Scant, thin canopy cover

accidental forester

Hi All,


I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed that tree canopy cover is poor this summer. Down here two distinctly different areas seem to been affected. In our sitka plantation, portions that have always been referred to as "the dark, dark wood", aren't as dark this year. There is a lot more light getting through and the floor needle cover seems to be thicker and fresher. Secondly, deciduous trees around the house and in the local woods seem to be scant in their leaf cover. Trees I can't usually see out through are more open. We're in west Cork and there was a severe drought last summer, followed by, certainly not the wettest of winters and now we seem to be missing most of the rainfall in the late spring, early summer. Is this just another function of the climatic "wobble" we're experiencing or is it something more serious? Is anyone else seeing anything similar?

blackbox

Where I play golf (Co. Wicklow), a lot of Sitka Spruce trees are very brown this year. I've been told that this is due to an attack by green spruce aphids that have proliferated due to the mild winter. Apparently they feed on the most recent year's needles and this results in the browning of the trees and can, over time, result in the trees dying. The only effective control of these aphids is that natural predator, the ladybird.