Alpine Forests and Climate Change

On our first day in Cavalese, we journeyed up into the alpine forest of the Trentino region. It was there where we listened to a local expert on the area who the class coined as “Tree Guy” discuss the catastrophic weather event that had happened just a few months ago. The weather event was unlike anything that the area had ever seen before, in just three days the storm had knocked over the equivalent of what would have been logged in 8 years!

Extreme weather events such as this one have become more and more common in this area over the last 30 years. Per our research article for the day, these brutal weather events can be attributed to Climate Change and the inconsistent weather patterns that come with that. For example, in this region in 2008 they faced an extremely cold winter, followed up the next year with an extremely warm one. On top of that there has been in increase in droughts which are also detrimental to the health and prosperity of the trees. These inconsistent weather patterns seem to be inevitable, as evident with weather events such as the one a couple of months ago. With the ever growing impact that climate change will have on areas such as this, it seems the best mindset is not how can we avoid climate change, but rather how can we adapt and overcome it. 

...To end the blog on a different note here is a picture of one of my classmates, Jared enjoying his time in the snow... Ciao!