||| FROM NEW YORK TIMES |||
Ecologists warn that in just 25 years, more than 70 percent of the Southwestern needle leaf evergreen forests, which include ponderosa pines, may be replaced by grass in what might qualify as the first significant post-climate change landscape in America.
Lands that are no longer covered by snow also absorb more heat from the sun, drying them out and leaving them more vulnerable to large wildfires.
Given the ponderosa’s striking reputation for resilience, it’s possible that in a century or two some of these lost forests might make a comeback. But that depends on whether we humans can muster some resilience of our own.
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