Climate change is hastening the demise of Pacific Northwest forests
Christine Buhl, a forest health specialist for the Oregon Department of Forestry, plunges a tool called an increment borer into the dead tree’s trunk. Twisting the handle of the corkscrew-like borer, Buhl extracts a long, thin sample of the tree’s inner growth rings. The rings become thinner over time, indicating the tree’s growth slowed before the tree finally died, a sign that this red cedar, like thousands of others in Oregon and Washington, died from drought.
Source: yahoo.com
