Thoreau helps give insight into New England's new climate

From the birthplace of the American Revolution comes data on the changing climate. Two items out today on global warming in New England. It's not hopeful news for maple sugar lovers like myself.

A piece on the National Wildlife Federation site describes how warmer winters and milder springs are reducing the output of the sugar maples. It may even be threatening the survival of the maple forests in southern New England. The article notes "Climate change will shift sugar maples’ optimal habitat north." That means you might have to travel up to Quebec to see those brilliant foliage colors in the fall, and you'd be buying only Canadian maple syrup, or maybe eventually some from Greenland.

A broader tracking of global warming effects in New England has been using historic records. Some of these daily weather records were meticulously kept by Henry Thoreau himself in the 1850s.Here's some of what they've found about the earlier springs in New England: "Pooling their data, the researchers have discovered that many plants in the Concord region are flowering more than a week earlier today than when Thoreau made his observations. Highbush blueberry—one of Thoreau’s favorite wild edibles—is blooming some two weeks earlier than it did 150 years ago. Yellow wood sorrel can be found in bloom about a month earlier. During this same period, Primack says, long-term weather data show that the average temperature of a Concord spring has increased by approximately 4.5 degrees F.

"Much of the temperature rise in the intensely developed Northeast is due to what’s known as the urban heat island effect—parking lots, streets and buildings absorb heat while vegetation loss lessens the release of cooling water from trees and other plants. But at least some of it can be attributed to global warming..."