Trees in Trouble

October 14, 2019
Natural historian Matthews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains) vividly relates the complex environmental situation facing America’s western pine forests in this fascinating account. He draws in his audience from the opening line, noting that in “western North America there are living pine trees older than the Egyptian pyramids,” thanks to several millennia of fairly consistent temperatures. In contrast, he sees the current era of global warming bringing dramatic and rapid changes, including the disappearance of entire species of trees from these forests. Mathews also illuminates other existential threats facing the landscape, including from devastating wildfires and insect infestations. He is particularly good at articulating why environmentalists should “enthusiastically accept... low- to moderate-severity fires” that thin out overgrown forests and reduce the fuel available for more serious blazes which humans have more difficulty controlling, and from which forests have difficulty recovering. Mathews also analyzes the fascinating biological measures and countermeasures developed by certain trees and the beetles which feed off of them, and explains how the decrease in cold snaps caused by global warming makes mountain pine beetle outbreaks unstoppable. Eco-conscious readers, even those unversed in this seemingly niche subject, will be intrigued and enlightened by Matthews’s thoughtful work.

January 1, 2020

In this highly informative book, Mathews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains) explains the various forces, such as high-severity fires and tree diseases, that are currently wreaking havoc on the health of forests in the western parts of North America. This timely work, while sober reading, offers some hope and a few solutions as to how forests and their trees can adapt, with human help and support, to meet tougher times. Exhaustively researched with an extensive bibliography, this work does not skimp on information. Instead of focusing on just one aspect of the many issues facing western pine forests, Mathews interweaves them to create an overall picture, effectively showing how everything is coming together into a "perfect storm" situation for forests, their trees, and animals that rely on the ecosystem of the forest. The one downside to the book itself is that the presentation of all this information is somewhat muddled, requiring a close reading for full comprehension. VERDICT Overall, an impressive and prescient addition to an ever-growing oeuvre on the effects of climate change to an environment.--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020
A walk in the woods with an environmental journalist and natural-history writer reveals that the forested world is in grave danger. As Oregon-based naturalist Mathews (Natural History of the Pacific Northwest Mountains, 2017, etc.) writes, there are 113 species of pine tree, the most abundant and various of any conifer genus. All are in trouble to one extent or another because of climate change, from saplings to "living pine trees older than the Egyptian pyramids." The author roams the world and the scientific literature to examine the many threats that pines face and their previous adaptations. The logic of the lodgepole, for instance, is impressive: Its cone carries a resin that melts at 113 degrees Fahrenheit, protecting the seeds inside the cone from fire. "The fire kills the pines but melts their cone-sealing resin," he writes; "the cone scales open over several days or weeks, shedding seeds upon a wide-open seedbed." Massive fires being an increasingly common phenomenon, particularly in the West, this adaptation is highly useful. On that note, Mathews observes, many forest scientists believe that there's a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in the fire regime--i.e., the kinds of dense forests we cultivate demand huge fires. American logging trucks seem somehow incomplete without their loads of giant trees, after all, whereas European foresters favor smaller trees that wouldn't make for ship masts or I-beams but that do just fine to make studs. In many places, the destruction of fire pales next to that of pine borer beetles, both a harbinger and an effect of climate change. It's difficult to control both, though, as Mathews writes; the cost of protecting homes in forests by doing such things as burying power lines is often so high that people have little motivation apart from self-preservation to do that necessary work. And, asks the author, "if self-preservation isn't a motivation, what would be?" His book sounds a timely warning to pay more heed to the health of the woodlands. Thoughtful environmental reportage suggesting that the fate of trees is the fate of all life.

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March 1, 2020
America's West is home to numerous species of pines and host to an equally plentiful species of marauding beetles. Thanks to climate change, when the two converge, forests are decimated and the denuded region becomes prone to devastating spates of drought and fire, which, in recent years, have escalated to historic levels. The author of several regional natural history guides, Mathews traveled to and through western states, from Washington to New Mexico, consulting with environmentalists, Forest Service personnel, firefighters, and educators, among others, to assess the current damage and forecast the future health of the country's Western forest treasures. He knows this part of the country as well as anyone can, so the title of this book should not be taken as alarmist hyperbole. Consummately professional in both tone and observation, the appeal of Mathews' evaluation of these valuable conifer forests may skew slightly to the more scientifically minded reader, yet his deeply personal connection to the land and its majestic trees makes this equally suitable for any tree lover and everyone concerned about the state of the planet.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)