Climate Change Across America – Instagram Trip Logs

June 27

June 27 Climate Change Across America Day 1: Off to the Arctic Ocean. Tree kill from drought West of Kerrville, TX. #climatechangeacrossamerica#indiegogo#climatechange# globalwarming

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jun 28, 2018 at 7:18am PDT

June 28

Saguaro NP: the tall ones are healthy in the park. Outside, in most areas where where there is environmental degradation, which is almost everywhere saguaro’s are not doing very well with lots of physical damage from hungry predators. Lots. Still working on what is going on with them . All over, the park naturalist says there has been almost now saguaro recruitment in 20 years because spring sprouting season is too dry. The drought continues even though total rainfall is normal. More rain falling less frequently.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jun 30, 2018 at 7:59am PDT

After shooting Saguaro NP, camped on Mt. Lemmon north of Tuscon. 58 degrees at dawn, nice. The beetles are there. A red kill ponderosa was 100 feet from the picnic table, but only 2 or 3 times normal mortality. Down below at treeline with the desert, there was quite a bit of kill, 50 percent +/-, from drought/ beetle during the peak if the last drought 5 plus years ago.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jun 30, 2018 at 8:13am PDT

June 29

Sonoma solar concentrating facility, I8 southwest of Phoenix. Cool place. 103 degrees today. Thankfully.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jun 30, 2018 at 8:02am PDT

Mojave National Preserve, SW California. The Joshua trees are healthy, but all across SW Arizona tree kill is widespread from drought mostly. There are very few leaves on shrubs, mesquite, Palo verde, etc. Some will recover if/when rainfall returns. Lots of mortality from years past, in the 40 percent of total individuals.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jun 30, 2018 at 8:08am PDT

June 30

Sequoia National Monument: Beetles are here, lots. Astonishingly magnificent. This happens every time our climate changes abruptly, only mankind has never experienced it before.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 1, 2018 at 4:25pm PDT

July 1

Sequoia National Monument: the giant sequoias are largely untouched except for maybe some very young individuals. Maybe it’s their foot-thick bark. Maybe it’s just that they are fantastically magnificent. Ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir–all are hit hard by bark beetles with 20 to 70 percent mortality. In the Valley Of 100 Giants, 48-inch plus diameter ranger-felled trees litter the forest floor for tourist safety, opening new “vistas.” The attack is ongoing, drought is extreme, temperatures are far above normal and no reason to think the attack will diminish any time soon.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 1, 2018 at 4:39pm PDT

July 2

July 2, Giant Sequoia National Monument, just south of Sequoia National Park, Route 107, Western Divide Highway: some places the redkill is just becoming noticeable. Some places it’s astonishingly magnificent. These trees were killed by native, grain-of-rice sized bark beetles of different species that attack different species of tree. They include pine beetles, spruce beetles and fir beetles; all native beetles, driven unprecedentedly berserk because of warming.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 3, 2018 at 1:07pm PDT

Trail of 100 Giants, Giant Sequoia National Monument: Near high value resources, beetle kill trees must be felled or tourists excluded because of falling trees hazards. There were at least a hundred trees felled adjacent the mile or two of paved foot trails that meander through what is called the Long Meadow Grove of sequoias, along the Trail of 100 Giants. These trees were ponderosa, lodgepole and Douglass fir, ranging in size from 36 to 72 inches. This year’s standing redkill were as big as 96 inches.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 3, 2018 at 1:30pm PDT

July 3

June 3, Montecito Mudslides: Picked up my helper wife at Santa Barbara Airport after camping at Leo Carillos State Park near Malibu for $45 (!!!) a night. Gas was $4.44 (!!!) But gosh the Pacific Ocean is swell >=<<))’> — Mudslides — After the unprecedented Thomas Fire of 280,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, 24 inches of rain fell in December and January culminating in (also) unprecedented mudslides that killed 21 and wiped away 65 homes with debris flows 35 feet deep.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 4, 2018 at 8:58am PDT

July 4

August 11, Final Entry for Climate Change Across America 2018 Field Work: An epic journey of climate change observation comes to a close. It was 16,199 miles in 45 days, using 42 separate camps and one motel, from Austin to the Arctic Circle via California. Everywhere we went there were climate change impacts. What was probably the most pervasive and profound, and most likely the most meaningful, was apparent drought. Everywhere was dry because of nonlinearly increasing evaporation from the longer and warmer warm season. Plants don’t care how much precipitation falls. They care about how much moisture remains in the soil. Ya te hey (walk in beauty)

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 12, 2018 at 4:29pm PDT

July 5

This grove of eight giants was about a mile and a half southwest of the Trail of 100 Giants. Icemelter bottom left for scale. The group on the right is a triple 10-footer.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 5, 2018 at 3:47pm PDT

This 12-inch lodgepole pine is under heavy attack. The pine pitch blobs are the tree’s defense against bark beetles. With adequate moisture, the attacked pines can literally “pitch” the attacking beetles back out of their bores by flooding them with sap. Under drought conditions though, sap is not easily created and the beetles win. You can see the holes in the middle of the sap blobs, where the beetles are able to overcome the sap flood and finish thier galleries so they can lay their eggs.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 5, 2018 at 3:57pm PDT

July 6

July 6, Fresno, CA: down to town from Sequoia National Park to do a radio interview on KOOP Rag Radio. Oak mortality is pretty high. It’s likely it is simply for drought, but in Texas, drought stress breeds a fungus called hypoxylon that continues to take trees years after the drought. The beetle attack at Sequoia National Park is not as extensive as the National Monument–that we have seen so far.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 6, 2018 at 3:44pm PDT

July 7

The beetles are destroying our most cherished national treasures. Seventy percent of the forest in the Sierra National Forest has been destroyed. The beetles at Yosemite National Park in the video above are not as bad, but are as bad as the Central Rockies a dozen years ago when attacks were just starting to go pandemic. Please tell your friends and help us spread the news by donating to our fundraiser for a film like has never been done before: #climatechangeacrossamerica #indiegogo #climatechange # globalwarming #isglobalwarmingreal #heatwave #drought #impacts

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 8, 2018 at 10:54am PDT

July 8

June 9, Trull Fire, Santa Rosa, CA, Found Pets.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 10, 2018 at 11:20pm PDT

July 9

June 9, Trull Fire. Love messages from the folks in Sonoma County. A tough day of filming.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 10, 2018 at 11:51pm PDT

July 10

June 9, Trull fire, Santa Rosa, CA. 5,700 homes destroyed. Everything in sight is new construction. #climatechangeacrossamerica #isglobalwarmingreal #trullfire #globalwarming #climatechange #wildfire

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 11, 2018 at 12:07am PDT

July 11

June 10, Jedediah Smith State Park, Northern CA: It’s dry. Warmer temps and a much longer dry season have created “apparent drought” with much greater than normal evaporation. Plants don’t care how much precipitation falls, they care about soil moisture. Warmer temps create much more evaporation. Fir beetle and tussock moth are here. Not bad but several times more than background. Active attack, red trees a dozen or two every mile. Like it was in the central Rockies 15 years ago. The apparent drought is building populations of attacking insects across the state.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 12, 2018 at 11:19pm PDT

July 13

July 13, salt water intrusion from sea level rise: the fresh water lake is on the right, salt water on the left. When the elevation of the marine water body rises, salt water is forced into the fresh water lake. Most species can stand a little salt water invasion if it is temporary, but if it is permanent, those species must migrate or perish. Because trees migrate very slowly, they have few alternatives.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 15, 2018 at 9:12am PDT

July 14

July 14, Southern British Columbia: Aspen leaf miner is wide spread from New Mexico to the Arctic Circle. After several years, mortality results. #indiegogo #climatechangeacrossamerica #isglobalwarmingreal #forestimpacts

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 17, 2018 at 4:35pm PDT

July 15

July 15: Bear Glacier, Seward Highway, Northern British Columbia: the Bear Glacier has retreated about half the distance to its source since about the turn of the 20th century. The diagonal “trim lines,” where the former glacier has scraped the sides of the mountain free of vegetation, can be seen on the mountainside to the right of the glacier. The lower trim line is from the Little Ice Age, the upper is likely from the maximum ice extent of the last glacial ice surge about 10,000 years ago. #climateimpacts #globalwarming #isglobalwarmingreal #glacier #glacier #glaciermelt

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 17, 2018 at 4:50pm PDT

July 16

July 16, Cassier and Alaska Highways–Aspen Leaf Miner: The 3 mm fly larvae eat out the chlorophyll in the middle of the leaf, stressing the trees. The flies can now create multiple generations of insects because there is so much more warm season as spring and fall are coming 30 to 45 days sooner/later. In addition, warmer winters are allowing more flies to live through the cold season to create epedemic conditions. The attack is so strong the flies are now eating their way through the black popular (balsam poplar) across temperate and subarctic forests of North America. #indiegogo #climatechange #climatechangeacrossamerica #globalwarming #isglobalwarmingreal #climatediscovery

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 17, 2018 at 4:44pm PDT

July 17

July 17, Alaska Highway, Southern Yukon Territory: all across northern British Columbia, 300 or more miles, this shrubby species of willow was infected by some virus. This willow is a predominant species and literally lines the roads with golden foliage. It was quite pretty, but foreboding.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 20, 2018 at 11:35am PDT

July 17, Alaska Highway, Southern Yukon Territory: another beautiful pice of climate change art – the trails of the leaf miner in aspen leaves. The leaf miner is a tiny fly whose larvae eats the good stuff between the outer layers of the Aspen and poplar leaves.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 20, 2018 at 11:39am PDT

July 18

July 19, Tok, southeastern Alaska: widespread and extensive permafrost melt has flipped Alaska from a carbon sink to a carbon source. Alaska is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is absorbing because of greenhouse gases emitted from the melting permafrost. Dozens of these melt lakes, line the highway between Tok and Glennallen. #indiegogo #climatechangeacrossamerica #permafrost #permafrostmelt #climatechange #isglobalwarmingreal #thermocarst

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 20, 2018 at 12:06pm PDT

More permafrost melt between Tok and Glennallen in southeastern Alaska. See our reporting on recent peer review publishing on the flip of Alaska from greenhouse gas sink to source– https://climatediscovery.org/alaskan-permafrost-now-emitting-more-greenhouse-gases-than-it-is-storing/ #indiegogo #climatechangeacrossamerica # isclimatechangereal

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 20, 2018 at 12:55pm PDT

July 20

July 20, Two Glacier Day: Kennicot Glacier, 100 miles north of Valdez at McCarthy, a dirt glacier. Retreated one mile in the last 20 years and is now covered with glacial debris. Matanuska Glacier, 200 miles west of the Kennicot, 100 miles east of Anchorage. Retreated one quarter mile in 10 years, still a white glacier.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 27, 2018 at 12:06am PDT

Matanuska Glacier NE of Anchorage. Retreated a quarter mile in ten years and is now a dirt glacier, where melt has left the dirt and rocks behind on top of ice that has yet to melt.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 27, 2018 at 12:10am PDT

Matanuska Glacier

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 27, 2018 at 12:20am PDT

July 22

July 22, Denali HWY, 92 miles of dirt along the Alaska Range. Video is of Thompson Glacier from Maclaren on the Thompson river bridge. Note the trim line. I photographed this glacier 11 years ago and if I recall, there was a lot more ice then

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 27, 2018 at 12:21am PDT

July 24

July 24, Denali National Park: 20 to 30 years ago, tundra plants less than a foot high were the only plant occupants of the highlands at Denali. Willows and other shrub and tree species are now moving in with warmer temperatures. This causes a warming feedback where the taller plants stick up above the snow, absorbing 9 times more heat than snow alone. #indiegogo #climatechangeacrossamerica #heatwave #isglobalwarmingreal

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Jul 29, 2018 at 12:27pm PDT

July 25

July 25, Dalton Highway — The Haul Road: the Dalton is the access road for the Alaska Pipeline that runs from Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska to Prudhoe Bay’s oil field on the Arctic Ocean. The 32-plus wheel oil field truck trains are legendary for road dangers and the Icemelter has many new gravel nicks to prove it. First night insomnia, without my constant companion, allowed me to watch a four hour sunset that filled the sky from east to west and instead of fading to black, the sun rose at 1:30 a.m.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 1, 2018 at 11:41am PDT

July 27

July 27, Dalton Highway: Bug Out! It started raining while on the biggest of the passes through the Brooks Range. Insane passing those high speed 32-wheelers. Camped at Galbraith CG on the North Slope with at least 14 million mosquitoes that defied the rain. Cold dinner. Rained hard all night. No coffee for breakfast with the same mosquitoe hords. Headed up into the North Slope about 15 miles. So much rain the massive potholes were covered up. Then the fog rolled in with litterally 100 foot visibility. I turned about south shortly thereafter to chase the edge of the fog bank south before an unkind encounter with one of those 32-wheelers.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 5, 2018 at 7:34am PDT

July 28

July 28, Denali State Park: Redkill south of Denali.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 7, 2018 at 5:45pm PDT

July 29

July 29, Tok, Alaska Hwy, Eastern Alaska: permafrost melt

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 7, 2018 at 5:48pm PDT

July 30

July 30, Northern Rocky Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Alberta: spotty redkill, lots of old Gray beetle kill, plus leaf miner in the poplar, aspen and willow.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 7, 2018 at 5:56pm PDT

August 2

July 30, Northern Rocky Mountain Provincial Park, Northern Alberta: spotty redkill, lots of old Gray beetle kill, plus leaf miner in the poplar, aspen and willow.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 7, 2018 at 5:56pm PDT

August 3

August 3, The community of Jasper, BC, north of Jasper NP

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 10, 2018 at 9:32am PDT

August 4

August 3, Jasper NP: big spruce beetle attack.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 10, 2018 at 9:37am PDT

August 6

August 6, Glacier NP, Going to the Sun Road: a wildfire in 2015 burned my budworm study area between West Mary and the Pass on Going to the Sun. Fire may be even more impactful than beetles because of the vast increase in area burned, and the distinct plausibility that our new climate will not support recovery of the forests that have burned. Burned area has increased 1,200 percent in the last 20 years, with little influence from human ignition.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 10, 2018 at 9:44am PDT

August 7

August 7, Wasatch NF, East of Salt Lake: the beetle attack continues with about 60 to 70 percent mortality at altitude and the attack is building at lower elevations.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 10, 2018 at 9:47am PDT

August 9

August 9, Bull Draw Fire, South of Grande Junction, CO: Very smoky, very dry, big fire year.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 10, 2018 at 9:49am PDT

August 10

August 10, low water: everywhere was low water. Earlier spring means earlier snowmelt. Spring now arrives 30 to 45 days sooner and summer is warmer. This yields late summer water levels in mid or even early summer depending in the year. Everywhere this year, across western North America, we saw low water ahead of schedule. #isglobalwarmingreal #climatediscovery #climatechangeimpacts #climatechangeacrossamerica

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 12, 2018 at 3:51pm PDT

August 11

August 11, South Central Colorado, Embargo Creek, Rio Grande National Forest, LA Garita Range: Spruce Beetle kill is about 50 percent above 8500 or 9000 feet throughout south central Colorado. Five to six years ago to the northwest of the San Luis Valley in the high La Garitas, over 100,000 acres was killed in a single attack that created about 95 percent mortality. Look back a couple of years for details on ClimateDiscovery.org.

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 12, 2018 at 4:09pm PDT

August 11, Final Entry for Climate Change Across America 2018 Field Work: An epic journey of climate change observation comes to a close. It was 16,199 miles in 45 days, using 42 separate camps and one motel, from Austin to the Arctic Circle via California. Everywhere we went there were climate change impacts. What was probably the most pervasive and profound, and most likely the most meaningful, was apparent drought. Everywhere was dry because of nonlinearly increasing evaporation from the longer and warmer warm season. Plants don’t care how much precipitation falls. They care about how much moisture remains in the soil. Ya te hey (walk in beauty)

A post shared by Bruce Melton (@bruce.c.melton) on Aug 12, 2018 at 4:29pm PDT