As ash trees succumb, conservationists rebuild a forest along the Mississippi River

[NickB79]

http://m.startribune.com/as-ash-trees-succumb-conservationists-rebuild-a-forest-along-the-mississippi-river/494042331/

Conservation groups that work in the 54,000-acre Mississippi National River and Recreation Area are using that environmental disaster to thwart a much larger one on the way — climate change.

By replacing ash with other kinds of trees, as well as bushes and other plants, they hope to establish a forest that is more likely to thrive in a future of higher average temperatures and much more erratic precipitation.

"We thought we could stack the deck," said Katie Nyberg, executive director of the Mississippi Park Connection, the nonprofit advocacy and fundraising partner with the federal recreation area. "Rather than waiting for the [ash] trees to die and the buckthorn to come in, and saying 'Oh, what do we do now?'?"

[Xipe Totec]

1. There is a region in Mexico, between Monterrey and Saltillo, called La Pinalosa

Weirdest thing I've ever seen. High in the mountains there is a forrest that is a mix of pine trees and Joshua trees. Never seen anything like it anywhere else.

Just goes to show that for every environment there's an ideal population of plants that will thrive in it.