Rare And Keystone Californaia Tree Species, Including Redwoods, Beginning To Die From Drought
Along California's central coast near the beach city of Cambria stands a swath of Monterey pine trees, one of three groupings of the native trees left in the world. The site has been protected for years from tree cutting because of its rarity. Now, in the fourth year of the Golden State's drought, those trees that cover nearly 15 square acres are as much as 90 percent dead, their needles turned from green to grayish-white. It's the stuff of nightmares for Mark Miller, fire chief for the Cambria Community Services District Fire Department. "I'm extremely worried," Miller said. "I'm freaked out by it."
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The Monterey pines are just some of the trees in California that are dying, or heading that way because of lack of water, higher temperatures and bugs that thrive in dry, hot climates. The southern end of the famed redwood trees that stretch from Big Sur to the Oregon border also are waning, experts said. "In the drier southern part of the range, the trees are not really doing well right now," said Todd Dawson, a professor of ecology and physiology at the University of California, Berkeley. "They're really suffering from the severe water stress."
Redwoods face unprecedented water stress
Dawson has been studying the redwoods from Oregon to Big Sur for five years, starting before the ongoing drought. That allows him and his fellow researchers to more clearly see the effects of lack of water. A combination of factors has contributed to the decline of trees, he said. Temperatures have been rising over the last century, Dawson said, and there's been less rainfall for four years. Last year's precipitation was 22 percent of the normal amount, he said. That means there's less moisture in the soil for tree roots to take up.
Trees at the southern end and eastern edge are losing branches and leaves, an indication that they're dying, he said. "It's very clear that the trees in the southern and eastern margins are all seeing levels of water stress that they've never seen before," Dawson said. Those at the southern end "may not make it through the summer." While right now just those sections of the redwoods are imperiled, he said, that will change if the drought, now in its fourth year, goes to a fifth, sixth or seventh year. "It's just going to march north," Dawson said of the tree death.
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