Look - it's been a busy and tragic day. Most of my morning has been spent reading about, and mourning, the events in Blacksburg, VA.
To ease my mind a bit I pointed my browser over to one of my favorite gardening and orcharding websites: Raintree Nursery here in Washington State. I figured thinking about planting fruit trees would chill me out.
What I found was a new outrage. A quiet and melancholy outrage - one that both adds more evidence to global warming, Bush political influence in all parts of government, and something that should be completely familiar to gardeners everywhere.
The United States is almost universally one zone warmer than it was 15 years ago.
Follow me over the jump for what I mean.
If you are any kind of gardener - weekend warrior or devoted hobbyist - you are familiar with the USDA hardiness zone map. It's that pretty rainbow map of the US that tells you if a particular plant is a good match for your part of the country.
Whilst browsing about on my aforementioned favorite orcharding website, Raintree, I noticed that the zone map for Washington State had changed. I don't have much of a yard, but I have a fantasy about owning an orchard on the east side of the state - so I'm pretty familiar with that hardiness zone map.
What I saw shocked me.
Huge parts of Eastern Washington that used to be Zone 6 are now Zone 7. The northern part of the state that used to be Zone 5? Gone - it's all Zone 6 now.
My eyes raced across the map, and the changes were everywhere. My family is in Indiana, in Zone 5, I knew, cause I sent apple trees to the kids a couple years ago. Nope - almost the entire state of Indiana is Zone 6 now. Every Zone has shifted northward in the last 15 years.
2006 Hardiness zone map from Arborday.org
But this map comes from ArborDay.org...not the USDA. Here's a snip from the Arborday.org press release:
Based on the latest comprehensive weather station data, The National Arbor Day Foundation has just released a new 2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map which separates the country into ten different temperature zones to help people select the right trees to plant where they live.
The new map reflects that many areas have become warmer since 1990 when the last USDA hardiness zone map was published. Significant portions of many states have shifted at least one full hardiness zone. Much of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, for example, have shifted from Zone 5 to a warmer Zone 6. Some areas around the country have even warmed two full zones.
In response to requests for up-to-date information, the Arbor Day Foundation developed the new zones based on the most recent 15 years' data available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 5,000 National Climatic Data Center cooperative stations across the United States. Hardiness zones are based on average annual low temperatures using 10 degree increments. For example, the average low temperature in zone 3 is 40 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit, while the average low temperature in zone 10 is +30 to +40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The new 2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map is consistent with the consensus of climate scientists that global warming is underway. Tree planting is among the positive actions that people can take to reverse the trend. Tree planters across the nation can go to arborday.org, click on the Hardiness Zone link, and enter their zip code to determine their hardiness zone.
And here's a note from Raintree:
Every fifteen years the USDA puts out a new Hardiness Zone Map. In 2005 a new map was due out however it has not yet been published. The Arbor Day Foundation, a non-profit organization used the same weather data that the USDA uses to make their maps and made a new Hardiness Zone Map. They also made another map that shows the differences in zones over the past 15 years. You will notice that much of the nation has gotten one zone warmer. While this is good in a limited sense because some people can now grow plants in areas that were previously too cold, it is alarming as further evidence that global warming is a real and significant phenomenon.
So you're telling me that in 2005 a government agency was supposed to update the zone hardiness map... a map that all gardeners in the US would be familiar with... with data collected by NOAA... and that map would have proven that the entire US is warming... in terms that damn near anyone could understand... AND IT DIDNT HAPPEN?
Have I become so cynical that I read more Bushco politics into this? Suppression of data by the government to prevent the masses from learning the truth? When I reasearched on the USDA site and in the news...not a word that the 2005 map is two years overdue from the USDA.
Look at the zone differences and tell me this entire continent is not getting warmer - I DARE YOU!
Zone changes and comparison of 1990 and 2006 maps
And a great little tool that allows you to switch between the two on the Arborday.org site:
http://arborday.org/...
So spread the word this spring...in a format that every gardner across the country can understand...even if the USDA doens't publish its own version of the map, it can't change the fact that the entire country is warmer today from a plant hardiness point of view than it was 15 years ago. Global climate change is real, and it's affecting a fruit tree in your backyard soon.