I don't much like your calling trees "machines." A better attitude is expressed by that lovely image. I live in the eastern US and have wondered at how often the global maps James Hansen posts show our region as nearly the only land region that isn't warming. I've also noted that I have not personally seen evidence of warming--but some of this is because I used to live in a "holler," in a spot where the ground to the west wouldn't support trees. Now I live on a ridge, with forests down the slope to the west (prevailing wind); we built our house up against tall trees to the west so it's in full shade all afternoon in summer; but also, breezes climbing the hill prior to entering our windows are subject to the cooling effect of all that transpiration.
Fascinating comment Mary. Topography comes into it and latitude. (It was a different daily pattern in Canada’s New Brunswick when I worked there one summer long ago among conifer forests – the daily thunder showers had the place running in water.
Just a thought about your region: it was home to an amazing hard wood with an edible ecosystem to go with it. I understand there is genetic resistance available to Chestnut Blight. Without getting too technical a genetic restoration might be possible. For fun I see the previous forest range as a possible future ‘refugia’ for a civilisation, not the Bill Gates or rocketry version; more a kind of learning going forward – reading that book by Toynbee that Ugo flagged up recently.
This is briefly the Black Chestnut story, with the map. In the long ago I worked within a speciality for UK and EU plantquarantine services – not forests sad to say but I got acquainted.
I have been in touch with the "anti-GMO crowd" which "sadly" fights against introduction in the wild of GMO trees, including the chestnut. I'm not a scientists and don't understand the argument against it, except that trees are long lived and once introduced, it could not be recalled. I do know that the application to introduce it was withdrawn a few months ago because they discovered problems with it. And that the pro-GMO crowd wants to GMO various other trees, like a frost-tolerant eucalyptus so that tree can ravage our southeast like it's done in Latin America; and making resinous pines even more flammable so more resin can be collected, until they cause horrific wildfires. This is the kind of thinking that has forests south of me (I'm in West Virginia) being cut down to turn into pellets and ship to UK and EU to burn in coal plants, where they emit more CO2 than when the plant burned coal, yet they get carbon credits because it's "renewable", supposedly, because the trees will grow back or be replaced with a sterile tree plantation. Living in WV, I see endless greenwashing of this type.
But we have a robust hardwood forest anyway, even without the chestnut. We heat with wood, between one and two cords a year, and in 15 winters have never cut a live tree just for firewood--we find down, dead or dying trees, or cut live wood that is unhealthy and threatening a building, or a few that shaded a garden or small oaks and bigger tulip poplars for mushroom substrate. It's the nuts I'd miss if I'd ever had one. There are plenty of hickories here, but I haven't found one whose nuts let the nutmeats drop out of the sinuses. We tried grafting hickory seedflings to hardy pecans (pecan is a type of hickory native to further south) and to improved hickories and nearly all took, but many of the pecans died and all of them are growing so slowly, by the time they produce nuts I'll be long dead (and the squirrels will probably get them all anyway).. We tried the hybrid hazelnut-filberts, but most died; I have one of the few survivors, a Jefferson that has gotten to full size and makes lots of male flowers but has never produced a nut (it's been at least 10 years). Black walnuts grow well here but I don't like the nuts much and they create problems for some other plants. I'm now trying frafting Persian/English walnuts to black walnut seedlings.
Mary, your comment deserves a longer response than I can manage today. I take all the anti-GMO arguments seriously. I was involved in risk assessment, and before I retired (long since) became a professional sceptic of the ‘promises.
I will be doing well if I make it very far into the next decade, and I was really looking optimistically a century or three ahead. Smile. The Petroleum Age and the ‘energy surplus’ culture will largely come to an end, probably curtailed sooner than we think depending on the part of the globe we look at. Limits to Growth scenario is on track. Industrial biomass and biofuel and a plantation approach looks to make it worse, faster. Ugo’s webinar today was interesting. Anastasia suggests it is rational to stop destruction especially of natural forest and restore where possible. Hanging on to previous systems of agriculture and food seems worth considering.
It would be great if you could find some local history of life in your region before and during European settlement. As well as interest for us elsewhere, it might point to goals in future. I looked a few years ago at a history of chestnuts in Europe. https://bit.ly/49uAQkt
Quite agree about squirrels. It is not easy to be first for our hazel nuts near the Scottish Border.
PS I have not checked but my understanding of genetics of blight resistance is that a single resistant N. American tree has been found. The trick might be to get the genes into a wider wild and diverse genetic background suitable for a wild forest. Hmm … I might even allow a bit of biotech to look at that.
I agree that the use of biotech within a closed environment, in order to explore for genetic possibilities to guide breeding is acceptable.
I think I read that the varmint stealing my fruit here has also invaded Europe, the bigger North American grey squirrel rubbing out the native red one.
There are claims that there were no natives (humans) in West Virginia prior to European settlement but I've also heard rebuttals to that from Natives, and it certainly was used as a hunting ground. But likely there was little agriculture for the same reason there is little today--the climate is, in my view, perfect but the terrain is not. Every farm I know is 95% steep wooded hillside. Because it's steep it must remain wooded, which is part of why our firewood situation is excellent. As for looking at pre- and during European colonization for farming technique, my opinion is that on the whole, the way agriculture should move is backwards...but there are exceptions. Some places had better agricultural methods than others, and there have been breakthroughs in recent science in forestry and soil science, which may point the way to an improved approach. For example the notion that a cut forest can regrow faster if only the desired species are allowed to grow and the "weed trees" are removed has been disproven, and we now know that fungally dominated compost is better soil enhancement for some plants, and bacterially dominated compost is better for others.
Pretty much agree with all of that including soil science - much more known than when I was a student.
N A,merican Grey carries a disease to which Red seems more susceptible, but the predator Pine Marten seems to have more effect on the Grey, and is making a come-back, at least in British Isles - not sure what is happening on the Continent.
I wonder why humans did not make more of that chestnut food resource - it looked huge from the map and info.
Ugo's webinar was recorded today. Lots of interest. Soil building looks like one of the essentials along with big forests to temper the Faustian Bargain. btw did not know the compost info ... thanks.
I thought humans DID eat a lot of American chestnuts. On the compost info there is a great book--been more since, but Teaming With Microbes is where I got that. The bit about forests came from Finding the Mother Tree. But here's another one--A Forest Journey by John Perlin, which shows that before the discovery of fossil fuels, humans ravaged one landscape after another for wood for heating, smelting, eventually shipmasts...and the center of western civiliization kept moving west in pursuit of virgin timber, ending here--I didn't know that many English ships were carrying wood back from the colonies. Ended because wood was supplanted by fossil fuels.
We can have a global warming Issue and Science point it out as 1,5 degrees average,, but every one knows that our local conditions move much further than that!
Yes indeed - a version of slash-and-burn. I learned a few years ago that the maple woods of New Hampshire hide the stone walling of the settlement fields. Yes, before the American power house took over, urbanising industrialised Britain was the big market. The old growth forests are still here as flooring - there is a brisk trade for example in pitch pine reclaimed from 19thC buildings and industrial sites. Our main and very busy rail link London to Scotland crosses the R. Tweed on its 19thC original viaduct sitting on American Elm piles steam-hammer driven into the tidal river bed, not far from here at Berwick upon Tweed.
The American story is quite some story! I have a great 'technical' book; Cunfer's 'On the Great Plains - Agriculture & Environment' (Texas A&M University Press, 2005). It covers for example the critical introduction of fossil fuel derived fertiliser.
Thanks, Diego. I know that article. Initially, I planned to mention it in the post, but then I didn't in order to simplify. But I may comment on it in a future post.
I don't much like your calling trees "machines." A better attitude is expressed by that lovely image. I live in the eastern US and have wondered at how often the global maps James Hansen posts show our region as nearly the only land region that isn't warming. I've also noted that I have not personally seen evidence of warming--but some of this is because I used to live in a "holler," in a spot where the ground to the west wouldn't support trees. Now I live on a ridge, with forests down the slope to the west (prevailing wind); we built our house up against tall trees to the west so it's in full shade all afternoon in summer; but also, breezes climbing the hill prior to entering our windows are subject to the cooling effect of all that transpiration.
In ancient times, μηχανή (Mechanos) didn't mean "mechanical" in the modern sense. It meant "action" -- which is what trees do!
Fascinating comment Mary. Topography comes into it and latitude. (It was a different daily pattern in Canada’s New Brunswick when I worked there one summer long ago among conifer forests – the daily thunder showers had the place running in water.
Just a thought about your region: it was home to an amazing hard wood with an edible ecosystem to go with it. I understand there is genetic resistance available to Chestnut Blight. Without getting too technical a genetic restoration might be possible. For fun I see the previous forest range as a possible future ‘refugia’ for a civilisation, not the Bill Gates or rocketry version; more a kind of learning going forward – reading that book by Toynbee that Ugo flagged up recently.
This is briefly the Black Chestnut story, with the map. In the long ago I worked within a speciality for UK and EU plantquarantine services – not forests sad to say but I got acquainted.
https://forestpathology.org/canker/chestnut-blight/
I have been in touch with the "anti-GMO crowd" which "sadly" fights against introduction in the wild of GMO trees, including the chestnut. I'm not a scientists and don't understand the argument against it, except that trees are long lived and once introduced, it could not be recalled. I do know that the application to introduce it was withdrawn a few months ago because they discovered problems with it. And that the pro-GMO crowd wants to GMO various other trees, like a frost-tolerant eucalyptus so that tree can ravage our southeast like it's done in Latin America; and making resinous pines even more flammable so more resin can be collected, until they cause horrific wildfires. This is the kind of thinking that has forests south of me (I'm in West Virginia) being cut down to turn into pellets and ship to UK and EU to burn in coal plants, where they emit more CO2 than when the plant burned coal, yet they get carbon credits because it's "renewable", supposedly, because the trees will grow back or be replaced with a sterile tree plantation. Living in WV, I see endless greenwashing of this type.
But we have a robust hardwood forest anyway, even without the chestnut. We heat with wood, between one and two cords a year, and in 15 winters have never cut a live tree just for firewood--we find down, dead or dying trees, or cut live wood that is unhealthy and threatening a building, or a few that shaded a garden or small oaks and bigger tulip poplars for mushroom substrate. It's the nuts I'd miss if I'd ever had one. There are plenty of hickories here, but I haven't found one whose nuts let the nutmeats drop out of the sinuses. We tried grafting hickory seedflings to hardy pecans (pecan is a type of hickory native to further south) and to improved hickories and nearly all took, but many of the pecans died and all of them are growing so slowly, by the time they produce nuts I'll be long dead (and the squirrels will probably get them all anyway).. We tried the hybrid hazelnut-filberts, but most died; I have one of the few survivors, a Jefferson that has gotten to full size and makes lots of male flowers but has never produced a nut (it's been at least 10 years). Black walnuts grow well here but I don't like the nuts much and they create problems for some other plants. I'm now trying frafting Persian/English walnuts to black walnut seedlings.
Mary, your comment deserves a longer response than I can manage today. I take all the anti-GMO arguments seriously. I was involved in risk assessment, and before I retired (long since) became a professional sceptic of the ‘promises.
I will be doing well if I make it very far into the next decade, and I was really looking optimistically a century or three ahead. Smile. The Petroleum Age and the ‘energy surplus’ culture will largely come to an end, probably curtailed sooner than we think depending on the part of the globe we look at. Limits to Growth scenario is on track. Industrial biomass and biofuel and a plantation approach looks to make it worse, faster. Ugo’s webinar today was interesting. Anastasia suggests it is rational to stop destruction especially of natural forest and restore where possible. Hanging on to previous systems of agriculture and food seems worth considering.
It would be great if you could find some local history of life in your region before and during European settlement. As well as interest for us elsewhere, it might point to goals in future. I looked a few years ago at a history of chestnuts in Europe. https://bit.ly/49uAQkt
Quite agree about squirrels. It is not easy to be first for our hazel nuts near the Scottish Border.
PS I have not checked but my understanding of genetics of blight resistance is that a single resistant N. American tree has been found. The trick might be to get the genes into a wider wild and diverse genetic background suitable for a wild forest. Hmm … I might even allow a bit of biotech to look at that.
I agree that the use of biotech within a closed environment, in order to explore for genetic possibilities to guide breeding is acceptable.
I think I read that the varmint stealing my fruit here has also invaded Europe, the bigger North American grey squirrel rubbing out the native red one.
There are claims that there were no natives (humans) in West Virginia prior to European settlement but I've also heard rebuttals to that from Natives, and it certainly was used as a hunting ground. But likely there was little agriculture for the same reason there is little today--the climate is, in my view, perfect but the terrain is not. Every farm I know is 95% steep wooded hillside. Because it's steep it must remain wooded, which is part of why our firewood situation is excellent. As for looking at pre- and during European colonization for farming technique, my opinion is that on the whole, the way agriculture should move is backwards...but there are exceptions. Some places had better agricultural methods than others, and there have been breakthroughs in recent science in forestry and soil science, which may point the way to an improved approach. For example the notion that a cut forest can regrow faster if only the desired species are allowed to grow and the "weed trees" are removed has been disproven, and we now know that fungally dominated compost is better soil enhancement for some plants, and bacterially dominated compost is better for others.
Pretty much agree with all of that including soil science - much more known than when I was a student.
N A,merican Grey carries a disease to which Red seems more susceptible, but the predator Pine Marten seems to have more effect on the Grey, and is making a come-back, at least in British Isles - not sure what is happening on the Continent.
I wonder why humans did not make more of that chestnut food resource - it looked huge from the map and info.
Ugo's webinar was recorded today. Lots of interest. Soil building looks like one of the essentials along with big forests to temper the Faustian Bargain. btw did not know the compost info ... thanks.
I thought humans DID eat a lot of American chestnuts. On the compost info there is a great book--been more since, but Teaming With Microbes is where I got that. The bit about forests came from Finding the Mother Tree. But here's another one--A Forest Journey by John Perlin, which shows that before the discovery of fossil fuels, humans ravaged one landscape after another for wood for heating, smelting, eventually shipmasts...and the center of western civiliization kept moving west in pursuit of virgin timber, ending here--I didn't know that many English ships were carrying wood back from the colonies. Ended because wood was supplanted by fossil fuels.
That is very wise Mary.
We can have a global warming Issue and Science point it out as 1,5 degrees average,, but every one knows that our local conditions move much further than that!
>>Bill Gates famously declared that “planting trees is complete nonsense” as a way to fight global warming.<<
He didn't say that. It took me five minutes to find the source.
>>He said it was “complete nonsense” that planting enough trees would take care of the climate problem.<<
https://fortune.com/2023/09/22/bill-gates-climate-change-planting-trees-complete-nonsense-oil-gas/
Do you believe all we have to do is plant trees? I don't.
Yes indeed - a version of slash-and-burn. I learned a few years ago that the maple woods of New Hampshire hide the stone walling of the settlement fields. Yes, before the American power house took over, urbanising industrialised Britain was the big market. The old growth forests are still here as flooring - there is a brisk trade for example in pitch pine reclaimed from 19thC buildings and industrial sites. Our main and very busy rail link London to Scotland crosses the R. Tweed on its 19thC original viaduct sitting on American Elm piles steam-hammer driven into the tidal river bed, not far from here at Berwick upon Tweed.
The American story is quite some story! I have a great 'technical' book; Cunfer's 'On the Great Plains - Agriculture & Environment' (Texas A&M University Press, 2005). It covers for example the critical introduction of fossil fuel derived fertiliser.
Hi Ugo
Interesting articule.
Rob Lewis has some great insights around this. He has been writing about Dr Milla works, and we recently wrote about these same effect in Chile.
https://theclimateaccordingtolife.substack.com/p/another-mediterranean-climate-mystery
Hope you find Insightful
Thanks, Diego. I know that article. Initially, I planned to mention it in the post, but then I didn't in order to simplify. But I may comment on it in a future post.