New Hampshire
Outside/Inbox: Do trees age?
Every other Friday, the Outside/In team here at NHPR answers listener questions about the natural world. Today’s question comes from Will Heap, calling from Coulterville, California, just outside of Yosemite National Park.”
“Driving past a beautiful forest yesterday, I had the realization that I don’t understand how trees age… So my first question is: How does aging work? Is it a breakdown of cells or in the efficacy of cells? And then my second question is: Do non-animal species such as plants, trees in particular, age the same as human cells?… What limits the age of a tree?
Producer Justine Paradis counted tree rings to see what she could find.
Transcript
Justine Paradis: For many of us, aging is a matter of great concern. But it turns out it’s weirdly tough to define what aging actually is, even in humans.
Deborah Roach: Aging itself is the accumulation of damage and the decline of function with increasing age.
Justine Paradis: This is Deborah Roach, a biologist and professor emeritus at the University of Virginia. In her career, Deborah has studied the evolution of aging in plants. And it’s a topic that defies easy answers.
Deborah Roach: Disappointingly, I think trees are a difficult species to begin to look at the questions of aging.
Justine Paradis: Deborah studied a small leafy plant called Plantago lanceolata. She compared the performance of 1-year-old seedlings to 3-year-olds, and she found some differences based on age.
Deborah Roach: Seed size is smaller… germination is smaller. In other words, their offspring are lower quality.
Justine Paradis: But Plantago is a weedy, short-lived plant. It’s more challenging to study trees.
Deborah Roach: You want to be able to follow individuals from the time of birth all the way through the time of death… and the trouble is that trees often live to, you know, 80 years, several hundred years, or even other species like the bristlecone pine trees, they live thousands of years.
Justine Paradis: One measure of aging is a change in ability to reproduce. And in some tree species, scientists do observe a peak and then decline in reproduction as trees increase in size. But other tree species just keep on making babies. There’s a bristlecone pine known as Methusaleh which, at nearly 5000 years old, is the oldest known tree on earth. In the ‘70s, when a US Forest Service employee collected a pine cone from Methuselah, he found that its seeds had a 100 percent germination rate. They all grew into viable and healthy seedlings.
Deborah Roach: It’s not just that they can grow, not just that they can survive… these pine trees… can still make high quality offspring too.
Justine Paradis: Another measure of aging happens on a cellular level. As human cells replicate, the DNA in our cells is copied, over and over. But over time, all that copying starts to degrade the DNA. When that happens in our stem cells, it’s a big deal. Stem cells are important to regenerate our tissues, blood, and neurons. And when they age, we notice. Our hair gets grey and our skin loses its elasticity.
In plants, the equivalent to a stem cell is called a meristem. Meristems make new leaves and new branches. But unlike human stem cells, it looks like plant meristems may not age, in at least some species. So, “theoretically, trees can be immortal organisms.” That’s a direct quote from a scientific review by a couple dendrologists published in 2020, titled “On tree longevity.”
The authors lay out evidence that trees don’t die because of genetically-destined cell decline. Instead, they’re killed by some external event, like a wildfire, insect attack, or the swinging of an ax.
When it comes to super long-lived trees like Methuselah, they tend to grow very slowly in pretty harsh environments, where not much else can live.
In short, the reason that some trees can live for millennia is simple: they’re really good at surviving.
If you’d like to submit a question to the Outside/In team, you can record it as a voice memo on your smartphone and send it to outsidein@nhpr.org. You can also leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER.
Outside/In is a podcast! Subscribe wherever you get yours.
New Hampshire
Bank Robber, Sexual Assaulter, With 40-Plus Year Criminal History, Wanted On Parole Violation: NH DOC
CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Department of Corrections is asking for the public’s help in finding a sex offender and robbery convict, with “violent tendencies,” who is wanted on a parole violation.
Michael J. Wells is 60, white, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and weighs around 150 lbs. He has dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. Officials said Wells sometimes uses the following aliases: “Michael Morris,” “Michael Morse,” and “Michael Kirby.” He has Tasmanian devil, star, moon, and skull tattoos on his right arm and a cross over a skull with a spider web on his left arm.
The warrant against Wells was issued by the New Hampshire Parole Board as well as Manchester police for duty to report, after accusing him of absconding from parole and failing to register as a sex offender.
“In December 1994,” an alert stated, “Wells was convicted of aggravated felonious sexual assault and as a result, is required to register as a Tier III sex offender for the remainder of his life. Wells is currently on Parole Supervision for robbery.”
In December 2018, Wells robbed the Citizens Bank in Manchester, passing a note stating, “I have a gun. No tracking. No dye bag. $20-$50 quickly. No alarm.” In August 2021, he committed the same offense under similar circumstances, officials said, after he was placed on escape status from the Calumet Transitional Housing Unit. He was arrested in Massachusetts a few weeks later.
Wells is known to frequent both Concord and Manchester.
Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the New Hampshire Department of Corrections and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains how to request the removal of a name from New Hampshire Patch police reports.
Wells criminal history dates back more than four decades, according to superior court records, after he was accused of forgery in Nashua in August 1985. In June 1988, he was convicted on one forgery charge.
Wells was accused of theft in 1990 and he pleaded guilty to the charge a month later.
Wells was accused of bail jumping in February 1989.
In 1994, Wells was accused of aggravated felonious sexual assault, sexual assault, and second-degree assault charges in Nashua. In December 1994, he pleaded guilty to the second-degree assault charge. Wells was found guilty by the court on one aggravated felonious sexual assault charge in January 1996.
Wells was also accused of escape in December 1998.
In 2005 and 2006, more charges were racked up, including four acts prohibited counts in Nashua, a false report to law enforcement, receiving stolen property, two acts prohibited counts in Salem, and forgery in Manchester. Wells was found guilty on two of the drug charges in Salem and the Manchester forgery charge, while the others were nolle prossed.
In April 2019, Wells was convicted on the December 2018 bank robbery charges. He was given a three-and-a-half-to-10-year sentence with 136 days of time served credit and a 10-to-20-year sentence, suspended for 10 years.
New Hampshire
N.H. lawmakers to vote on increasing tolls, civil rights, and k-12 education – The Boston Globe
One proposal (Senate Bill 627) would generate more than $53 million per year in estimated revenue for turnpike projects by essentially doubling what certain cars pay on the state’s toll roads.
The cash fare for Hampton’s main toll booth on Interstate 95, for example, would jump from $2 to $4 for cars and pickup trucks. The toll wouldn’t increase at all for motorists who use New Hampshire’s E-ZPass transponders.
“Surrounding states already have the same in-state discount structure in place,” Democratic Representative Martin Jack of Nashua wrote on behalf of a House committee that unanimously recommended the bill.
A potential hitch: Governor Kelly Ayotte. She’s expressed opposition to the whole toll-hiking idea, and proven she’s not afraid to use her veto pen.
Modifying civil rights standard
Another proposal (Senate Bill 464) would add a few words to the state’s Civil Rights Act. Instead of addressing conduct that is merely “motivated by” a legally protected characteristic, the proposed revision would address conduct that is “substantially motivated by hostility towards the victim’s” protected characteristic (such as their race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability).
The prime sponsor, Republican Senator Daryl Abbas, an attorney, testified the change was small and aligned with the law’s intent. But the attorney who oversees the Civil Rights Unit at the New Hampshire Department of Justice, Sean Locke, testified in opposition, saying the proposal could reduce protections, especially since the meaning of “substantially” is somewhat vague.
The House is also weighing a proposed amendment that would add a few more words than Abbas’s version, potentially narrowing the Civil Rights Act’s applicability a bit further.
Open enrollment for K-12 schools
A third proposal up for a vote on Thursday (Senate Bill 101) would make every K-12 public school in New Hampshire an “open enrollment” school. That way, students could freely choose to transfer to a district other than the one where they live.
The proposed policy is controversial, partly because of how schools are funded. Districts rely mostly on local property taxes to cover their costs, as the state government chips in relatively little, and property tax rates vary widely from one community to the next. That generates concern about who will foot the bill when a student transfers.
In light of those concerns, Republicans are offering a compromise amendment to SB 101 that would require the state to provide more money per pupil that a district receives via open enrollment, as the New Hampshire Bulletin reported. Democrats are offering their own amendment to establish a study commission on this topic, rather than adopt the proposed policy now.
Lawmakers have until May 14 to take action on the bills that came from the other chamber, though they have until June 4 to iron out any discrepancies.
Amanda Gokee of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
This story appears in Globe NH | Morning Report, a free email newsletter focused on New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles elsewhere. Sign up here.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
New Hampshire
Boston MedFlight expands into NH
Boston MedFlight often touches down at the scene of some of the worst tragedies in New England – where minutes can mean life or death for a victim. The critical care transport operation is now expanding with a new base in New Hampshire.
The organization is hosting an open house at the new Manchester location on Thursday.
Boston MedFlight flies a critical care transport paramedic and nurse on every flight. Jaik Hanley-McCarthy says their helicopters and ground vehicles are equipped to handle just about any emergency medical procedure.
“Anything that can be done in the ICU,” explained Hanley-McCarthy. “We have a mobile lab so we can draw blood and run labs in real time.”
Boston MedFlight now has five bases across the region.
“Having a base in Manchester just expands this Boston-level care even further north to the more remote areas of the state,” said Hanley-McCarthy.
Boston MedFlight operates as a network of bases and some of the locations are staffed 24 hours.
Chief Executive Officer Maura Hughes says the nonprofit operation survives on public and private donations.
“We provide about $7 million in free care every year to patients,” said Hughes. “Not every hospital can be everything to every patient. We’re really the glue that keeps the health care system together.”
Heather Young says her daughter, Teighan, is still alive because she was flown for a critical assessment and procedure after falling off a truck and hitting her head.
“She should not be driving and walking and talking and all the things she’s doing as quickly as she is,” said Young.
Teighan just turned 18 and plans to go to college to study the medical field.
“I want to be a nurse and help other people,” she said.
It’s stories like this that keep the men and women who work Boston MedFlight focused on their mission.
“I think we just go call by call and try to do the best we can,” said Hanley-McCarthy. “I think when we stop and truly think about it, I think that weight is pretty heavy.”
Boston MedFlight also has a yearly reunion where patients and the team get together here in Bedford to meet and check in on their progress. It really shows you how connected they are to the people they help.
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