the land.

Slight detour; the science of how medieval people (Vikings in this case) made rope out of tree bark.

https://gizmodo.com/watch-rope-get-ma...

26 Books on trees listed by Richard Powers:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/lov...

I am posting this article on a newly discovered widow spider species here, because it explains the sand forests and their fragility.

https://gizmodo.com/newly-discovered-...

An interesting statement in this article hints that the number of trees on the planet effects the production of polar ice. Not enough trees and we end up with no polar ice. Like it was before there were forests.

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

Primitive and strange trees which gave rise to today's species. Thanks!

I previously mentioned the Joshua Trees, which I saw on my drive through Arizona some years ago. Well, if you drive there now, you'll see them covered in snow.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/be-soothe...

Author Lisa Blackwood encourages us to plant trees in her recent author's newsletter. Quote:

"The most recent science suggests trees are currently our best defense against climate change, preventing erosion, and helping to purify our air and water. For the first time ever, I actually harvested cones from my two Dawn Redwoods. They're currently getting a cold treatment and then I'm going to attempt to germinate them in the spring. We'll see how it goes. Conifers have boatloads of seeds, but low viability. But I figure if we need trees fast, Dawn Redwoods have it covered. I kid you not.
You can pull up a chair and partially watch them grown. Of course we need a good variety. Biodiversity is everything. But I've got Redwoods, so I'll grow them and find places to plant them. Maybe you can do the same for the trees where you live. Give nature a little hand."

Some of the largest redwoods are also the largest trees on the planet. Now land on which a grove is growing, has been purchased for conservation.
https://www.ecowatch.com/giant-sequoi...

Worryingly for me, at the end the group says they aim to transfer the land to the National Forest Service. That seems like a way currently to get it earmarked for mining or fracking. Or am I too cynical?

The Spirit of the Woods:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/01...

Wollemi Pines were nearly burned out - they are only found naturally in one valley, having lived there since the era of dinosaurs.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/dinosaur-...

I won't keep you in suspense - saved for now.

That seems like a way currently to get it earmarked for mining or fracking. Or am I too cynical?

Nope, at the end of 2018 there was talk of changing status of national land including Redwoods for mining. Also includes areas with 3,000 year old trees.

"According to Earthjustice, an eco-rights activism group, the seven national monuments and parks in California that could be threatened are Giant Sequoia, Berryessa Snow Mountain, Carrizo Plain, Sand to Snow, San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains and Mojave Trails. In Arizona, part of the Grand Canyon is also under review. How will this coal and oil specifically be extracted in California? By cutting down large portions of the Redwood forest."

Its nice that these people bought the land but they will need to hang onto the land for awhile to see if the land status for protected land in California is changed for mining. Turning it over to the federal government could make it vulnerable as the most recently added properties could be the first to go.

https://thefalcon.online/1526/opinion...

Thanks for that.

Reforestation / deforestation affects the water table - I have often warned my clients that if they fell their tree the garden will get more soggy.
This article ought to mention the water table but doesn't. We do get told that rivers may drop.
https://www.ecowatch.com/reforestatio...

Why old growth forest needs to be preserved; thanks to Phys.org for an article about forest in Ukraine.

https://phys.org/news/2020-01-hectare...

How the satellite ECOSTRESS can see when trees and other plants 'wake up' and breathe.
Thank NASA for the article.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.ph...

African rainforests are proving more resilient than South American. According to this article the rainforests are absorbing less carbon than they used to as major trees die from drought, fire, clearances.
You can view this Independent article free if you disable your ad blocker.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...

The botanical science and dedicated work behind seedless naval oranges.

https://gizmodo.com/the-delicious-mut...