How the climate crisis is forever changing our national parks
CNN
When Garrett Dickman drove through Yosemite National Park early this week, he passed through a diverse band of large trees -- conifer, red fir, lodgepole pine -- and noticed a grim pattern: many of the trees were either dead or dying.
"It was really striking to see that every single tree seems to be getting hit by either climatic changes; it could be dying from drought, or it could be insect attack or fungus, but they're certainly weakened," Dickman, a forest ecologist with the National Park Service, told CNN. "There's a big shift happening right now, and it's right in front of our eyes."
The consequences of the climate crisis -- more wildfires, devastating drought, sea level rise, flooding, ecological disease -- are plaguing the country's national parks. Most recently, unprecedented flash flooding overwhelmed Yellowstone National Park and some of its surrounding areas.
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