Smart trees hold climate clues

A team of researchers known informally as the Smart Trees Collaborative believes Portland’s urban trees may hold clues to the future of climate change. Scientists from Portland State, Reed College, Washington State University and the Nature Conservancy are gathering remote data from satellites, tree-top weather stations and sensors to get the first look at what urban trees experience at the canopy level. 

Portland is uniquely poised to show climate change’s impacts as 100- to 200-foot-tall trees grow in the urban core. “In many ways, the environment we live in in Portland is 50 years in the future for the rest of Oregon with greater levels of ozone, more drought, more heat waves and drier conditions,” says Todd Rosenstiel, biology professor and dean of PSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Science. “It becomes an amazing experiment in how trees will adapt.” 

Or how they don’t. Many of the changes currently being monitored point to greatly increased risks of wildfire throughout the Pacific Northwest, as seen during September’s devastating conflagrations. One species, the western redcedar, is dying off around the state. The researchers hope to uncover ways to reverse that trend. For instance, the city might be able to use the data to develop watering schedules based on trees’ exact needs, the way some farmers use sensors to irrigate their crops. 

Rosenstiel will soon lead the first summit on western redcedar decline, bringing researchers together from across the Pacific Northwest. Their findings could help ensure the survival of that tree species as well as others.

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