[Mike]

OT? — Dying trees in Central Coast Region of California
john f winston wrote:

Allan Buckman, a former Associate Wildlife Biologist, Central Coast Region, California Department of Fish & Game, has been seeing vegetation changes and climate shifts over wide areas of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake Counties, in California, for several years, that are not normal to this area. As a wildlife biologist, recently retired from assignment in Sonoma and Lake Counties, Mr. Buckman completed field reviews of projects, land acquisition, and animal census over wide areas within these counties, and has had over 35 years of field experience here and in the North Bay areas of California.

Mr. Buckman noted: In the past I have seen localized die-off of plant communities from a myriad of sources, and there tends to be a trend toward one to several problems at a time, and it varies year to year. But I have never seen the present condition of wide spread impact to almost all special in all areas from a wide assortment of insects, fungus, molds, mildews, bacteria and virus. I have seen
areas where every tree and shrub in a drainage area has some form of health problem. Mr. Buckman took vegetation samples from one such area in Lake County, from chamise, ceanothus (buck brush), red bud, laurel, yellow willow, black willow, elderberry, leather oak, black oak, blue oak, interior live oak, walnut, Yerba Santa, Manzanita, and toyon. Mr. Buckman, found similar sites in Sonoma County that
included live oak, valley oaks, ceanothus, chamise, pears, apples, plums, roses and a number of ornamentals. The larger question of just exactly why they are all infected, and what it is that could trigger such a broad response to an entire suite of plant communities remains unanswered.

Mendocino County trees and shrubs are also showing the same impacts as both Lake and Sonoma counties in California. The impacts have been documented since 2002, both in pictures and videotape showing the massive changes that have taken place in Northern California. Redding, California areas are showing declining Douglas Fir and Oak (without Sudden Oak Death Syndrome), tree health.

These impacts are accelerating faster and can be noted in the number of trees showing symptoms, dead trees and the number of trees that have fallen down under unusual circumstances. (Unusual clumping and blow down of branches and trees are becoming more common.)

Many California Redwood Trees across wide areas are dying or showing signs of severe stress. Greg Guisti, the University of California forest advisor for Mendocino County noted in a Ukiah Daily Journal Article dated May 8, 2002: There are also many redwood trees in town that are showing signs of widespread disease The questions remain unanswered: Why? Trees are being cut down in record numbers across the United States without anyone doing the studies to determine why these trees are dying and what is causing this problem. Fires are burning hotter and are more devastating since the late
1980s, and the dying of the trees is certainly aggravating this situation.

Mr. Buckman noted: I think we are in for big changes, and I think we should be on this ‘like a duck on a June bug’. I think this is as serious as it gets, and we need to act quickly to document the facts and take corrective actions. Sudden Oak Death, now blamed for many tree problems, is found rarely or not at all in some counties, and SOD diagnosis does not explain the widespread decline in Oak tree health in trees and counties not infected with SOD, nor does it explain the broad decline and die-off response in trees across the United States.

In a recent article in the Ukiah Daily Journal written by Mark Hedges, titled Fir Trees Under Attack, some of the tree symptoms are listed. In an interview with Jack Marshall, a forest
pathologist for the California Department of Forestry, he noted a few common things going on with the Douglas Fir relative to dry portions of this county, maybe Lake County and southern Humboldt. However, it should be noted that the impacts are also found throughout these counties not just in the dry areas. Marshall, according to the Ukiah Daily Journal article also stated: tree-killing insects do not usually attack a healthy stand of trees unless individual trees are somehow stressed or some other
pathogen is degrading the health of the tree.

What is the common dominator for deteriorating tree health in so many areas of the Uni-ed States? Air pollution, white haze, climate change, increasing UV radiation, higher humidity caused persistent jet contrails, (JW In most cases when you see a contrails last for more that 40 seconds, it is a Chemtrail.) jet fuel emissions, lack of sunlight from persistent aging contrails or climate change produced by persistent jet contrails?

There are over 50+ weather modification programs ongoing, according to NOAA records, in the Unit-d States. What impact does this chemical manipulation of our weather have on the regional micro-climates that are needed for tree, plant, and agricultural crop health?

Artificial weather modification through the use of chemicals can impact all of us by reducing water supplies, changing agricultural crop production cycles, reducing crop production, and water availability. Since most experimental weather modification programs use chemicals released into the atmosphere the public could be subjected increasingly toxic or unknown substances that could
adversely impact agricultural crops and trees.

Global dimming and the persistent contrails, that produce man-made clouds, may have serious impacts on crop production. A recent corn crop study in Illinois shows that cloud cover reduces corn crop production while direct sunlight increases production.

The dead and dying trees, dead branches, impacted shrubs and bushes is turning some of our forests into torches when touched by fire. Why are our public officials ignoring this problem not taking tree ring and soil samples to find out why are trees are stressed and dying?

What has caused this ecological imbalance and what steps are being taken to determine what is stressing our trees? So far the typical response is drought and bugs.

Many areas where trees are in decline have had normal hundred year rainfall totals. Healthy trees resist pathogens and bugs. Many state and fe-eral g-vernment officials will talk about the decline off the
record but are afraid to speak out because they fear the loss of their jobs or demotion. Why?

It should be noted that, according to Charles L-ttle, in the 1995, book, Dying of the Trees, that: Aside from oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, other strange elements (besides vanadium) showed up in the
core samples of the spruce and maple-elements that do not occur in natural forest systems, such as arsenic and barium cadmium, zinc, lead and copper-were found, too Aluminum, which is increasingly
being found in required water samples taken by local water districts in Endocino County, other California counties, and Arizona might be, the most toxic of all to our trees. And yet,
few if any go-ernment agencies are taking soil, tree ring, or water samples to find out what is negatively impacting our trees and plants.

Charles Little notes in his book: As it happens, aluminum is a common Constituent of forest soils almost everywhere, but it is ‘locked up’ in aluminum silicates, and in this compound form is
not available to tree and other plants, and therefore is no danger to them. But after the acid rains came the silicates were broken down, and the aluminum was freed to be taken up by trees and plants. The metal ki-ls the roots first. This means that trees can no longer absorb and transport needed nutrients, such as phosphate, calcium, and magnesium-essential fertilizers that are themselves leached away from the soil should by acid deposition. The trees are weakened and can be invaded by insects or pathogens or succumb to extremes of weather-or all of the above, in which case they die.

Why is the rain here on the acidic side of the scale? We are not sure exactly what is stressing our trees here but taking tree ring samples and soil samples are a beginning. With increasing air pollution in our local counties the impacts may be greater than we suspect and all of our local, state and federal representatives need to be taking a closer look at this looming problem not just recommending the cutting down of trees (Senator Dianne Fei-stein-Lake Tahoe), in our watershed areas without investigating the reason for the losses.

High levels of UV-B radiation are also impacting wide areas across the Uni-ed States. This type of radiation can also impact tree health, growth rates, and stress tree in other ways.

NOAA/Nat-onal Weather Service puts current UV Index Forecasts on its websites. The UV exposure level in increasing throughout the U-ited States. Could jet fuel emissions, which contain nitric acid that depletes beneficial ozone in our atmosphere, be one of the major culprits in this increase in UV radiation reaching the earth?