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Old Growth Trees Being Killed

Climate shift 'killing US trees'

Old growth trees in the western US are being killed as a result of regional climatic shifts, a study suggests.
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Killed Trees Growth Old

I think this is bound to happen as we warm and many people deplete the ground water sources in an area. Should be alarmed yes as it is an indicator that we are changing the plant to fast.

Old Growth Trees Being Killed UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

We all should be concerned when any trees are being cut down. Plants are our oxygen factories. We need to make sure that we keep the oxygen producing plant life around so we continue to thrive here. If we deplete too much of the vegetation how long are we going to survive?

Killed Trees Growth Old

All tree die eventually. We should cut down some of these trees before they die so they can be of use, and then replant them so that they can be utilized for future generations.

We should also clear undergrowth so we will not continue to have the forest destroying fires that we have been having lately.

And we should selectively thin the forests (or let them burn naturally when fires do occur. Forest need fire periodically to be healthy) so that the trees can be used and so forest aren't overgrown. Trees grow better when they are not crowded and fires usually take care of this.

Thinning actually promotes old growth in trees, by allowing some trees to grow while thinning out others that compete with that tree. As one who has done farming all of his life, I know that plants cannot thrive with too much competition. You plant more seeds then you need to insure germination (as is done in nature), and then thin the area around one to promote growth. In nature this thinning process is primarily done by fire, but man (rather then clear cutting) can thin areas (thus harvesting the trees) to let other trees grow larger.

In the White Mountains in Arizona they have started to thin out trees near areas where man had been living. The people had thought that they preferred "natural" growing condition (around cabins and mountain cities) and decided not to mess with nature. What happened though, was that fires were surpresed and thinning was never done because the local population wanted everything to remain "natural". What actually happened was that you got too many trees in a particular area that competed too much with other trees. Disease tended to spread quickly amongst this population of trees. Fires actually did more damage to these areas because the trees were so closely spaced that it destroyed much of the forest. In areas where proscribed burns and thinning occurred the trees were healthier and less susceptible to disease.

I am not too worried about some of these trees dying, as I believe climate change is a naturally occurring event that has happened countless times throughout history. I also believe that some of these trees ,have just entered the last phase of their life cycles. Trees do not live forever and they must die sometimes.

Killed Trees Growth Old

Yes we do need to tend better to our forests. Due to our vast empty land I think that has been under done. Look at any small bush to a forest and the under growth is out of control.

I think if we managed it better we could supply people with good firewood and place many logs into the pulp and paper mills that would just have totted away. yes we do still need some logs rotting down for nutrients ect. I think over all the impact would be healthier trees and a reduction in stripping large tracts of land only to be planted by tinny saplings.

A stripped land takes much longer to recover then one that is carefully forested. many in my area cut firewood from their small 60 acre lots. They never ran out and the trees grew faster then in the wild.