Climate change may endanger spruce, fir: scientist

By John McPhee
The Chronicle Herald
October 27, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

If you go down to the Acadian woods today, you’ll see a lot of red spruce and balsam fir mixed in with the less common red maples and oaks. About 80 years from now, Maritime hikers may be surrounded by a mixture of trees more reminiscent of North Carolina today. “If you look toward the end of the century, if the climate warms the way climate scientists project, then we’ll begin to see a transition in our forests toward more . . . warmer-adapted maples and oaks,” according to forest ecologist Anthony Taylor. …The Canadian Forest Service study wasn’t sparked by anything noticeable now in the forests, he said. The first effects of climate change on our trees likely won’t be discernible for 50 or 60 years so reducing the harvest or seeding more of these vulnerable species wouldn’t make much of a difference, Taylor said.

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