Want to plant a tree? Consider ‘climate-smart’ ones that can take our future heat | George Weigel Today 7:00 AM A changing climate is behind some of the troubles the region has been experiencing lately in conifer health. Facebook Share Our climate isn’t like it was a generation ago, and our plants are showing it – especially trees. Many of Pennsylvania’s recent tree demises – from diseases on spruce and firs to branch diebacks on Japanese maples to “mysterious” deaths of sugar maples – are directly or indirectly related to climate changes. And it’s not just warmer temperatures, as we saw during last year’s hottest month ever in July, or the string of recent record-setting warm years.