The climate has changed over the years causing the drought to be more intense.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to the study released by the US Forest Service, American forests are severely affected by drought. Although many people consider that drought only means the lack of water, officials state that the consequences of a drought are more extensive than that.
The US Forest Service released a study in which it underlines the fact that forests are severely affected by drought. The effects are indeed devastating on an economical and sociological level, too. The aims of the report published by the Forest Service was to find a way that could monitor and quantify drought, assess and understand the damage that it inflicts on the forest and on the trees, and identify some potential adaptation strategies to downgrade its effects.
It seems that the increasing warmer temperatures and the drought make some regions of the US extremely dry. This only leads to an increased variation in precipitations. It this vicious cycle continues, the effects that the drought has will only be amplified.
But the drought doesn’t just cause some trees to wither away and die. According to the study published by the Forest Service, the drought can lead to an outbreak of large insect, especially in the Western parts of the US. The phenomenon can also cause large scale forest fires that affect all of the animal population, as well as towns that are in the immediate vicinity of the forests.
An extensive forest fire could destroy the habitat of a wide variety of animals, which could lead to a significant modification in the ecosystem.
Tom Vilsack, the Agriculture Secretary declared that the rangelands and forests in America are national treasures and they should be treated as such. He focused on the fact that the study reveals that there is no region in the entire country that is not affected by volatile weather conditions or severe effects of the drought.
From an economic point of view, the American forests provide approximately 200,000 jobs to the American people, bring more than $13 million into local economies and provide drinking water for more than sixty million citizens.
According to the study, the number of forest fires has grown exponentially since 2000. The report of the Forest Service, which is composed out of the data provided by 77 researchers, will aid land managers to find better solutions in the improvement of efforts against drought resilience.
The American Forests are severely affected by drought and the Forest Service is trying to encourage land managers to do everything they can to lessen the terrible effects of the phenomenon.
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