Testing trees for a changing climate 🌲
King County foresters are planting native tree seedlings sourced from warmer, drier regions to see how they grow in different conditions. The goal? To learn which might be best suited for the future climate in King County.
📍 Study sites across King County
📅 Monitoring tree growth over the next decade
This research will help inform future tree plantings. King County Executive Climate Office (ECO)
Video Description: An interview with Paul Fischer at the Middle Issaquah Creek Natural Area, where King County foresters are planting seedlings. https://lnkd.in/gcUFFi-y
It's wet and cold, but perfect for planting. I'm Paul Fisher King Counties Forester and we're out here at Middle Issaquah Natural Area, outside of Issaquah ways and we are doing a special climate adapted planting where we've picked special trees from further South and we're planting them out in this trial here. We're already seeing the effects of climate change where some of our common species like western hemlock and western red cedar are experiencing mortality or die offs and we think that's because of hotter. Higher summer, so we're looking for. Are there trees of the same species that are better adapted to these dry, stressful summers that are only going to get worse? Our trial is to see how well these trees established early on. We want to make sure that they can grow and grow well in the 1st. Few years, five years, 10 years of their life and we have more confidence that they'll do. Very well over long time frames, 50 years and beyond. We're looking at 5 main species. Douglas fur, Western red cedar, Grand fur, sickest Bruce, Western hemlock. We do have a ponderosa pine seed lot we've selected these mostly from. South Oregon outside of Coos Bay. There's some from the northwestern most corner of California and some from southern Washington. Also, this project is important to me. Knowing that we're working on making our forests healthier in the long run under increasingly adverse conditions. For myself to enjoy my community, my kids, these are the kinds of steps we need to take to make sure our forests are healthy and strong. Long into the future.
