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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