Mountain Meadows Dwindling in Pacific Northwest, U.S. Due to Climate Change, Study Suggests

[xchrom]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121102205141.htm

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Debris flow. Conditions for a dense tree invasion are even more favorable near a 1934 debris flow off Mount Jefferson, compared to the islands of old trees dispersed in the meadow. (Credit: Photo by Harold Zald, courtesy of Oregon State University)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2012) — Some high mountain meadows in the Pacific Northwest are declining rapidly due to climate change, a study suggests, as reduced snowpacks, longer growing seasons and other factors allow trees to invade these unique ecosystems that once were carpeted with grasses, shrubs and wildflowers.

The process appears to have been going on for decades, but was highlighted in one recent analysis of Jefferson Park, a subalpine meadow complex in the central Oregon Cascade Range, in which tree occupation rose from 8 percent in 1950 to 35 percent in 2007.

The findings of that research, which was funded by the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the USDA Forest Service, were published in the journal Landscape Ecology.

The changes in Jefferson Park are representative of a larger force that is affecting not only this beautiful meadow at the base of Mount Jefferson, scientists say, but many areas of the American West.

[gateley]

1. ...

[Iwasthere]

2. Yep

I live in Oregon and have watched this happen. You know Seattle, the RAINY city went 81 days without measurable rainfall till just a few weeks ago.

[pscot]

3. And it has rained pretty steadily since.

[meadowlark5]

4. At first I thought you were talking about the Mountain Meadows Massacre where the Mormons killed

A wagon train of innocent people passing through an area in Utah back in the 1800s.