[ECO]Saving Forests by Moving Trees: Climate Change Forestry

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Researchers are using climate change forestry techniques to help New England forests adapt to environmental challenges and invasive threats.

In the quiet town of North Stonington, Connecticut, tree warden Alan Ladd is witnessing a dramatic transformation of the local landscape. Armed with a red marker and a crowded whiteboard, he tracks the relentless assault on the region’s trees—a battle in climate change forestry increasingly shaped by climate change, invasive pests, and environmental shifts.

Last year alone, North Stonington removed over 200 trees, a number that has been climbing steadily. The culprits are numerous: emerald

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decimating ash trees, spongy moth infestations attacking oaks, and beech leaf disease ravaging entire stands of beech trees. What was once a manageable challenge has become a critical issue for forest management.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut and University of Rhode Island are responding with an innovative climate change forestry project aimed at understanding and mitigating forest decline. Their approach focuses on adaptive silviculture—a strategic method of climate change forestry and forest management that anticipates and responds to environmental transformations.

“Climate-change-related stress is combining with pests and pathogens in unprecedented ways,” explains Robert Fahey, a forestry professor at UConn. The research team has joined the

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, establishing experimental sites to test forest resilience and adaptation strategies.

At the Hillsdale Preserve, the effects are viscerally apparent. Dead trees, or “snags,” punctuate the landscape, creating openings that allow invasive vegetation like barberry to flourish. The researchers have designed four distinct treatment areas to address these challenges: resistance, resilience, transition, and an unmanaged control site.

Researchers are clearing common trees and snags in the resistance area to enable shade-intolerant oak saplings to regenerate. The resilience section involves planting native oak and hickory saplings, protected by grow tubes to prevent deer browsing. Most intriguingly, the transition area introduces oak species from warmer regions—southern red, chinkapin, bur, and Shumard oaks—that have demonstrated greater heat and drought tolerance.

“What we expect is that these transplanted species will be more resilient to changing environmental conditions,” Fahey notes. The goal is not just survival but understanding how forests might adapt to climate change.

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The broader context is stark. The emerald ash borer, first detected in Michigan in 2002, has steadily spread eastward. Spongy moths, introduced in the late 19th century, can decimate forests when their populations surge. Climate change has exacerbated these challenges by disrupting natural ecological balances.

Drought conditions have weakened trees’ immune systems while simultaneously reducing population controls on insect pests. Warmer winters allow insect populations to expand unchecked. This translates to practical challenges for tree wardens like Ladd: North Stonington’s $20,000 tree-removal budget is quickly exhausted addressing these mounting environmental pressures.

The economic and ecological implications are significant. Ash trees, once critical for manufacturing baseball bats, hockey sticks, and Indigenous basketry, are now considered a total loss throughout New England.

Yet, the story is not entirely bleak. Thomas Worthley, another UConn forestry professor, offers a historical perspective. After European colonization, approximately 80% of Connecticut’s tree cover was cleared for agriculture. When farming declined, forests rebounded dramatically. Today, 75% of Connecticut is under tree canopy, with 60% classified as forest, and the same could occur with a few decades of climate change forestry.

The adaptive silviculture climate change forestry experiment extends beyond Connecticut, with major research sites in Ohio, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. Researchers are collecting baseline data to help public and private land managers develop more effective forest management strategies.

These climate change forestry efforts highlight a critical intersection between scientific research and community preparedness. As climate change continues to challenge traditional ecological systems, the strategies developed by researchers like Fahey and Worthley provide a template for climate change forestry management.

Local communities increasingly recognize that forest health is not just an ecological concern but a vital economic and social issue. The success of adaptive silviculture depends not only on scientific innovation but also on community engagement, public awareness, and a collective commitment to understanding and mitigating environmental transformations. By investing in research, supporting tree preservation efforts, and fostering a deeper understanding of forest ecosystems, communities can build more resilient landscapes that can withstand the complex challenges posed by a rapidly changing climate.

Christopher Riely, a forestry research associate, emphasizes the primary objective: “We want to see how forest canopy composition evolves and increase species diversity.”

The timeline for meaningful results is long. Trees grow slowly, and climate adaptation is a generational process. However, the research provides hope—a systematic approach to understanding and potentially mitigating forest decline.

For now, tree wardens like Alan Ladd continue their critical climate change forestry work, documenting each diseased tree and preparing communities for environmental transformation. The forests of New England are resilient, but they are also changing, adapting to a world increasingly shaped by climate change.

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