Extreme heat in northern Tasmania is transforming the look of the bush. From Smithton to Bridport, thousands of eucalypts (mainly white gums and blue gums) have died or are stressed and leaking sap from their bark.
"Once you see this thing it's everywhere," Brett Glanville an electrician in the area said. Mr Glanville travels all over northern Tasmania and he has been worried by what he has seen.
Forestry Tasmania is studying the phenomena and said the cause is a long and extremely hot spell of weather at the start of 2013. In recently felled trees, it has seen a relationship between record hot temperatures and the signs of the oozing sap.
Principal scientist ecosystems services with Forestry Tasmania, Dr Tim Wardlaw said heat-stress is the cause in blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) plantations"It's through every forest, it's through the plantations, it's through old trees, it's in parks," he said.
