Ghost forests — landscapes of standing dead trees — are usually associated with saltwater intrusion along US coasts. But a report from New Scientist highlights that they are also appearing far from the sea, around freshwater lakes, as rising water kills trees and leaves them in place.
The exact locations and mechanisms are not detailed in the source, but the key shift is geographic: this is not a coastal phenomenon alone. Inland lakes are experiencing the same kind of water-level-driven tree mortality, suggesting that freshwater shorelines are vulnerable to the same forces reshaping coastal ecosystems.
The finding matters because it broadens where scientists and land managers should look for ghost forests. If rising water can create these dead stands inland, then monitoring efforts focused only on coasts may be missing a larger pattern of forest loss across the US.