Equinox Elephant in the Ecosystem: Dying Plants and Trees vs. Wireless Antennas

by Patricia Burke of Safe Tech International; Featuring the Work of German Researcher Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam by permission

“Climate” and Changes in Land Use vs. Trees

Trees and forests have been likened to the lungs of the planet. The UK’s Woodland Trust notes, trees “prevent flooding, reduce city temperature, reduce pollution, and keep soil nutrient-rich.” “Protecting old, established woods and trees is essential.”

In November of 2023, the World Economic Forum addressed the question What role do trees really play in fighting climate change? An expert explains Zurich’s Tomas Crowther was quoted, “It’s important to remember that a forest is not just a load of sticks of trees. They’re not just sticks of carbon. These are diverse, thriving ecosystems and it’s the biodiversity within them that allows them to capture and store all that carbon in the long term as a wonderful byproduct.” [ ] from the scientific perspective, a trillion trees means millions of local communities being economically empowered by the biodiversity they depend on. []

“Most of our planet’s forests have only reached 30% of their full maturity – allowing them to grow and fully mature could make a huge contribution to the climate fight.” – Source

Narratives about climate and carbon are laden with controversy.

But simple observation and discernment can be applied to assess whether or not a certain environmental exposure either nurtures – or kills – plants and trees.

Far-Away Rainforests – Someone Else’s Policy Problem?

The Rainforest Alliance explains, “Agribusinesses clear vast stretches of pristine, untouched forest to make room for cattle pasture (in Brazil) and cropland (soy in Brazil, palm oil in Indonesia). The cheapest and quickest way to do this in such humid conditions is to cut down the trees and underbrush with chainsaws, let them dry out for a month, and get rid of the debris by burning it. Large-scale clearing disrupts the very processes that give the rainforest its name—the ability to absorb, store, and recycle water as rainfall. As the soil dries out and tree cover is lost, the forest shifts from being fire-resistant to fire-prone. “This is one of the most traumatic things you can do to an ecosystem,” explained Nigel Sizer, the Rainforest Alliance’s chief program officer. The thin-barked trees of the rainforest have no natural resilience to fire, so the flames simply consume everything in their path.”

New Unprecedented Wounding Pattern – to Trees Everywhere

What about damage closer to home? The mainstream narrative about “changes in land use” and focus on the distant rainforest has continued to dominate discussions about trees and land, without addressing manmade “changes in atmosphere/air/electromagnetic environment use.”

The all-in-one-bucket of attributing damage to trees, forests, and sensitive habitats to “climate” fails to note that for decades, researchers and laypersons have been quantifying very specific visible pattern of damage to individual local trees.

The harm inflicted by this stressor follows a unique, unprecedented pattern not associated with other stressors.  

One-Sided and Crown Damage as an Indicator of Harm Caused by Radio Frequency Exposures and Electrosmog

In her report Tree Damage Caused by Radiofrequency Radiation Exemplary Observations from 2005 to 2021 in Germany,  (104 pages) Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam explains, 

“After the publication of the Bamberg Appeal 2004, in which 130 medical doctors warned against the continued expansion of mobile phone networks, numerous residents who were affected by the radiation from nearby mobile phone base stations asked the physician-led initiative for advice and help. As a result, we visited affected people in their homes, recorded their symptoms and performed RF radiation measurements. While visiting these patients, we have noticed since about 2005 that symptoms in our patients frequently started at around the same time when nearby trees also started to change and develop damage. Deciduous and coniferous trees as well as shrubs were affected. We became very concerned when we observed crown damage on just one side of a tree, which was the side facing a mobile phone station, as well as the contrast between damaged trees in front of a house – with line of sight to a base station – and healthy trees in the back of a house – without line of sight to an RF transmitter.

Tree health is affected by a wide range of factors: heat, drought, frost, soil composition, soil sealing, road salt, air and soil pollutants as well as pests. However, these factors cannot explain crown damage starting on one side only and damaged trees in the vicinity of water bodies.”

We asked various tree experts for advice: “Which type of causes would have to be considered for crown damage starting on one side?” Experts replied that root damage on one side due to underground engineering work could be a cause. Other causes were not known to them. Only in the vicinity of industrial facilities, a possible impact by industrial emissions should be considered.

2006 Tree Damage Investigation “We Were Overwhelmed by the Knowledge Already Available”

The head of an urban landscape department said in a conversation in May 2006: “For 2 to 3 years we have observed vitality disorders for which I have no explanation.” This statement encouraged us to further investigate this suspicious tree damage.

Dr. H. Eger, Dipl.-Ing. F. Maierhofer, Dr. V. Schorpp, expert meteorologist W. Sönning (Dipl.-Met.) and I compiled references regarding the effects of electromagnetic fields on plants. We were overwhelmed by the knowledge already available to date.

About 1920 electrical engineers discovered that trees act as receiving antennas of radio waves. A tall poplar tree made it possible to receive radio signals from the Eiffel Tower, which was located 300 km (185 mi) away. []

From 2004 different research groups have published effects on germination, growth and cellular metabolism in laboratory experiments. Research findings and observations that have been emergingsince the 1930s as well as our own on-site visits to damaged trees provided the impetus to our tree documentations over many years, including RF measurements, and our study. In the vicinity of all mobile phone base stations we visited, we found RF radiation-related tree damage.” –Source

Do You See Affected Trees in Your Area That Look Like This? “Two Years Later the Red Oak Was Cut Down”

Fruit Trees – Wanted Dead or Wanted Alive?

Crown Damage Starting on One Side on Individual Trees

“We found crown damage on all four sides of trees: north, south, east and west. On the side facing RF transmitters, leaves turned prematurely yellow or brown and fell off as early as June. In subsequent years crowns became more and more transparent on the side facing an RF transmitter. Outer branches died off. The damage progressed from the outside to the inside. The opposite side, facing away from an RF transmitter, has often remained intact for many years, while the incident radiation is attenuated by leaves or needles. RF radiation is absorbed and scattered. Depending on the distance and height of a given RF transmitter, initially only parts of a tree crown or entire sides are damaged.”

“Besides crown damage starting on one side, there were also differences between the upper and lower parts of these tree crowns. In the radio shadow of buildings, trees were healthy.”

“In the garden surrounding the Asklepios Klinik, several beech trees showed signs of damage at their crowns or trunks. When we touched the trees with the antenna of the RF meter, we could listen to radio. The radio and TV broadcasting tower Brotjacklriegel is located 12 km (7.5 mi) away. The tree trunk measurement cannot be used quantitatively because the RF meter is calibrated for measurements in air. However, the significant increase of the measurement result shows that beech trees are receiving antennas for electromagnetic fields. Electrical engineers already knew this 100 years ago. In areas with low ambient RF radiation levels, we observed no measurement differences between non-contact (in air) and contact-based (tree trunk) measurements.”

“From 2003 the residents of Burgheim have been concerned about an increased incidence of cardiovascular and tumor diseases as well as cases of death in the vicinity of the mobile phone base station. Despite requests for an official investigation by medical professionals, no such investigation was carried out. On the contrary, the mobile phone base station has gradually been upgraded.”

Three Quarter Illness

“Focused beams, reflection, diffraction, scattering, interferences as well as attenuations by buildings and trees all lead to a non-uniform distribution of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. This may explain why trees in the vicinity of mobile phone base stations are damaged at varying degrees. From 2003 when the third generation (3G) or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) mobile network started operating, within a very short period of time, a new type of tree damage emerged across all of Europe – even at very low RF radiation levels. This goes to show that field strength alone is not the only relevant factor that affects plants. In laboratory experiments, it has been found that plant responses can be differentiated with respect to frequency, bandwidth, pulse sequence, modulation, polarization, field strength and exposure duration. Since every molecule has charges, they can be influenced by electromagnetic fields and their function can become altered. Life on earth has evolved under the influence of naturally occurring electromagnetic fields and waves. Technically generated electromagnetic fields interfere with genetic, biochemical and physiological processes in humans, animals and plants.” – Tree Damage Caused by Radiofrequency Radiation Exemplary Observations from 2005 to 2021 in Germany Cornelia Waldmann-Selsam

Now 5G?

The new technologies employed by 5G enable antennas to behave dynamically in time and space, depending on the distribution of users and the applications targeted. This new behavior, together with larger antenna arrays, makes the RF-EMF exposures more complex, and so is likely to create new patterns of exposure damage.

As reported by Scitech Daily. the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is measuring trees’ effect on millimeter waves. “For 5G networks, the obstructing wall can be no more than an oak leaf. For that reason, NIST scientists embarked on a somewhat unusual task in September 2019: They set up measurement equipment near trees and shrubs of different sizes around the agency’s Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus.” “For one type of leafy tree, the European nettle, the average attenuation in summer was 27.1 dB, but it relaxed to 22.2 dB in winter when the tree was bare. Evergreens blocked more of the signal. Their average attenuation was 35.3 dB, a number that did not change with the season,”

Juxtaposed Harm in Humans and Trees – But My Trees Look Health and My Health Is Fine?

While NIST studied the effect of trees on millimeter waves, there is no independent agency monitoring the impact of millimeter waves on trees, pollinators, or human health.

Over a decade ago, German researchers began noticing tree harm when they visited the homes of individuals who were reporting heath damage associated with radio frequency exposures. The first take-away message from the German narrative, which is mirrored world-wide, is lack of investigation of reported harm to human health from increasing juxtapositions of wireless exposures. (In the U.S., the FCC has failed to address the 2021 court ruling questioning the adequacy of its radio frequency exposure guideline for humans.)

The exposures in your house and your yard may be different from that of your neighbors. (For example, some homes receive high levels of transmissions when utilities install medusa-collector meters on or near them. Banks of meters in multi-family homes are also an issue.) This can impact both human health and nature.

Listening to Plants and Trees Instead of Industry Scientists

Human Health

It is crucial to understand that the wireless industry is repeating the cognitive errors of the chemical and drug industries, in not evaluating chronic, cumulative, juxtaposed exposures, and vulnerable populations, as was noted by the National Academies in 2008.

For example, does your child or family elder have braces or metal eyeglasses or a deep brain stimulator? International regulator ICNIRP has stated that children do not need any additional protection, while admitting that its guidelines are not protective of all individuals in all circumstances.  Paolo Vecchia, chair of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (2004-2012), presented at the EM Radiation Research Trust conference in September 2008. He stated, “The ICNIPR guidelines are neither mandatory prescriptions for safety, the last word on the issue, nor or they defensive walls for industry or others.” This statement makes it clear that the decision to adopt these guidelines into national legislation as “sufficient to protect public health” is political. – Eileen O’Connor Director, EM Radiation Research Trust – Source

In addition to politics, the decision not to investigate EMF/RF harm is also influenced by economic and by military objectives, as clearly shown in an agreement made in 1976 to ignore the implications of Russian research, signed by the United States.

(Note that Russia has recently banned cellphones in schools, as has China. ” [ ] authorities are concerned about how internet use is affecting the health of the nation’s youth. There have been rising levels of nearsightedness among children in China and in 2018, the authorities announced plans to regulate the gaming industry which was partially blamed for the problem. They also cited concerns that gaming addiction was damaging mental health.”

Current Guidelines Do not Protect Nature

As evidence of harm to other species; to trees, foliage and fauna: and human health mounts, environmental stewards are alarmed to realize that guidelines for radio frequency exposures never even recognized the Rights of Nature and the ecosystem. The FCC has not addressed the Court’s remand, which included questioning the agency’s lack of protection for nature.

Citizen Science: Document Before and/or After Damage to Your Tree Environment

Even without access to a professional-grade RF meter, or arborist training, it is possible to identify and document possible RF-damage to trees with the naked eye.

If desired, please send tree damage images and narratives to team@safetechinternational.org. If possible, please provide the location, time, date, name of tree if known, approximate distance to the mast/antenna if known, and when erected and activated, if known. (See AntennaSearch – Search for Cell Towers & Antennas and Ookla’s New 5G Map Tracks 5G Rollouts across the Globe and/or file a FOIA request in your community)

Even without identifying tags, if you begin tracking vulnerable trees over time, you can contribute to the conversation and course correction, first by becoming aware, and then by documenting the damage in your area.

“Technically generated electromagnetic fields interfere with genetic, biochemical and physiological processes in humans, animals and plants.”

Should we place our faith in technological innovation (Dead Bird Drones may get AI and 5G, Research with robotized bird cadavers could benefit the aviation industry and Rise Of The Robot Bees: Tiny Drones Turned Into Artificial Pollinators)?

Or on our ability to pivot away from outdated, irrelevant science and a regulatory stranglehold that expressly prohibits protecting human health and the nature environment?

The Earth, the Air, the Fire, the Water, Return, Return, Return, Return 

This is part 1 of a series. Additional resources to follow, contributions welcomed.

Top image: 25 JUL 19: Darmstadt, St. Paul’s Church (view from W), Locust tree, The mobile phone base station in the church steeple radiates in all directions: north, east, south and west. We observed damaged trees in all directions. Measurement in front of the administrative building of the Protestant Church of Hesse and Nassau: 3370 µW/m². – Source