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Bloom and Bust Woodlands And Gardens In The PNW
Living in the gray gloom, but also glorious bloom, of the Pacific Northwest during an era of changing climate
Living in the Pacific Northwest, we love and hate the rain.
We love the clear blue sky days when the Cascades burst into glory like crystalline white gods on the horizon. But, we also love the green of an “Evergreen” state.
And, each year, we grow more at risk for wildfires that threaten it all.
But that doesn’t mean there is no reason to hope. And to participate in adaptation and mitigation.
Lately, dry weather and skeletal dead firs quietly whisper of the lack of rain. We got some for Mother’s Day, but Murphy’s law dictates that was only after two full days of hose hauling and watering in the woodlands where our baby fir, cedar, hemlock, sequoia, varying oaks, berry under-story, and various other shrubs are planted.
We officially remain in a drought. On this drought map, we are in the yellow — the “abnormally dry” splotch.
We have had to set up an elaborate watering system. Summers get hotter and dryer each year. The Pacific Northwest forests we love do not know what to do in terms of having human choices. The accelerated rate of…