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Aspen Trees Die Across the West
OnlineWSJ.com ^
| Oct. 15, 2010
| Stephanie Simon
Posted on 05/18/2010 12:29:25 PM PDT by GSWarrior
DENVER -- This should be the golden season across the West, when aspen paint hillsides in shades of fall.
But a mysterious ailment -- or perhaps a combination of factors -- is killing hundreds of thousands of acres of the trees from Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona through Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and into Canada, according to the U.S. government and independent scientists.
The aspen die-off comes on the heels of a pine-beetle invasion that has destroyed millions of acres of evergreens. Foresters expect to lose virtually every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado -- five million acres of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: aspen; beetle; forests; infestation
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To: Cicero
The pine beetle infestation in western Canada brought out a stark illustration of just how different people can be from one province to another.
In British Columbia, the response was: "The pine beetles are killing off our trees and decimating our logging industry. Someone (i.e., the taxpayers) must provide financial assistance to help us."
In Alberta, the response was: "If the pine beetles are going to kill off our trees, let's cut them down and sell the lumber while we still can!"
21
posted on
05/18/2010 12:49:46 PM PDT
by
Alberta's Child
("Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.")
To: kaylar
I should have typed We went to SD for vacation in August 2009 and-
22
posted on
05/18/2010 12:50:35 PM PDT
by
kaylar
(It's MARTIAL law. Not marshal(l) or marital! This has been a spelling PSA. PS Secede not succeed)
To: MileHi
“The title says it was published next fall..”
by Tachyon Press!
To: Red Badger
Trees have rotted before, too.
To: RC2
The allepo pines in the Phoenix area are being severely hit. I just had two 40’ trees removed from my yard with another due to be taken out shortly. Funny thing about this is that the City of Phoenix has gone on a mission to cite homeowners for violations. It is against city ordinance to have a dead tree in your own back yard. This is their new effort to collect revenues. I chose to pay the landscaper $2000.00 to remove them rather than give one single penny to Phil Gordon.
To: kaylar
--so far, the bugs haven't made it across Fremont Pass (at Climax) toward Leadville to any extent.
South Dakota has several thousand acres affected near Custer State Park and there are more sick and dying trees showing up in the Deadwood-Lead area---
26
posted on
05/18/2010 12:54:25 PM PDT
by
rellimpank
(--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
To: rellimpank
Oh, no! :-( Custer State Park, Mt Rushmore state park, and Wind Cave (?) National Park were all so beautiful! I hope SD is able to stop (and hopefully reverse) the damage. :-(
27
posted on
05/18/2010 1:02:00 PM PDT
by
kaylar
(It's MARTIAL law. Not marshal(l) or marital! This has been a spelling PSA. PS Secede not succeed)
To: GSWarrior
the sad thing is that, unlike other tress that are an entity unto themselves, an aspen grove is basically one humongous plant - each ‘tree’ sprouting up from ‘runners’ that reach out like spider webs just under the surface.
So whatever attacks “one” tree is, in reality, attacking every aspen in sight - and up the hill and down the valley and over the mountain and....
But nature has her reasons and her seasons. Man just needs to get the heck out of the way
28
posted on
05/18/2010 1:02:48 PM PDT
by
maine-iac7
(google)
To: kaylar
—basically, it’s unstoppable—there are too many acres and each tree has to be sprayed individually at the appropriate time in the life cycle of the bugs, IIRC—
29
posted on
05/18/2010 1:05:49 PM PDT
by
rellimpank
(--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
To: GSWarrior
Foresters expect to lose virtually every mature lodgepole pine in Colorado -- five million acres of them.Are they issuing any permits for people to harvest them? No, not as far as I know.
30
posted on
05/18/2010 1:05:50 PM PDT
by
TigersEye
(0basma's father was a British subject. He can't be a "natural-born" citizen.)
To: maine-iac7
---IIRC, during the Reagan years , there was an attempt to establish a facility to process aspen to pulpwood in Colorado, because it was known that many aspen forests were approaching the end of their life. This , of course was stopped by the tree-huggers.
Now the trees are just dying, unused---
31
posted on
05/18/2010 1:09:19 PM PDT
by
rellimpank
(--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
To: GSWarrior
I think aspen trees only flourish in the presence of capitalism.
At least we'll always have the pictures!
32
posted on
05/18/2010 1:10:21 PM PDT
by
The Duke
To: GSWarrior
33
posted on
05/18/2010 1:11:21 PM PDT
by
bmwcyle
(Thank You God for Freeing the Navy Seals)
To: rellimpank
The bugs haven’t reached Climax ?
34
posted on
05/18/2010 1:21:19 PM PDT
by
fieldmarshaldj
(~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
To: ScoopAmma
Make a good size picnic bench out of them. If they can, make them out of 4x6’s. Other than that, sorry to hear you lost the trees. DDT would have stopped the lose....from what I understand.
35
posted on
05/18/2010 1:29:55 PM PDT
by
RC2
To: fieldmarshaldj
—(snicker)—way too many of them have -—
36
posted on
05/18/2010 1:31:55 PM PDT
by
rellimpank
(--don't believe anything the MSM tells you about firearms or explosives--NRA Benefactor)
To: RC2
“lose” should have been “Loss”. Sorry about that. Thought I would correct it before someone else did...LOL
37
posted on
05/18/2010 1:32:10 PM PDT
by
RC2
To: GSWarrior
Trees have a life span. When they reach the end of their life span they die. Colorado's forests have suffered from too much protection and not enough harvesting. The trees grew too big and too close together for the soil and available water to support. Overcrowding makes them susceptible to disease and bugs.
38
posted on
05/18/2010 1:39:38 PM PDT
by
STYRO
(when do white Protestant taxpayers get their civil rights back?)
To: Red Badger
This was my thought, too. A judgement plague.
39
posted on
05/18/2010 1:48:08 PM PDT
by
RoadTest
(Religion is a substitute for the relationship God wants with you.)
To: rellimpank; GSWarrior
Thanks.
We love them, but Aspen trees are just big weeds.
Each individual tree can live for 40150 years above ground, but the root system of the colony is long-lived. In some cases, this is for thousands of years, sending up new trunks as the older trunks die off above ground.
One such colony in Utah, given the nickname of “Pando”, is claimed to be 80,000 years old, making it possibly the oldest living colony of aspens.
http://www.answers.com/topic/aspen
Second, pine beetles are not the worry on aspen trees. IMO
40
posted on
05/18/2010 2:01:38 PM PDT
by
george76
(Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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