Tree Huggers

At least in the US, I never seem to see a new tree show up.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/710945

Cities worldwide are implementing tree-planting programs to mitigate climate change, emphasizing the importance of selecting appropriate tree species and providing adequate water, as seen in the case of damaged trees in Penrith, Western Sydney due to extreme heat and drought.

• Street trees face challenges in surviving climate change.
• Many governments are investing in tree-planting programs for urban cooling.
• The selection of tree species and provision of sufficient water are crucial for their survival in a warmer world.
• Extreme heat and drought can damage urban trees, especially exotic deciduous species.
• Some tree species showed resilience to heat and drought, while others suffered crown dieback.
• Drought-tolerant species may not provide sufficient shade or cooling for urban areas.
• Access to water and incorporating blue infrastructure are essential for the survival of urban trees.
• Effective planning is needed to balance the cooling and survival of trees in cities facing climate change.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/710935

Trees are supposed to be cleared according to codes of practice, such as the Australian Standard for Pruning Trees and the Australian Standard for Protecting Trees on Development Sites.

Breaches can occur during powerline clearing across Australia, where old roadside trees can be decimated by losing much of their canopy.

Local communities have been left to lament the loss of their green and leafy road reserves from fires, as well as losses to the trees themselves from unnecessary clearing - it's a double blow.

Herbicide is another very common, but rarely spoken of, cause of death for roadside trees and vegetation, with roadside verges routinely sprayed to reduce weeds encroaching onto the edges of roads and tarmac.

Herbicide spray can drift and kill non-target vegetation, such as crops on adjacent farms and even ancient remnant trees nearby.

In 2012 thousands of roadside and rural trees were illegally poisoned or cut down in the United States by billboard advertisers.

More of us should take stock of roadside trees: they are links to Australia's past, refuges of once more widespread natural communities, and remain an important part of cultural heritage.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/709116

• Southern conifers, found in Australia, South America, New Zealand, and New Caledonia, may not actually be true conifers and could be more closely related to flowering plants.
• Conifers are gymnosperms with naked seeds and cones.
• Southern conifers evolved from southern seed ferns and have broad leaves compared to the needle-like leaves of northern conifers.
• Some southern conifers, such as Araucaria and Agathis species, have cones.
• The Wollemi pine, a species of southern conifer, is considered a "living fossil" and appeared around 200 million years ago.

Our research calculated the death rates of urban inhabitants across 93 European cities between June and August 2015.

In 2015, Gothenburg in Sweden recorded no premature UHI deaths, while urban heat was responsible for 32 premature deaths per 100,000 people in the Romanian city Cluj-Napoca.

Tree planting programmes must therefore encourage residents to plant trees.

So increasing tree cover to 30% may be challenging for some European cities.

Incorporating urban green infrastructure into cities should make them more resilient to climate change.

Preserving existing trees and complementing tree planting schemes with other measures that reduce the intensity of UHIs, such as reducing car use, are similarly important.

Our study suggests that by increasing tree coverage, premature UHI deaths in European cities can be reduced.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/708858

Our study published ~~today~~ in Nature Climate Change found climate change will put 90-100% of the trees and shrubs planted in Australian capital cities at risk by 2050.

Without action, two-thirds of trees and shrubs in cities worldwide will be at potential risk from climate change.

How will the trees themselves cope with climate change as conditions shift beyond their natural tolerance limits for high temperatures or lack of water? Our team of scientists from Australia and France examined the impacts of temperature and rainfall changes projected for coming decades on 3,129 tree and shrub species planted in 164 cities across 78 countries.

About half of these urban tree and shrub species are already experiencing climate conditions beyond their natural tolerance limits.

By 2050, the proportion of urban tree species that might be at risk of projected temperature increases in Australian cities is very high.

Among the major cities with inventories of urban plantings, those with high percentages at risk include: Cairns 82%, Melbourne 93%, Perth 95%, Hobart 95%, Sydney 96%, Canberra 98% and Darwin 100%. Common native species, including manna gum, swamp gum, yellow box, narrow-leaved peppermint, blackwood and brush box, and well-loved introduced species, such as jacaranda, oaks, elms, poplars and silver birch, are among the trees that could be at risk in Australia.

Increasing the number of trees and shrubs in our cities, collectively called urban forests, is a key climate change adaptation and liveability strategy being used around the world.

Conventional residential development destroys large amounts of green space.

The loss of urban green space leads to increases in urban heat and flooding, which are amplified by climate change, and can threaten human health and well-being, and property.

Urban flooding due to increasingly severe storms can be reduced through well-designed green infrastructure, including green spaces.

Although many Canadians consider a detached house to be their dream home, conventional residential development may worsen climate change.

These climate change mitigation benefits are reduced when urban trees and green spaces are removed.

While improved green spaces may generate small premiums for environmentally oriented home buyers, land developers are not compensated for the public goods these green spaces provide.

Cities need new ideas that go beyond green infrastructure checklists that incentivize developers only to fulfil minimum expectations and do not take the future climate change performance of these natural assets into consideration.

Shamelessly stolen from u/OccamsLoppers on Reddit.

Tree planting is a central plank in Britain's net zero strategy.

An inability to get new woodland established means the UK will almost certainly not meet carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation targets.

The environmental audit committee report identifies several failings and bottlenecks to progress with woodland creation.

One way of reducing complexity would be to give greater autonomy to tree and woodland professionals.

Giving chartered arboriculturists and chartered foresters greater independence, supported with a simpler funding model, could help incentivise and liberate tree and woodland professionals to do what they do best, which is create and manage the UK's valuable woodlands for both people and nature.

In a multi-generation experiment, researchers from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants' cries for help.

To learn how microbes help plants deal with drought, Ricks established live soil communities in pots with or without plants.

He again grew plants in soil from phase one and kept the same watering treatments, but some plants were now experiencing drought in soils that had been well-watered for generations, and vice versa.

He expected soil microbes from historically dry pots would have adapted to those conditions, helping plants withstand drought more than microbes from historically wet pots.

Ricks said soil microbes are involved in many processes that could help plants withstand stress.

I hope memes are OK.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/240746

This is a short review of a book that details the rise and fall of civilisations in relation to their forest inventory. If you like or plant trees, this book hurts as it shows a lot of other civilisations knew they were slowly killing themselves through land clearing but did it anyway.

https://john-perlin.com/

https://aforestjourney.com/

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/49b3ab9449e24d799e36ae0c709abbf3

Surprisingly, it belongs to a poorly known species and resides in Southern California--not generally known for its trees.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/639127

More than 300 Labor branches have backed a push by the party's environmental arm for the Albanese government to fund an expanded, publicly owned plantation industry to ensure the country gets the timber it needs and end native forest logging.

Felicity Wade, Lean's co-convener, said the evidence suggested expanding plantations could create 1,800 regional jobs, compared with 1,100 employed in the native forest industry nationally.

A draft national platform seen by Guardian Australia made no mention of reducing native forest logging and land-clearing - a long-time Lean goal.

The Western Australian and Victorian governments have promised to end native forest logging at the end of this year, and the federal ALP MP Josh Burns has urged action "to save our precious natural environment and native wildlife".

The new New South Wales Labor government supports ongoing native forest logging while also promising to create a great koala national park, and the Tasmanian Labor opposition has accused the pro-forestry Liberal state government of not doing enough to support the industry.

Growing trees on buildings is a controversial practice, but if successful, can provide tremendous benefits to dense urban areas where space for planting is otherwise limited.

A tool for comparing canopy coverage of cities across the world. Tree canopy has major impacts on the livability of cities, particularly as the climate warms. The biggest benefits kick in around 30-40% coverage.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/602308

Older article.

Our newly published paper documents the tallest and the biggest circumference trees across the continent, and the biggest trees in each state and territory.

The top 20 tallest trees in Australia are all mountain ash trees, between 90m and 100m tall.

Stands of old-growth trees produce significantly more water than catchments dominated by young trees.

Tasmania again dominates as land of the giant trees, with 12 of the 20 trees with the biggest girth.

A white fig in northern New South Wales is the tree with the largest known circumference in Australia at 31m. To put that into perspective, it would take about 18 people from fingertip to fingertip to circle the tree.