Author Archives: Tara Zimmerman

Mapping Northwest Forest Vulnerability to Climate Change

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

Canyon Creek Complex fire, August 14, 2015. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, some rights reserved.)

Canyon Creek Complex fire, August 14, 2015. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, some rights reserved.)

LAST YEAR DROUGHT killed some 12 million trees in California’s national forests, according to the U.S. Forest Service, while in Oregon and Washington over 1.6 million acres were affected by wildfires, according to Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. But what if managers had known beforehand which regions would be most vulnerable? Could some of the effects of these climate-induced catastrophes be avoided?

These questions are at the heart of a recent climate adaptation project led by Oregon State University’s David Mildrexler and colleagues. Continue reading →

Warmest Year On Record

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

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Image showing temperatures for 2015 by state. Oregon and Washington were two of four states that experienced record temperatures last year. (Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

LAST YEAR Oregon and Washington experienced their warmest year on record. Here’s what we know about 2015’s anything-but-normal climate.

The big climatic event for the Northwest in 2015 was the severe drought. Many of our region’s typically snow-covered mountains were reduced to bare ground. This meant that precipitation fell largely as rain, not as snow, leading to water scarcity. This was followed by devastating wildfires igniting large parts of our region. Continue reading →

Our zigzaggy weather, explained

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By Cynthia King

Reprinted from: WSU News AgWeatherNet

By Nic Loyd, WSU meteorologist, and Linda Weiford, WSU News

SPOKANE, Wash. – If you live in the Inland Northwest, you know about its zigzaggy climate: One week we’re dressed in shorts, the next in coats; one day we’re opening umbrellas, the next we’re shoveling snow; one minute we’re wearing a hat, the next it’s whipped off by the wind.

Called “variability” in meteorological lingo, it’s basically a smorgasbord of weather delivered to our doorstep by a variety of factors, including our latitude, our distance from the Pacific Ocean, the Cascade Mountain Range to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east. Fortunately, the harsh weather events we do get are sporadic – freezing rain and a windstorm here, triple-digit heat and a thunderstorm there. Continue reading →

Modeling Ecological Changes to U.S. Forests

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

Douglas Complex ridgeline flames, July 2013, Oregon Department of Forestry. Some rights reserved.

Douglas Complex ridgeline flames, July 2013, Oregon Department of Forestry. Some rights reserved.

FIRES AND OTHER disturbances are the primary agents of ecological change in forests. Under climate change, forest fires are expected to grow both in frequency and size. One recent study examines what that means for the Northwest.

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Climate Change Doubters Brace For Impacts

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

Smoke from the Rowena Fire behind homes near the Columbia Gorge along Highway 30, August 2015. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, some rights reserved.)

Smoke from the Rowena Fire behind homes near the Columbia Gorge along Highway 30, August 2015. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, some rights reserved.)

AS WE WROTE in the October issue of the CIRCulator, wildfires are expected to grow in size and frequency under climate change. (See “Large Wildfires Expected Under Climate Change.”) Consequently, there’s considerable interest in finding ways to encourage homeowners to take preventative measures on their property—such as removing vegetation that’s close to their homes. Continue reading →

Adapting to Climate Change in the Blue Mountains

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

(Lake in the Blue Mountains. (Photo: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.)

(Lake in the Blue Mountains. (Photo: United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.)

RANGING IN ELEVATION from 267 to 3,000 meters (roughly 875 to 10,000 feet) and nestled in the corner of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington, the Blue Mountains are a collection of small mountain ranges that comprise a rich, complex ecosystem of forests, streams, and snow-capped peaks. As with other mountain ecosystems in the U.S. West and Northwest, the Blue Mountains face impacts from a warming and changing climate that threatens to lower snowpack and increase the risk of wildfires. Continue reading →

Carbon Balance and Forest Disturbance in the West Cascades

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

Late afternoon sunlight. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, Jennifer Erdman, some rights reserved.)

Late afternoon sunlight. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, Jennifer Erdman, some rights reserved.)

FORESTS’ ABILITY to “breathe in” carbon dioxide (CO2) is widely understood to act as a kind of offset or buffer to human-caused climate change. Put simply, forests are essentially picking up the slack—at least some of it—for our heavy carbon-emitting lifestyles. However, forests’ capacity to act as carbon sinks isn’t an absolute given.

Forests are vulnerable to all kinds of disturbances, from wildfires to the regular harvesting of trees for timber, and this can affect their ability to store carbon. What’s more, researchers are only now beginning to grasp what disturbances mean for carbon cycling at the regional level. (Broadly speaking, the carbon cycle constitutes the uptake, emission, and exchange of carbon between the biosphere—plants, animals, and microbes—and the atmosphere.) Recently, researchers tackled this brainteaser for one Northwest ecoregion. Continue reading →

Wisdom of Doug

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By David Schmidt

Reprinted from: Animal Ag

Thumbnail for 91728Doug is a dairy producer (about 1700 cows). I met him a few months back and at a Dairy Conference at Cornell. I was recording some interviews with researchers and farmers on the topic of climate and animal agriculture. I am still reviewing the interviews as I continue to put together more instructional videos on the topic. In any case, I thought what he said good wisdom on how educators approach the issue of climate change and animal agriculture.

“I’m not smart enough to know if we have climate change or global warming. I do know that it’s good stewardship to recapture the resources in our control to harvest them, to make them part of the business revenue. And I also know that if we do that successfully, we will have virtually eliminated the environmental footprint we are causing to society.”

He went on to explain in more detail. Continue reading →

Changes Ahead for Oregon’s Willamette River Basin

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

Photo taken of Oregon’s 2015 Fire Season, location unknown. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, some rights reserved)

Photo taken of Oregon’s 2015 Fire Season, location unknown. (Photo: Oregon Department of Forestry, some rights reserved)

THESE DAYS the vegetation of Oregon’s economically important Willamette River basin is a mix of grasslands and croplands along the Willamette River Valley floor and coniferous forests in the uplands. These higher elevations are important for local forest industries. Under climate change, rising temperatures are expected to create less favorable climate for existing vegetation types while increasing the frequency of forest fires. The result: Climate change may be a significant factor in how and whether forests get harvested in the region. Continue reading →

Trends in Snow Cover at U.S. Weather Stations

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By CIRCulator Editorial Staff

Reprinted from: The Climate CIRCulator

Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana. (Photo: Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, all rights reserved.)

Flathead Lake near Polson, Montana. (Photo: Samantha Chisholm Hatfield, all rights reserved.)

CLIMATE CHANGE is expected to influence where and how much snow will blanket our future winters. This change, says a new study, is already happening.

The study, published in the Journal of Climate, examines on-the-ground measurements of snow cover in the continental United States over the last 60 years. The annual number of days with snow cover in the U.S. has already been declining, the study’s author concludes. Continue reading →