Ghost Forests are Creeping up East Coast and Changing New Jersey!
Beech trees, shaped by strong sea winds, at Ghost Wood / Gespensterwald along the Baltic Sea beach at Nienhagen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. (Photo by: Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
When I first read the headline I thought it was something for Halloween! Nope, it actually has to do with climate change.
New Jersey’s Atlantic white cedar forests are turning from green to a pale white, a sign of creeping sea levels and more frequent superstorms.
It’s a term that points to the destruction of the area’s crucial role as a biodome and coastal buffer. These once-thriving forests are a direct result of climate change as the trees are suffocated by saltwater intrusion sparked by sea level rise and an uptick of hurricanes and superstorms.