poor torreya tree

The increasing climate change and it's effect on the Torreya taxifolia is the main thesis in Michelle Nijhuis's article, "To Take Wilderness In Hand." She claims that although the tree is extremely small and scrawny and literally means "stinking cedar" it is an ancient tree (Kolbert 181). It is even considered an "ancient relic" and because of the changing climate, they are hard to find and are "reduced to a handful of mossy trunks, rotting in riverside ravines" (181). One solutions she recognizes would to be uproot the plants and transport them to a climate that would better support their growth and expansion, better known as assisted migration. However, this is costly and indefinite because the tree would be entering as a new species and cause a dangerous affect. As the riverbanks slowly erode away, another solution is brought up. Nijhuis interviews David Printess about "burn boss" which are controlled fires that he believes would bring "some sunlight back to the steep ravines where the Florida torreya once grew" (184). However the disease killing the trees has not been identified and therefore there is not definite that it will not sprout up again when the trees relocate. Sometimes, she identifies that meddling must take place in order to save a species although must practices have many negatives.