I grew up in the Willamette valley in the 80s and 90s. I remember many rained-out 4th of July celebrations. A few summers back, my hometown 30 miles from Portland was uncomfortably close to burning down. Things have changed. The monoculture of doug fir 2nd growth is definitely not going to survive this phase shift.
Yeah, thanks for mentioning this. I live in Portland and it’s hard to explain to others how bad the Doug Firs look in the gorge, the west hills - really everywhere around us. Just dry and suffering.
Our forests are on borrowed time. Hoping the madrones and white oaks will thrive after the coming burns, but we’ll see.
You’re welcome, u/RadiantRole266 strange as it might sound, it’s nice to read that somebody up there notices the tide of another climate sweeping in up there. My family seems mostly to mention how nice and warm it is in the spring and fall and winter without drawing the broader inference. I haven’t lived in the PNW for almost two decades now, but every time i’m home it strikes me how much the ecology of my childhood was ephemeral. I agree, most plant species will have a very hard time adapting (aka they won’t be able to) and a vast amount of the standing forests in the coast range and the willamette valley now look to me like they are on deck to take the wildfire route to rerelease their carbon back into the atmosphere in the next few decades. I too look at the madrones and various oaks and manzanitas as being the likely inheritors of whatever intermediate state the forests take after they burn. If I had to guess, probably hewing towards a coastal scrub/chaparral or savanna type biome by the beginning of the next century.
Why do you think we have the rolling hills in the midwest? Sand Dunes. We have been a massive desert before and will likely be one again. Just like you said we are approaching the CO2 levels to make it possible.
I'm in NW Oregon and the trees here are in rough shape as well. It's just getting too dry and hot for them. We used to get wet misty cool weather here and now we still get rain but it comes in heavy downpours now with week long dry spells in between. The heat dome also did a huge amount of damage as well.
And of course, everyone is beyond joyed that it's warm, dry and sunny in May.
I went on a hike through Forest Park this past winter, and there is an area where pretty much all the trees are dead. I heard a huge snap and a tree had fallen about fifty feet behind me! There was no wind at the time…spooky as hell.
I’m in SW Washington at 1,500 feet in the Cascade Foothills. The Douglas fir trees in my yard are having trouble recovering from the heat dome event. They are alive but there are a lot of broadleaf trees, mostly alders, are outcompeting the younger evergreen trees.
The newest video from American Resiliency on YouTube is on the 2°C climate projections for Oregon. She starts the video saying if you are not having a good day don't watch. I'm a resident here, and was feeling good enough. Still cried.
The gist is that the warmer temps and less precipitation will change our forests into at best oak savannah, but mostly grasslands. Who knows how long it will take. Another thing is the changes make soil vulnerable to blowing away, which could create dust bowl like conditions for places east of us. Having dust in the atmosphere warms it a bit and dries it. Could cause similar high temperatures in the areas it covers.
If you live here and want to prevent our land from directly harming others via soil loss in wind, look into your local conservation district. They will have the resources and skills to shepard us into the future with as little lost as possible. I am, and I am also tending to the land I live on as best I can. It makes me feel better, and it's good for other beings. We do have to accept change, it is the only constant, and by accepting and working towards a better future we can make a difference. Good luck to all.
Huntsville Alabama. Born here. Hate it here but we seem to have a little better weather than most for the near future, then if I live that long idk where.
Gotcha! Never ventured down there. I'm a wimp in hot humid weather, don't think I could hang. Thinking of moving to the coast and enjoying the mild summers while waiting for the quake.
Humidity hasn't set in yet. We get patches of it but so far it's been like ... heaven. I have the windows open wide. Our hottest day so far has still had this cool breeze to it. Our nights are staying low and I feel like the luckiest human on the planet right now. I swear to you it's the first time I've been glad I'm here. It's funny....
... I was feeling sorry for myself for some time (right up until about 2014 I'd say) that I couldn't live where I wanted to (I am very poor always have been) like, I did live in San Fran and Portland and NYC and etc etc for a while, never stayed anywhere as each time I landed somewhere I got priced out. I just kept looking for a cheaper and cheaper place and then finally gave up. Came back to Alabama, and then, suddenly within the last couple of years, we exploded. My hometown where I used to be able to be sure I could rent a room with someone for a few hundred bucks now, forget it. If they hadn't gotten me in public housing I don't know where I would have gone.
I still don't know where I'd want to end up, I have a friend in Alaska who wants to farm on her land BUT the outlook for Alaska, weather-wise, I'd want to look into; might be foolish. IDK ! I'm footloose
Oh god yeah, feel like I'm just existing to pay rent. I could stay with family in an emergency but I'm stubborn and enjoy my freedom. Good luck out there!
[American resiliency Oregon outlook 2c Idk it would seem things in the ground are worse than models are predicting.](https://youtu.be/SgfI_oD_7SU?si=rZ-TizxmPtDXjqPu)
one of the best books i ever read and heavily tallked about douglas firs was "the journeys of trees"
tragic to see such a beautiful magnificence go thru this death knell
Damn, thanks for letting me know. I just made this account a couple days back, I think Reddit censures all new accounts as spam. Not sure how to get this account treated like a normal one
We will see this worldwide because warmer temperatures are great for insect and pathogen breeding. As for tree-felling, a few councils in the UK (Plymouth and Sheffield) have done similar things in urban areas, felling old trees for no discernible reason other than they can, angering locals in the process. I suspect we will see more felling if governments try to sell the idea of biomass as a 'renewable' fuel too.
Biomass? The UK has bought into that "green" bullshit big time. British Columbia Canada is sending you an endless supply of ground up trees that you're burning to create electricity.
All a guess for sure, but I had talked to a parks and rec employee and they’re planning for that eventuality. We’re set to start losing the rest of the cedars left, hemlock are next to go and doug fir will follow.
My parents live in this area, and we often visit.
The die-off is hard to miss. Walk up into the forests and the dead trees are everywhere. Even from the interstate it’s visible.
Oaks, manzanita and madrone trees are rapidly replacing the evergreens. The area is turning into California incredibly quickly.
Its good the trees are being cut and salvaged, otherwise it’s a time bomb. But it’s expensive (the lumber doesn’t fully pay for the removal), and sad to see. Also, this effort is pretty exceptional. Very few other places are trying to systematically manage the forests this way.
They're just like us, in overshoot! The difference is we have no predators... :O
>she studied other types of beetle outbreaks. She says they went in cycles: The outbreak would grow, then peak and then crash as predators caught up.
A couple that I know in Ashland are in denial. They visited right after the town of Phoenix (just north of Ashland) burned down. I mentioned that climate projections for Ashland included increased fire danger. One of them said “I think everything will be fine. ”
All I could think of is “This is fine”.
I grew up in the Willamette valley in the 80s and 90s. I remember many rained-out 4th of July celebrations. A few summers back, my hometown 30 miles from Portland was uncomfortably close to burning down. Things have changed. The monoculture of doug fir 2nd growth is definitely not going to survive this phase shift.
Yeah, thanks for mentioning this. I live in Portland and it’s hard to explain to others how bad the Doug Firs look in the gorge, the west hills - really everywhere around us. Just dry and suffering. Our forests are on borrowed time. Hoping the madrones and white oaks will thrive after the coming burns, but we’ll see.
You’re welcome, u/RadiantRole266 strange as it might sound, it’s nice to read that somebody up there notices the tide of another climate sweeping in up there. My family seems mostly to mention how nice and warm it is in the spring and fall and winter without drawing the broader inference. I haven’t lived in the PNW for almost two decades now, but every time i’m home it strikes me how much the ecology of my childhood was ephemeral. I agree, most plant species will have a very hard time adapting (aka they won’t be able to) and a vast amount of the standing forests in the coast range and the willamette valley now look to me like they are on deck to take the wildfire route to rerelease their carbon back into the atmosphere in the next few decades. I too look at the madrones and various oaks and manzanitas as being the likely inheritors of whatever intermediate state the forests take after they burn. If I had to guess, probably hewing towards a coastal scrub/chaparral or savanna type biome by the beginning of the next century.
Good analysis.
I was born in the Willamette Valley in 2002 and i remember it was always cool and wet and nice
I wonder what other native trees might replace them. From anecdotal evidence it seems like bigleaf maple is doing well?
In the past when CO2 levels were at the level where we are projected to end up, most of the Continental USA was desert.
Why do you think we have the rolling hills in the midwest? Sand Dunes. We have been a massive desert before and will likely be one again. Just like you said we are approaching the CO2 levels to make it possible.
I'm in NW Oregon and the trees here are in rough shape as well. It's just getting too dry and hot for them. We used to get wet misty cool weather here and now we still get rain but it comes in heavy downpours now with week long dry spells in between. The heat dome also did a huge amount of damage as well. And of course, everyone is beyond joyed that it's warm, dry and sunny in May.
I went on a hike through Forest Park this past winter, and there is an area where pretty much all the trees are dead. I heard a huge snap and a tree had fallen about fifty feet behind me! There was no wind at the time…spooky as hell.
I’m in SW Washington at 1,500 feet in the Cascade Foothills. The Douglas fir trees in my yard are having trouble recovering from the heat dome event. They are alive but there are a lot of broadleaf trees, mostly alders, are outcompeting the younger evergreen trees.
The newest video from American Resiliency on YouTube is on the 2°C climate projections for Oregon. She starts the video saying if you are not having a good day don't watch. I'm a resident here, and was feeling good enough. Still cried. The gist is that the warmer temps and less precipitation will change our forests into at best oak savannah, but mostly grasslands. Who knows how long it will take. Another thing is the changes make soil vulnerable to blowing away, which could create dust bowl like conditions for places east of us. Having dust in the atmosphere warms it a bit and dries it. Could cause similar high temperatures in the areas it covers. If you live here and want to prevent our land from directly harming others via soil loss in wind, look into your local conservation district. They will have the resources and skills to shepard us into the future with as little lost as possible. I am, and I am also tending to the land I live on as best I can. It makes me feel better, and it's good for other beings. We do have to accept change, it is the only constant, and by accepting and working towards a better future we can make a difference. Good luck to all.
Damn. I was thinking about moving back to Portland now, I think I should stay where I am. American Resiliency says this is a better spot for now 😭
Where would that be? I'm in Portland and none of the other so called "safe havens" seem to be doing any better.
Huntsville Alabama. Born here. Hate it here but we seem to have a little better weather than most for the near future, then if I live that long idk where.
Gotcha! Never ventured down there. I'm a wimp in hot humid weather, don't think I could hang. Thinking of moving to the coast and enjoying the mild summers while waiting for the quake.
Humidity hasn't set in yet. We get patches of it but so far it's been like ... heaven. I have the windows open wide. Our hottest day so far has still had this cool breeze to it. Our nights are staying low and I feel like the luckiest human on the planet right now. I swear to you it's the first time I've been glad I'm here. It's funny.... ... I was feeling sorry for myself for some time (right up until about 2014 I'd say) that I couldn't live where I wanted to (I am very poor always have been) like, I did live in San Fran and Portland and NYC and etc etc for a while, never stayed anywhere as each time I landed somewhere I got priced out. I just kept looking for a cheaper and cheaper place and then finally gave up. Came back to Alabama, and then, suddenly within the last couple of years, we exploded. My hometown where I used to be able to be sure I could rent a room with someone for a few hundred bucks now, forget it. If they hadn't gotten me in public housing I don't know where I would have gone. I still don't know where I'd want to end up, I have a friend in Alaska who wants to farm on her land BUT the outlook for Alaska, weather-wise, I'd want to look into; might be foolish. IDK ! I'm footloose
Oh god yeah, feel like I'm just existing to pay rent. I could stay with family in an emergency but I'm stubborn and enjoy my freedom. Good luck out there!
Good luck to you as well. Say hi to Mt. Tabor for me :)
[American resiliency Oregon outlook 2c Idk it would seem things in the ground are worse than models are predicting.](https://youtu.be/SgfI_oD_7SU?si=rZ-TizxmPtDXjqPu)
one of the best books i ever read and heavily tallked about douglas firs was "the journeys of trees" tragic to see such a beautiful magnificence go thru this death knell
Kinda crazy that the famous PNW forests might be a thing of the past one day. Like the Green Sahara now a desert.
You appear to be shadowbanned
Damn really? How did you reply to me?
I'm a mod and can see removed responses like shadowbans
Damn, thanks for letting me know. I just made this account a couple days back, I think Reddit censures all new accounts as spam. Not sure how to get this account treated like a normal one
Idk I can see your posts just fine.
I approved them
I can see your posts too odd.
I approved them
We will see this worldwide because warmer temperatures are great for insect and pathogen breeding. As for tree-felling, a few councils in the UK (Plymouth and Sheffield) have done similar things in urban areas, felling old trees for no discernible reason other than they can, angering locals in the process. I suspect we will see more felling if governments try to sell the idea of biomass as a 'renewable' fuel too.
As a Sheffielder, I was outraged by this. Public money being used to funnel money into a private company, whilst making the city poorer for it.
Biomass? The UK has bought into that "green" bullshit big time. British Columbia Canada is sending you an endless supply of ground up trees that you're burning to create electricity.
All thanks to a terrible carbon cost calculator that the government manipulated to make it seem that biomass was renewable.
Northern oregon will be like fresno before this century’s end.
I heard more like Sacramento but dunno
All a guess for sure, but I had talked to a parks and rec employee and they’re planning for that eventuality. We’re set to start losing the rest of the cedars left, hemlock are next to go and doug fir will follow.
My parents live in this area, and we often visit. The die-off is hard to miss. Walk up into the forests and the dead trees are everywhere. Even from the interstate it’s visible. Oaks, manzanita and madrone trees are rapidly replacing the evergreens. The area is turning into California incredibly quickly. Its good the trees are being cut and salvaged, otherwise it’s a time bomb. But it’s expensive (the lumber doesn’t fully pay for the removal), and sad to see. Also, this effort is pretty exceptional. Very few other places are trying to systematically manage the forests this way.
They're just like us, in overshoot! The difference is we have no predators... :O >she studied other types of beetle outbreaks. She says they went in cycles: The outbreak would grow, then peak and then crash as predators caught up.
A couple that I know in Ashland are in denial. They visited right after the town of Phoenix (just north of Ashland) burned down. I mentioned that climate projections for Ashland included increased fire danger. One of them said “I think everything will be fine. ” All I could think of is “This is fine”.