Wednesday, March 13, 2013

It's Fine, But It's Not

Stephen and I spent a little time in the city - partly because we wanted to, but also partly to get away from the mountain on days when the fire danger was, well, somewhat upsetting.

On mornings we'd get up and go walking. On one of those mornings we walked around part of Princes Park - a lovely green space filled with gorgeous mature trees (most European trees), grassy playing fields and joggers. We walked in the mornings, trying to get our exercise in before 9:30 or so, when the heat became oppressive. Here's a photo I took as we walked down along the western side of the park, moving toward the CBD:

Lovely and green. That grass you see has been watered - without city watering, there'd be dormant grass there (or just dirt).

And here's another taken along a path which more-or-less cuts through the center of the park, moving from the western edge toward the east. Notice the gorgeous trees:

Then, as we continue east, leaving the park, a lane of green space bordering the Melbourne Cemetery (the same one which is home to the Elvis memorial):

But what's this? Look at the photo above again and notice the ground. And here - have a look at this:

This tree (below) is deciduous - but it shouldn't be dropping it's leaves in February (northern hemisphere folks... think "August").  It's a smallish tree - it wouldn't yet have a deep root system tapping into water well below the surface, as the much larger trees have.


A lot of trees, stressed by the heat and lack of moisture, are dropping their leaves early, desperately clinging to life - trying to survive what has been a really difficult summer. In recent weeks I've noticed more and more sections of the western face of Mount Dandenong seem to have sections of clearly dead trees - maybe they were there before, but I just don't think so...

There will have been a LOT of casualties this year - plants which had been doing fine, but will fall victim to another record-setting summer.

Don't believe in global warming? Move to Australia, live here for a few years (as I have) and then look me in the eye and tell me so.

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