Pine Trees

There’s just one month left to view a towering grove of spectral cedar trees in New York City’s Madison Square Park, whose bare trunks and spindly branches speak not only to the Halloween season but to the ravaging effects of climate change on woodlands. Ghost Forest, an art installation by Maya Lin derives its name from the eponymous natural phenomenon: vast tracts of forestland that have died off due to extreme weather events as well as sea-level rise and saltwater infiltration. To create the installation, Lin worked with the Madison Square Park Conservancy to source dead trees from a restoration project in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, a vulnerable site that has suffered severe deprivation. Atlantic white cedars, which were once plentiful on the East Coast, have dwindled to a population below 50,000 acres due to past logging practices as well as threats posed from climate change. The 49 cedar trees installed in the park were all slated to be cleared as part of regeneration efforts. In the park, visitors can wander through the trees, which are interspersed in a dense cluster and stand 40′ to 45′ high. The installation brings the dire reality of dead woodlands to an urban audience and encourages a consideration of nature-based practices that can protect and restore the ecosystem. According to the Conservancy, here are two things we can learn from the unique regional ecosystem in the Pine Barrens: Overdevelopment of land negatively impacts forests. Pine Barrens are ecosystems composed of stands of ...