2005 - USFS Survey Of Colorado Finds 30K Acres Of Dying Aspens; In 2008, 540K Acres - WSJ

[hatrack]

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In 2002, the U.S. Forest Service began investigating reports that entire stands of aspen were dying in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado, and in an odd way. Usually when mature aspen fail, they send out hundreds of new shoots, called suckers, through their root systems. Those shoots sprout quickly, and the grove regenerates. But in the San Juans, the shoots were dying, too, or were failing to sprout. That phenomenon was named Sudden Aspen Decline, or SAD, but scientists say they don't fully understand it.

The U.S. Forest Service conducted an aerial survey in Colorado in 2005 and spotted about 30,000 acres of dying aspen. Last year, that figure climbed to 540,000 acres, or about 15% of the state's aspen forest, according to the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station.

It is impossible to tell from the air if those trees are suffering from SAD, or a run-of-the-mill pest or fungus that takes down the mature aspen but allows groves to regenerate. Years of drought in Colorado, Utah and elsewhere appear to have severely stressed some aspen, leaving them susceptible to systemic disease, said Dale Bartos, an aspen ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

In northern Arizona, wildlife may be the culprit: With the wolf population down, elk aren't often on the run from predators, giving them plenty of time to hunker in an aspen grove and methodically eat every sucker.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125547187504583409.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Well, between the aspens dying and the pines succumbing to bark beetle,

what the hell will be left? That's a bummer. I love aspen groves.

[NickB79]

2. And sudden oak disease, and emerald ash borer spreading here in the Midwest

Honestly, I've stopped trying to remove the non-native plants like buckthorn, honeysuckle and Amur maple from our woods on the farm. With the way things are going, the weediest trees and shrubs might be all that survives the coming decades.