Typically with climate change (like ice ages, etc, not anthropogenic), plants migrate to stay in their ecological niche. With temperature/precipitation being the major factors, plants tend to migrate up in latitude and altitude as climates warm. That’s why you end up with “sky islands” where a mountain might have a species not seen for a large distance further north at lower latitudes. Anthropogenic climate is probably too fast for most trees to migrate, but I think we should do our best to source trees that are along the migration path for a given area. The author’s manzanita is actually a great example.
It is, and it lives in a very different fire regime from what is typical of the pacific northwest. It might be attractive, and fantastically drought-tolerant…but I wouldn’t want a neighborhood planted like chaparral. That’s a plant community that burns. Fast.
Typically with climate change (like ice ages, etc, not anthropogenic), plants migrate to stay in their ecological niche. With temperature/precipitation being the major factors, plants tend to migrate up in latitude and altitude as climates warm. That’s why you end up with “sky islands” where a mountain might have a species not seen for a large distance further north at lower latitudes. Anthropogenic climate is probably too fast for most trees to migrate, but I think we should do our best to source trees that are along the migration path for a given area. The author’s manzanita is actually a great example.
It is, and it lives in a very different fire regime from what is typical of the pacific northwest. It might be attractive, and fantastically drought-tolerant…but I wouldn’t want a neighborhood planted like chaparral. That’s a plant community that burns. Fast.