Edena_of_Neith
First Post
Hey there Forrester.
Nice to hear from you again!
- - -
The icestorm that hit the Ottawa Valley, southwestern Quebec, and upper New England is considered to be the worst icestorm to ever hit Canada.
As with the bluegrass region, but on a scale that dwarfs the bluegrass, an area - a vast area - was subjected to mass destruction of it's arboreal ecosystem.
I was horrified at the time at what was happening up in Canada, and I still have pictures of the storm. (Pictures of 200 foot high cross-country transmission towers crumpled like broken tinkertoys all over the ground. Some people were without power for months during the dead of the Canadian winter.)
If you travel to northern Texas or anywhere in Oklahoma, you will see that the trees all have a curiously broken appearance.
They all look like stick trees, with small amounts of foliage extending from huge branches, with the ends of all the large branches broken off.
The effect, is rather sad.
Too many icestorms. Too many tornadoes. Too many windstorms. (Especially, too many windstorms. In Texas, the word Windstorm takes on a whole new meaning.)
When I was driving through Oklahoma, I noticed a very large area where the destruction of the trees was especially bad.
Those who lived there noted the severe icestorm that had passed through last year, and it's lasting effects.
I am guessing that the Lexington icestorm, and the others, caused havoc to the natural fauna.
Small animals can be crushed by falling branches, or trapped when ice-laden branches bury their habitats.
Large animals can also be crushed, and those surviving must now forage through a sea of dead limbs and debris choking the forest floor.
Birds have far fewer habitats available, since the forest canopy has been destroyed. Newborn birds and adult birds alike have less protection from future storms of wind, rain, and hail, since the forest canopy is gone.
In Lexington and around Lexington, literally millions of trees are still standing, but they have been stripped of all their small branching - they are reduced to their skeletal structures.
As eyesores, it is likely these trees will be removed (New Circle Road had great barriers of trees for aestetic and privacy purposes, and these banks of trees will now be gone.)
This will further exacerbate the loss of habitats, the reduction of the bird population, and it is questionable just how good an idea it is aestetically.
- - -
Another great storm is heading for the eastern United States.
It will strike Michigan, where I live, on Saturday with heavy snow. It could have been heavy freezing rain, and may yet be so.
We in southeastern Michigan are also on the Roulette Wheel of Icestorms, and one day - all too soon - our number will come up.
And then we, too, will watch as trees that were around in the time of our great-grandparents come crashing down by the millions around us.
Nice to hear from you again!
- - -
The icestorm that hit the Ottawa Valley, southwestern Quebec, and upper New England is considered to be the worst icestorm to ever hit Canada.
As with the bluegrass region, but on a scale that dwarfs the bluegrass, an area - a vast area - was subjected to mass destruction of it's arboreal ecosystem.
I was horrified at the time at what was happening up in Canada, and I still have pictures of the storm. (Pictures of 200 foot high cross-country transmission towers crumpled like broken tinkertoys all over the ground. Some people were without power for months during the dead of the Canadian winter.)
If you travel to northern Texas or anywhere in Oklahoma, you will see that the trees all have a curiously broken appearance.
They all look like stick trees, with small amounts of foliage extending from huge branches, with the ends of all the large branches broken off.
The effect, is rather sad.
Too many icestorms. Too many tornadoes. Too many windstorms. (Especially, too many windstorms. In Texas, the word Windstorm takes on a whole new meaning.)
When I was driving through Oklahoma, I noticed a very large area where the destruction of the trees was especially bad.
Those who lived there noted the severe icestorm that had passed through last year, and it's lasting effects.
I am guessing that the Lexington icestorm, and the others, caused havoc to the natural fauna.
Small animals can be crushed by falling branches, or trapped when ice-laden branches bury their habitats.
Large animals can also be crushed, and those surviving must now forage through a sea of dead limbs and debris choking the forest floor.
Birds have far fewer habitats available, since the forest canopy has been destroyed. Newborn birds and adult birds alike have less protection from future storms of wind, rain, and hail, since the forest canopy is gone.
In Lexington and around Lexington, literally millions of trees are still standing, but they have been stripped of all their small branching - they are reduced to their skeletal structures.
As eyesores, it is likely these trees will be removed (New Circle Road had great barriers of trees for aestetic and privacy purposes, and these banks of trees will now be gone.)
This will further exacerbate the loss of habitats, the reduction of the bird population, and it is questionable just how good an idea it is aestetically.
- - -
Another great storm is heading for the eastern United States.
It will strike Michigan, where I live, on Saturday with heavy snow. It could have been heavy freezing rain, and may yet be so.
We in southeastern Michigan are also on the Roulette Wheel of Icestorms, and one day - all too soon - our number will come up.
And then we, too, will watch as trees that were around in the time of our great-grandparents come crashing down by the millions around us.
