Source: Jack Igelman, CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS, 7/28/22

Editor’s note: This article is part 2 of the five-part in-depth series Fraught Forests from Carolina Public Press, which examines the challenges of climate change for Western North Carolina’s mountain forests. The article originally posted on May 24, 2022. It is being reposted on July 28, 2022.

Marquette Crockett, the Highlands of Roan stewardship director of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, is inspecting a tiny red spruce sapling barely poking above the forest floor on a recent blustery and frigid April morning.  The tip of the fledgling red spruce nuzzled behind the trunk of a fallen tree trunk in a grassy opening was recently nibbled, possibly by a rabbit or a deer.

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