Greg Palmieri
Five-year-old western larch with yellowing leaves surrounded by two spruce species at the trial plot near 37 Mile Haines Highway in October, 2017.

In 2012, Canada’s British Columbia Ministry of Forests planted 15 foreign non-native seed species in the Chilkat Valley as part of a larger project aimed at getting ahead of climate change by planting seeds from slightly warmer environments.

“Knowing that climate change is moving across the landscape about 10 to 100 times faster than trees can move from one generation to the next, we anticipate that there will be a significant evolutionary lag created,” said a scientist on the project, Greg O’Neill. “When that happens, we expect to see trees becoming maladapted to their climatic environment.”

Poor adaptation to a rapidly changing environment can result in pest infestation and decreased growth and wood quality, according to a B.C. Forestry work plan for the project.

In the late 1990s, state forester Greg Palmieri documented a spruce bark beetle epidemic he said was exacerbated by weather conditions. “Their survival was increased due to mild winters and warm dry summers,” Palmieri said. “That’s still a concern that I have with dry conditions we’ve had.”

This has been the fifth warmest January to August period in the Chilkat Valley in the past three decades-based on weather station data from 40 Mile Haines Highway, and the second warmest of the same period in town.

Planting trees adapted to slightly warmer climates may significantly reduce health and productivity risks.

“If the climate is changing faster than trees can migrate on their own, then it makes sense to think about planting trees from warmer climates in a reforestation effort,” O’Neill said.

B.C. Forestry developed 48 seedlot test sites throughout Western North America beginning in 2009. Scientists selected seedlots from the 15 overall most common tree species, and established each in climates warmer, colder, wetter, drier and further north and south than their origin.

“If you want to anthropomorphize trees, trees ‘want’ to be in the climate of their recent ancestors,” O’Neill said. “Those climates are now located further north and further uphill because the climate has changed.”

In the Chilkat Valley, the plot was established in a coordinated effort between state forestry and B.C. Forestry. Palmieri negotiated a small timber sale on a five-acre plot of state forest land between Bear Creek and Glacier Creek around 37 Mile Haines Highway in 2012.

In a 2017 five-year review of the test plot-which O’Neill cautions is too early to derive any management strategy from- observations noted lodgepole pine was the tallest five-year old species of the plot but sustained the most damage from moose. Also noteworthy was that Amabilis fir, native to southwestern B.C., performed “exceptionally well, despite being a long geographic distance from ‘home.'”

The species doing well far from their typical location are noteworthy, Palmieri said. “This is a valuable asset because it teaches us something, not just for the Chilkat Valley, but for forestry and forest management globally. It’s not being complacent and thinking everything is going to be alright.”

The 10-year measurement will be conducted in 2021. B.C. Forestry will continue monitoring the trees indefinitely.

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