The impacts of a warming climate are not only severe in the Southwest, but unequal in their dispersion across communities. That was one of several key points made by authors of the Southwest region ch.
March 15, 2021
A boardwalk in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite damaged by a fallen ponderosa pine during the Mono wind event on 19 January.Photograph: AP
In geological time, we’ve changed the climate in the blink of an eye – pulling the biological rug out from under forests around the planet.
Camille Stevens-Rumann never used to worry about seeing dead trees. As a wildland firefighter in the American west, she encountered untold numbers killed in blazes she helped to extinguish. She knew fires are integral to forests in this part of the world; they prune out smaller trees, giving room to the rest and even help the seeds of some species to germinate.
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Camille Stevens-Rumann never used to worry about seeing dead trees. As a wildland firefighter in the American west, she encountered untold numbers killed in blazes she helped to extinguish. She knew fires are integral to forests in this part of the world; they prune out smaller trees, giving room to the rest and even help the seeds of some species to germinate.
“We have largely operated under the assumption that forests are going to come back after fires,” Stevens-Rumann said.
But starting in about 2013, she noticed something unsettling. In certain places, the trees were not returning. For an analysis she performed of sites across the Rocky Mountains, she found that almost one-third of places that had burned since 2000 had no trees regrowing whatsoever. Instead of tree seedlings, there were shrubs and flowers.