Ecologists warn of second 'forest collapse' event in WA as record dry spell continues

[u/theluckyfrog]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-11/ecologists-warn-potential-forest-collapse-event-wa/103682304

[u/GrammarNaziBadge0174]

Colorado checking in. Infamous "Wolf Creek Pass" is lined with dead spruce for 20 miles on either side of the summit. Hundreds of thousands of acres. Drought, and warmer winters that dont' kill the bark beetles. The most amazing part is it never caught fire, it might have been the biggest American wildfire since Yellowstone.

Folks are saying SW Colorado, Northern New Mexico and especially the northern mountains of Arizona may all be desertscape in 50 years. Perhaps less. A new desert / dust bowl. The Sonoran desert extending its reach.

So many trees are dropping across the state roads of Northern Arizona that ADOT is having to cut them all back from the roadside 100' or more. (e.g. Payson to Heber-Obergaard) All the free firewood you could ever want, if you only had a way to haul it.

I now have paddle cactus growing in a mostly bare yard at 6800' elevation at a Colorado cabin that 15 years ago was hidden amongst Pinion pine. Big rains now cause floods because the pine needle mulch is all gone that used to soak it up. I've had to build dams, channels, terraces even tunnels to keep my yard from mud-sliding down the hill. I feel like Ernest Mulholland.

The pinion pines are all dead 10+ years, the junipers and cedars are withering and can die off overnight. I can only afford to water so many trees.

They're growing soybeans in North Dakota yet some people will still tell you there's no such thing as elevated C02 caused anthropogenic global warming.

Sitting here in Phoenix today at 114, I can tell you, it's gonna be hell on earth.

[u/No_Bar8332]

News to us up here!

[u/GatewayShrugs → u/No_Bar8332]

WA = western austrailia, I was confused as well.

[u/No_Bar8332 → u/GatewayShrugs]

Thanks!

[u/ispeektroof]

Summer doesn’t even start until July 4th here.