Aspen Trees Die Across the West

OnlineWSJ.com ^ | Oct. 15, 2010 | Stephanie Simon

[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.

[GSWarrior]

This was published last October, but I don't recall seeing anything about this issue here on FR. Last time I was in Colorado I couldn't believe my eyes! Dead pine trees as far as the eye could see in certain areas.

[rahbert]

Is this the same bug that killed all the pinon pine
along I-25 north of Santa Fe?

[silverleaf]

this is breathtakingly sad, the fall aspen are glorious

the Rocky Mountains will look sadly rocky without foliage

[CodeToad]

The Pine Beetle is still munching the forests.

[Plutarch]

Dead pine trees as far as the eye could see in certain areas.

But the article is about deciduous aspen trees, not pine.

[TChris]

Young trees resist infestations and disease better than old ones.

Support logging!

Old trees are weak trees!

[steve8714]

Bush’s fault.

[Red Badger]

Revelation 8:7
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up............

[Red Badger]

Great pun!...........

[rellimpank]

---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--

-yeah, not enough wolves , that's it--

--in the Frisco-Dillon area , at least it caused some humor--the bug trees turn rust-red the first year after they die, causing tourists to query as to "how do I get one of those pretty red trees" or comment on the refreshing red after all that boring green---

[RC2]

And DDT is still outlawed and for no reason what so ever. You can tell if a pine is going to die by looking at the top of it. It dies from the top down.

[rellimpank]

—ping—

[Mr. Lucky]

The MSM last year declared the die off to be the fault of global warming. The science being settled, it’s not necessary to explain why cold wet weather hasn’t had any effect.

[Politically Correct]

And you can bet that non of them can or will be used for lumber.

[mollynme]

Well my aspen are growing like weeds as usual. I have to mow down the shoots weekly.

BTW, I didn't realize that the WSJ wrote their articles so far in advance ;o)

OnlineWSJ.com ^ | Oct. 15, 2010 | Stephanie Simon

[Cicero]

Well, I suspect that one cause is mismanagement of the forests, which does not allow harvesting of mature trees. Nature needs man as a participant, IMHO. And before the U.S. government put all these forests off limits, the Indians helped take care of them.

Weak trees and dying trees tend to harbor pests and interfere with new growth.

[listenhillary]

Look at it as redistribution of the Earth.

[MileHi]

The title says it was published next fall...

[kaylar]

I vacationed in Colorado in August 2008. It was tragic, driving along what should have been beautiful mountain scenery, and seeing nothing but a sea of red, with an occasional skeletal white or gray tree that had died and been reduced to bare branches. :-(

We went to SD for vacation and went out of our way to see how the pines were holding out there : I saw a few red pines, but not many.

We're going to Arkansas this August. I hope the beautiful Ozarks are OK. According to what I read, pine tree forests from Mexico to Canada have been devastated. :-(

[GSWarrior]

I mis-typed. It was published last October. Sorry for the confusion.