National Geographic - UK (2022-05)

GOLDEN NEEDLES DUST THE GROUND and collect

in Greg O’Neill’s hair like bright blond high -

lights as he pushes his way through a grove of

tall, elegant larch trees in British Columbia’s

Okanagan Valley.

“Such a beautiful tree,” he says. “A proud spe-

cies. When it finds its happy place, it goes wild.”

But the “happy place” for many trees, here and

elsewhere, is changing as Earth’s climate warms.

These thriving larches, in fact, didn’t sprout from

tree parents in this valley, or even this country.

They came from 284 miles south, in Idaho, where

their ancestors adapted to conditions now com-

mon here: warmer summers, slightly shorter

winters, different rainfall patterns.

They are part of an experiment designed to

Rand Bieri measures

carbon dioxide in

the soil of a test plot

warmed by heaters

near Cloquet, Minne-

sota. Researchers have

planted tree seed lings

here from as far away

as Oklahoma to see

how well they tolerate

the potential impacts

of climate change.

DAVID GUTTENFELDER

RELOCATING

TREES

COULD GIVE

STRESSED

FORESTS

A WAY TO

BEAT THE

HEAT

AS THE

WORLD’S

CLIMATE

SHIFTS

The National

Geographic Society,

committed to illuminat-

ing and protecting the

wonder of our world,

has funded Explorer

David Guttenfelder’s

storytelling about

geopolitics and conser-

vation since 2014.

SOLUTION

BY

ALEJANDRA BORUNDA