There's two really
important elements
of what happened in
Worcester that relate to
our understandings of and
experiences of climate change
the first is the Asian
longhorned beetle infestation
we can trace that to global
trade but what we know
about changing climates is
that it changes the ecosystem
dynamics of plants, animals
and insects and how
they interrelate
and so invasives because of
global trade because of the
global economy but also because
of a changing climate
are an increasing issue
for people everywhere
around the world
and Worcester was able to
experience that first hand
in a way that was really aweful
for a lot of people and for
trees because we lost a lot of
our tree ecosystem but also
was sort of a mixed blessing
in a sense that people now
understand how important it is
to be attentive to these issues
and also have a greater
appreciation for their urban
canopy
the other element is that
one of the responses has been
planting trees
and so the Asian longhorned
beetle made us attentive
to sort of the ways we
understand vulnerabilities
and threats
in our ecosystem
which also affects our
social and political and
economic lives
and also has made us more
attentive to what are ways
that we can mitigate
climate change
and make our especially urban
areas stronger and one of the
big ones is planting trees
trees affect peoples well
being they affect peoples
psychological, health, their
sense of community and they
also provide all kinds of
ecosystem services
my colleague
professor John Rogan and I
were interested in
understanding the
socio-ecological impacts of
the beetle itself
the loss of trees due to
the eradication effort
and then also we became
very interested in a tree
replanting program
tree planting program that
came about as a result of
tree loss in the area
but also as a partnership
between the USDA's
Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service
the Massachusett's Department
of Conservationa and
Recreation and a new entity
called the Worcester Tree
Initiative so those three
groups kind of came together
and said we really need to pay
attention to restoring the urban
canopy in Worcester
so hopefully many places won't
experience the kind of impact
that we had here where we
had to loose a lot of trees
but the issue is important
beyond Worcester because
Worcester responded in a way
that allowed it to be proactive
around global climate and
urban canopy, ecosystem
kind of issues
so we had a model here
where part of the response
to the Asian longhorned beetle
was to pay attention to the
fact that we were cutting down
trees because of the infestation
and that meant those trees
shoulld be replaced
the other thing that happened
here that I think is a really
useful lesson for other places
to help places be responsive
to and sort of thinking ahead
around global climate change
and ecosystem issues is that
we did have a public-private
kind of partnership model
where we had federal
government involvement
we've had state government
involvement and we've had
city government involvement
but we've also had citizens
stepping up
and forming an organization
so there's all different ways
that communities can think about
making a whole effort to be
attentive to the local urban
forest
No comments:
Post a Comment