{"id":368005,"date":"2025-02-28T08:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T07:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=368005"},"modified":"2025-02-28T08:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T07:22:17","slug":"is-climate-change-killing-australias-beachfront-norfolk-island-pines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=368005","title":{"rendered":"Is Climate Change Killing Australia\u2019s Beachfront Norfolk Island Pines?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hint \u2013 they are blocking the view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Extreme weather and vandalism impact beachfront Norfolk Island pines<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norfolk Island pine trees have become a feature of Australia\u2019s coastline but they are at risk from a number of factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Gold Coast researcher says a severe weather-fuelled fungus and urban stresses are infecting pines across the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s next? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A horticulturist says he is more worried that the trees are being chopped down or poisoned for the sake of residents\u2019 views. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One cause of the trees\u2019 ill health is a nasty fungus from the Botryosphaeriaceae<\/em> family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Petrova said it thrived in dry environments and spread through Burleigh Heads\u2019 pine population in the 2018-2019 drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms Petrova said more extreme weather due to climate change, including drought, could be increasing fungal growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he was increasingly being called to pines that had been purposely poisoned<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about 60 to 80 trees at a time being poisoned, huge areas of beach fronts all around Sydney Harbour,\u201d Mr Varley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2025-02-26\/extreme-weather-vandalism-impact-norfolk-island-pine-trees\/104949926<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Norfolk Island Pines<\/a>, an evolutionary cousin of Hoop Pines<\/a>, are tropical weather loving trees which grow to enormous heights in poor quality salty beach soil. They are capable of thriving from the cold southern end of Australia all the way into the far North. They are also grown in Hawaii and other warm weather locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local governments love them because their strong root structure stabilises the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Million dollar beachfront property owners not so much \u2013 because that beautiful view you fell in love with in many cases has been obscured by tree hugging councils who seem to think taller is better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are beautiful trees \u2013 tall, lots of shade, and a soft bed of pine needles supplied with every tree, great homes for Australia\u2019s beautiful songbirds, and a place for young people who want a little privacy. The trees are resilient \u2013 they don\u2019t mind being topped to keep the height down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Australia\u2019s local governments over the past few decades seem to have forgotten that part of the social contract, beachfront trees nowadays tower over many of Australia\u2019s favourite swimming spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in my area trees have been poisoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a difficult crime to solve. In many cases it might be difficult to detect \u2013 clever tree killers wouldn\u2019t drill holes in the trees, they would use a sprinkle of readily available heavy metal sulphate poison which reacts with salt in the ground to form almost insoluble chloride salts, a chemical which due to insolubility has good residence in salty soil, exhibits high plant toxicity without being a serious poisoning risk for humans in the quantities used, and which would cause the tree to become distressed rather than instantly killing it, leading the tree to apparently die a natural death, losing its foliage and succumbing to fungal infections. An added bonus for the tree murderer, the residual poison in the soil would also kill whatever the local government planted to replace the dead tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if I just solved the mystery? Maybe it isn\u2019t climate change after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Norfolk Island Pines, an evolutionary cousin of Hoop Pines, are tropical weather loving trees which grow to enormous heights in poor quality salty beach soil. They are capable of thriving from the cold southern end of Australia all the way into the far North. They are also grown in Hawaii and other warm weather locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":368008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818216,691819134,691818056,691833575],"class_list":{"0":"post-368005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-climate-alarmism","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-norfolk-island-pines","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0612664395a40232133447d33247d383535373634333738.jpeg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1xJz","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":297713,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=297713","url_meta":{"origin":368005,"position":0},"title":"Facebook Fiasco \u2013 and the Fishes","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/21\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Norfolk Island is an Australian territory in the South Pacific Ocean, with pine trees, jagged cliffs, sandy beaches include Emily Bay, where Susan swims most days on the low tide.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0corals-15.09-2_reduced-2048x1513-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C887&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0corals-15.09-2_reduced-2048x1513-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C887&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0corals-15.09-2_reduced-2048x1513-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C887&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0corals-15.09-2_reduced-2048x1513-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C887&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0corals-15.09-2_reduced-2048x1513-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C887&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":237831,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=237831","url_meta":{"origin":368005,"position":1},"title":"Complaint To BBC Over Happisburgh Report","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIt is likely that the Norfolk cliffs have been eroding at the present rate for about the last 5000 years\u201d","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-146.png?fit=976%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-146.png?fit=976%2C549&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-146.png?fit=976%2C549&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-146.png?fit=976%2C549&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":238624,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=238624","url_meta":{"origin":368005,"position":2},"title":"Coastal Erosion? 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