July 10, 2022

Source: CNN

Excerpt:

When Garrett Dickman drove through Yosemite National Park early this week, he passed through a diverse band of large trees – conifer, red fir, lodgepole pine – and noticed a grim pattern: many of the trees were either dead or dying.

“It was really striking to see that every single tree seems to be getting hit by either climatic changes; it could be dying from drought, or it could be insect attack or fungus, but they’re certainly weakened,” Dickman, a forest ecologist with the National Park Service, told CNN. “There’s a big shift happening right now, and it’s right in front of our eyes.”

Read more: How the climate crisis is forever changing our national parks