[LINK] "Dying California forests offer a glimpse into climate change"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC News' Kim Brunhuber reports from California's forest, beset by a drought that might well make its way up north.

Normally, only about two per cent of the trees in their study areas [in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks] die. But this year, that number has grown to 13 per cent.

"That's a really severe uptick," says U.S. Geological Survey ecologist Nate Stephenson. "We've never seen anything like it before."

Stevenson bends the branch of an incense cedar. Most branches are covered with dry, dead orange needles. The rest are bare.

"I used to call them 'the immortals,' because they just never seemed to die," he says. "In the fourth year of drought, they've started dying by the bucket-loads. So they're no longer the immortals."

Stevenson has surveyed some of the oldest, richest forests in the U.S. and British Columbia. Compared to just a few decades ago, he found that the trees' death rate has doubled from one to two percent. It may not sound like a lot, he says, but he says imagine if you were talking about your hometown.