75% of eastern tree species moving west

The western side of the United States has been luring escapees from the east since before the temptation of gold in the hills and Horace Greeley’s advice to “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” And now it appears that even trees are not immune to the allure. A new study looking at how tree populations have shifted over the past 30 years finds that they are decidedly moving west. As The Atlantic reports, “About three-quarters of tree species common to eastern American forests – including white oaks, sugar maples, and American hollies – have shifted their population center west since 1980. More than half of the species studied also moved northward during the same period.”...more