Scientists Noticed Trees in White Mountains Moving Towards the Peak — Now the Mystery Is Solved

This research has revealed that it's not just the birds or humpback whales that migrate, it's also the trees.

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A person hiking through a lush grove of trees in White Mountains, New Hampshire. (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Wirestock)

In New Hampshire’s White Mountains, a noteworthy episode is unfolding, repeating year after year. It challenges the age-old belief that trees don’t move. Here, trees move when they want to, especially when climate conditions start threatening their survival. Yellow birch trees are moving towards upward elevations, while red spruce and beech are stationary. Sugar maple is almost at the verge of collapse in the upper elevation due to its competition with the beech. Hemlocks are climbing mountains, and balsam firs are triggering fir waves, hiking towards the top with each passing moment.

Smiling woman stands between a lush copse of white birch trees in White Mountains (Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Rebecca Smith) — Smiling woman stands between a lush copse of white birch trees in White Mountains (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Rebecca Smith)

According to a paper published by the USDA, the migratory behavior of these trees stems from climate change. “Tree creep,” they call it. At first, it sounds a bit sinister to imagine a grove of trees suddenly waking up during the night, detaching from their roots in the soil, and marching towards higher elevations of the mountains. This sight could evoke spine-chilling horror in the millions of visitors who visit the Appalachian Mountain trails every year to witness these mountains. The scientific reason, however, is not as scary. It’s just life’s basic instinct for survival.

Beautiful red-orange trees standing at the edge of a lake in White Mountains (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Cappi Thompson)

The mysterious phenomenon of “tree creep” is stirring up as a result of global warming. As scientists observe growing national and international concerns over the heating up of the planet, this process of tree migration stands out as a highlighted matter. The migratory process was first discovered during the 1970s, spurred by ecological interest in the episodic behavior of the upper-elevation tree species in some of the most scenic mountains. Some species were found to be migrating or retreating in relation to the main stand of mature trees, as researchers described in the paper.

Beautiful lake nestling in a valley of White Mountains (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Cappi Thompson)

For this study, researchers deployed computer models to project major changes in species distribution based on projected changes in temperature and precipitation regimes. However, this by no means is the first account of tree migration. It is just one of them. The same phenomenon was observed in New Hampshire’s Mirror Lake, located near the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, as the USDA mentioned in the paper.

Spruce, pine, and fur trees dusted with snow in White Mountains (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Rebecca Smith)

Pollen diagrams traced by the researchers showed overwhelming changes from spruce-birch-pine dominance 10,000 to 12,000 years ago through pine-oak during the period from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago to beech-hemlock-birch from 6,000 years ago to the present. Another study published in the journal Ecology documented the tree migration in Upper Haystack Mountain, undergoing 2,995 feet of elevation in the Bartlett Experimental Forest in central New Hampshire.

Woman beholding lush vegetation in White Mountains (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Haveseen)

Emergence Magazine shares another episode of this “tree creep” that unfolded about 14,600 years ago, near the end of the Pleistocene. Ever since this time, spruce trees have been constantly moving southwards, propelled by global warming that is slowly causing the ice to melt and retreat. Researchers Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder and Jeremy Seifert recalled how they were fascinated to observe “pointed evergreens with splays of emerald needles work their way across present-day Maine and southern Quebec, spreading farther into Canada, settling along the rocky slopes and poorly drained soils that were recently carved from the ice.

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