Foresters need to take a proactive approach to keeping their forests climate-ready, says the author of two studies on assisted migration in the forests of the Canadian province of Alberta.
Assisted migration, the conscious movement of one species of life -- plant or animal -- to another region, has been used for several years as a survival technique against climate change. In forests, this means planting heartier trees in regions vulnerable to high heat, drought and pests. Assisted migration bridges the gap of "evolutionary lag," the wait time between environmental changes like global warming and the evolutionary processes to adapt naturally to shifts.
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