Focusing on "Schedule," Cherry Blossom Story Could use more Context on Climate

It's always fun to read about the cherry blossoms on the Capitol Mall. This year's story calls them "behind schedule."

Front page today

After noting the blossoms were running late in our cold winter, the story focused on the history of planting and the current maintenance and rejuvenation plan for the trees, which are planted over a parking garage in soil that is not very deep.

March 7th, 2015

You may recall the best ever story on the trees from 2015. It was a glorious nod to citizen science, conducted by then 88 year old Wilbur Bluhm.

Each week Bluhm takes a stroll through Bush Park, the Willamette University campus, Chemeketa Community College campus, Deepwood Estates and a couple of other parks to collect plant, flower and tree data.

The retired horticulturist of 30 years records a variety of information including when trees are leafing, flowering, done flowering, bearing fruit, showing fall colors, and when they lose their leave among other things.

Bluhm has been collecting this the data each week for the past 56 years and says that this spring season is the third earliest date that the cherry blossoms have been blooming outside of the capitol.

"On average, the cherry blossoms bloom around March 15," Bluhm said. "But this year they started on March 1."

Each year, the story should reference this data! Our cherry blossom dates are a climate story, in addition to everything else. That dimension is not much addressed in this year's story. Mainly the inconvenience of not being "on schedule," particularly with the festival scheduled for this weekend. 

Indeed, with changing climate what even is "the schedule" these days? It is likely that climate change will bring earlier blossoming as well as increased year-over-year variability, as we also get colder, wetter winters sprinkled in among the warmer ones. "The schedule" is rather fictive, not some stable thing.

The annual blossoming date of the cherry trees is an excellent capsule of a climate story, and that should be in the frame always.

Addendum, March 20th

Here's the Washington Post centering climate: "early warning," "signaled a warming climate."

Front page, Washington Post, March 20th