By David F. Rooney
Will ours become a warmer, drier region thanks to climate change? The latest scientific evidence shows that will likely be the case, said Greg Utzig of Kutenai Nature Investigations as he talked to a small crowd at the Community Centre on Thursday, March 10.
The effects, he said, will become even more pronounced as time passes. But exactly how it will play out will depend on many different factors including altitude, changes to temperature, precipitation, our many glaciers and other things. Along the way our dominant vegetation such as the cedars and hemlocks and other magnificent trees will likely be replaced at lower elevations by species such as ponderosa pine.
Utzig’s perspectives and the data he presented are very interesting and will fascinate everyone who thinks about the future and what it holds for us here in the Columbia Basin.
Please activate the YouTube players below to watch Utzig presentation, punctuated by comments by Cindy Pearce of Mountain Labyrinths. Hailey Ross, co-executive director of the Columbia Mountains Institute for Applied Ecology, introduces Utzig and Pearce at the seven-minute mark on the first video. I apologize in advance for the unedited nature of this two-part video, which also includes a brief Q&A near the end of Part 2. My computer, a Mac, is having a nervous breakdown and I am currently using a friend’s spare Windows-based laptop. Although workable, it is not a happy relationship
