I find it a little horrifying that we hit the mythical 1.5 Degrees of warming line and nothing. Cars keep getting bigger, oil wells and pipelines keep getting drilled and now a wildfire smoke tracker is another app I keep on my phone next to the weather. Sigh, heat is a terrible way to die.
Officials are asking residents to keep an eye out for Elm zigzag sawflies across the state.
““The cool thing [is that] it's called the Elm zigzag sawfly, because as it feeds, it makes a zigzag pattern in the leaves,” said Kelly Oten, an extension specialist of forest health at North Carolina State University.”
The uncool thing, I suppose, is that this is a species from Asia that may be invasive in NC.
In some urban areas, street trees are the only close reminder of the wild natural world beyond the city limits of concrete and steel. A new study estimates that by 2050, 1.4 million street trees in the U.S. — which make up only a fraction of total urban trees — will be killed by invasive insects.
Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:
In some urban areas, street trees are the only close reminder of the wild natural world beyond the city limits of concrete and steel. A new study estimates that by 2050, 1.4 million street trees in the U.S. — which make up only a fraction of total urban trees — will be killed by invasive insects.
The street trees will cost more than $900 million dollars to replace and 90 percent of them are predicted to be the victims of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), reported The British Ecological Society. A type of jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia with a distinctive iridescent green appearance, the emerald ash borer is predicted to destroy almost all of the ash trees in more than 6,000 urban areas.
Less than one-fourth of communities in the U.S. will experience 95 percent of the invasive insect street tree losses, but there are things urban planners can do to help.
“Urban trees do a variety of wonderful things – they keep cities cool, they take the sting out of heavy downpours, they are good for biodiversity and they even make people happier,” said University of Bristol Professor Jane Memmott, who was not involved with the study, as the British Ecological Society reported.
Trees also make the air cleaner and provide carbon capture and habitat for wildlife.
