Musings

 Recently (in the past decade), NOAA and several other groups have done the difficult work of updating climate maps.

 I've seen a warming trend in my area, but I thought it might just be anecdotal.

 Surprise surprise, when I looked at the hardiness zones, I noticed that nearly the whole of eastern ohio has moved about half of a hardiness zone!

 There's only one small speck of zone 5B left, and probably gone within a few years.

 And zone 7!! Both near Cleveland and at the southern tip of the state.

 I've always thought the climate is very important, and have done my small part to not put strain on it.

 However, maybe it's time to start actively committing to mitigation practices.

 Some plants may no longer tolerate the local conditions, I researched some methods of assisted plant migration.

 I'm not sure just yet how I'll materially help, but I'll start by collating hardiness zones for local plants, frost tolerances, rises in pest burdens associated with reduced frost depths.

 There's a few universities that have already started the process and reached significant steps in proof of concept. Hopefully that keeps up.

   ~ 5/1/25