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Trees in trouble : wildfires, infestations, and climate change /

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Berkeley, California : Counterpoint Press, [2020]Description: pages cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781640091351
  • 1640091351
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 634.90978 23
LOC classification:
  • SB763.W38 M38 2020
Contents:
Introduction -- A loaded atmosphere -- Inferno -- Outbreak -- Cookie cutters -- The bleeding edge -- Thin and burn -- North, and up -- Ghosts -- Fading white -- Resistance -- The enduring -- Future forests -- Afterword.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Home library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Standard Loan Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Nonfiction Coeur d'Alene Library Book 634.9 MATHEWS (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Checked out 04/05/2024 50610021833921
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:



A troubling story of the devastating and compounding effects of climate change in the Western and Rocky Mountain states, told through in-depth reportage and conversations with ecologists, professional forest managers, park service scientists, burn boss, activists, and more.

Climate change manifests in many ways across North America, but few as dramatic as the attacks on our western pine forests. In Trees in Trouble , Daniel Mathews tells the urgent story of this loss, accompanying burn crews and forest ecologists as they study the myriad risk factors and refine techniques for saving this important, limited resource.

Mathews transports the reader from the exquisitely aromatic haze of ponderosa and Jeffrey pine groves to the fantastic gnarls and whorls of five-thousand-year-old bristlecone pines, from genetic test nurseries where white pine seedlings are deliberately infected with their mortal enemy to the hottest megafire sites and neighborhoods leveled by fire tornadoes or ember blizzards.

Scrupulously researched, Trees in Trouble not only explores the devastating ripple effects of climate change, but also introduces us to the people devoting their lives to saving our forests. Mathews also offers hope- a new approach to managing western pine forests is underway. Trees in Trouble explores how we might succeed in sustaining our forests through the challenging transition to a new environment.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- A loaded atmosphere -- Inferno -- Outbreak -- Cookie cutters -- The bleeding edge -- Thin and burn -- North, and up -- Ghosts -- Fading white -- Resistance -- The enduring -- Future forests -- Afterword.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Introduction (p. 3)
  • 1 A Loaded Atmosphere (p. 9)
  • 2 Inferno (p. 29)
  • 3 Outbreak (p. 59)
  • 4 Cookie Cutters (p. 91)
  • 5 The Bleeding Edge (p. 109)
  • 6 Thin and Burn (p. 125)
  • 7 North, and Up (p. 163)
  • 8 Ghosts (p. 183)
  • 9 Fading White (p. 193)
  • 10 Resistance (p. 209)
  • 11 The Enduring (p. 217)
  • 12 Future Forests (p. 227)
  • Afterword (p. 237)
  • Acknowledgments (p. 247)
  • Notes (p. 251)
  • Index (p. 281)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In this highly informative book, Mathews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains) explains the various forces, such as high-severity fires and tree diseases, that are currently wreaking havoc on the health of forests in the western parts of North America. This timely work, while sober reading, offers some hope and a few solutions as to how forests and their trees can adapt, with human help and support, to meet tougher times. Exhaustively researched with an extensive bibliography, this work does not skimp on information. Instead of focusing on just one aspect of the many issues facing western pine forests, Mathews interweaves them to create an overall picture, effectively showing how everything is coming together into a "perfect storm" situation for forests, their trees, and animals that rely on the ecosystem of the forest. The one downside to the book itself is that the presentation of all this information is somewhat muddled, requiring a close reading for full comprehension. VERDICT Overall, an impressive and prescient addition to an ever-growing oeuvre on the effects of climate change to an environment.--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Publishers Weekly Review

Natural historian Matthews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains) vividly relates the complex environmental situation facing America's western pine forests in this fascinating account. He draws in his audience from the opening line, noting that in "western North America there are living pine trees older than the Egyptian pyramids," thanks to several millennia of fairly consistent temperatures. In contrast, he sees the current era of global warming bringing dramatic and rapid changes, including the disappearance of entire species of trees from these forests. Mathews also illuminates other existential threats facing the landscape, including from devastating wildfires and insect infestations. He is particularly good at articulating why environmentalists should "enthusiastically accept... low- to moderate-severity fires" that thin out overgrown forests and reduce the fuel available for more serious blazes which humans have more difficulty controlling, and from which forests have difficulty recovering. Mathews also analyzes the fascinating biological measures and countermeasures developed by certain trees and the beetles which feed off of them, and explains how the decrease in cold snaps caused by global warming makes mountain pine beetle outbreaks unstoppable. Eco-conscious readers, even those unversed in this seemingly niche subject, will be intrigued and enlightened by Matthews's thoughtful work. (Apr.)

Booklist Review

America's West is home to numerous species of pines and host to an equally plentiful species of marauding beetles. Thanks to climate change, when the two converge, forests are decimated and the denuded region becomes prone to devastating spates of drought and fire, which, in recent years, have escalated to historic levels. The author of several regional natural history guides, Mathews traveled to and through western states, from Washington to New Mexico, consulting with environmentalists, Forest Service personnel, firefighters, and educators, among others, to assess the current damage and forecast the future health of the country's Western forest treasures. He knows this part of the country as well as anyone can, so the title of this book should not be taken as alarmist hyperbole. Consummately professional in both tone and observation, the appeal of Mathews' evaluation of these valuable conifer forests may skew slightly to the more scientifically minded reader, yet his deeply personal connection to the land and its majestic trees makes this equally suitable for any tree lover and everyone concerned about the state of the planet.

Kirkus Book Review

A walk in the woods with an environmental journalist and natural-history writer reveals that the forested world is in grave danger.As Oregon-based naturalist Mathews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains, 2017, etc.) writes, there are 113 species of pine tree, the most abundant and various of any conifer genus. All are in trouble to one extent or another because of climate change, from saplings to "living pine trees older than the Egyptian pyramids." The author roams the world and the scientific literature to examine the many threats that pines face and their previous adaptations. The logic of the lodgepole, for instance, is impressive: Its cone carries a resin that melts at 113 degrees Fahrenheit, protecting the seeds inside the cone from fire. "The fire kills the pines but melts their cone-sealing resin," he writes; "the cone scales open over several days or weeks, shedding seeds upon a wide-open seedbed." Massive fires being an increasingly common phenomenon, particularly in the West, this adaptation is highly useful. On that note, Mathews observes, many forest scientists believe that there's a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in the fire regimei.e., the kinds of dense forests we cultivate demand huge fires. American logging trucks seem somehow incomplete without their loads of giant trees, after all, whereas European foresters favor smaller trees that wouldn't make for ship masts or I-beams but that do just fine to make studs. In many places, the destruction of fire pales next to that of pine borer beetles, both a harbinger and an effect of climate change. It's difficult to control both, though, as Mathews writes; the cost of protecting homes in forests by doing such things as burying power lines is often so high that people have little motivation apart from self-preservation to do that necessary work. And, asks the author, "if self-preservation isn't a motivation, what would be?" His book sounds a timely warning to pay more heed to the health of the woodlands. Thoughtful environmental reportage suggesting that the fate of trees is the fate of all life. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Daniel Mathews is the author of Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains, Rocky Mountain Natural History ,and Cascade-Olympic Natural History . During a career of writing about the natural history of western North America, he has backpacked far and wide, watched for fires from Desolation Peak Lookout, witnessed a forty-inch-thick fir crash onto his family's house in a storm, and lived for several years in a forest cabin without electricity, heating with firewood and writing by kerosene lamp. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

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