A couple years ago, here in the Pacific NW, I started noticing that many western hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla) were dying or dead. I searched extensively on the subject and couldn't find anything about it to refute or confirm my local observations, but eventually did find a few articles that talked about it, and it boiled down to so…
A couple years ago, here in the Pacific NW, I started noticing that many western hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla) were dying or dead. I searched extensively on the subject and couldn't find anything about it to refute or confirm my local observations, but eventually did find a few articles that talked about it, and it boiled down to some kind of beetle that is more easily thriving as the mean temperature sneaks ever upward. Nowadays it's pretty rare to see a living one, let alone a healthy one. It was deeply disturbing because of how many hemlocks there are around here, probably 5-10% of the total canopy, and they're pretty much all dying. If the trend goes on to take out douglas fir or red western cedar the Pacific NW is going to end up looking like Southern California minus the palm trees. Don't even get me started about the salmon.
A couple years ago, here in the Pacific NW, I started noticing that many western hemlock trees (Tsuga heterophylla) were dying or dead. I searched extensively on the subject and couldn't find anything about it to refute or confirm my local observations, but eventually did find a few articles that talked about it, and it boiled down to some kind of beetle that is more easily thriving as the mean temperature sneaks ever upward. Nowadays it's pretty rare to see a living one, let alone a healthy one. It was deeply disturbing because of how many hemlocks there are around here, probably 5-10% of the total canopy, and they're pretty much all dying. If the trend goes on to take out douglas fir or red western cedar the Pacific NW is going to end up looking like Southern California minus the palm trees. Don't even get me started about the salmon.
That is the Washington State tree. I am going to start watching for this.