This is interesting, the United States Department of Agriculture has updated their Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the first time since 1990. Unlike years past, the government agency will not be sending out posters instead making the online map interactive and downloadable. Perhaps a sign of shrinking budgets the site helpfully explains that "state, regional, and national images of the map can be downloaded and printed in a variety of sizes and resolutions." In other words, make your own poster.
Also interesting is the fact that the zones have been adjusted to reflect the warmer temperatures of the past 20 odd years. Entire states have shifted into different zones, reaffirming what many who live there already know - plants that historically could never thrive in certain zones, can and have for some time.
While it's easy to jump on the climate change train, and certainly that is a part of it, the USDA is quick to point out that the changes are also partially due to technological advancements in data gathering and more accurate weather data. Environmentalists will probably see the change as old news as the new USDA map is now similar to the changes made by the Arbor Day Foundation six years ago.
Read more:
Comments