An ominous sounding headline for me

Image via Wikipedia

Here in Vancouver BC, we’ve been having what I consider a nice fall, sunny days, not too much frost yet, and few wind storms. So I have been spending more time biking in leafy environs and enjoying the trees. Now this headline:

Asian Beetle Spells Death for Maples So Dear

Of course we have our own fir tree beetle infestation that is turning our rain forest into a pine needle wasteland. So the idea that beautiful maples are being chopped down because of another beetle leaves me with the dreadful idea that “our trees seem to be disappearing”. Not a nice thought for me! I wonder where I can find information about the bigger picture of the health of our large forests on Earth.

I am silly enough about trees that the other day I thought I was hearing a renaissance of birds in a small forested park in South East Vancouver. The sound seemed so nice. It’s not as if I could see and hear the numbers of birds like we used to have 50 years ago, but I felt that there were more of them than last year, for instance.

Trees and birds are one of the reasons I moved from Ontario to BC 9 years ago. So this is not a trivial situation for me!

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