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Rocky Mountain aspens could disappear by 2090
Colorado aspens in full fall colors | Photo by Mark Leffingwell
Foresters are still puzzling over why aspens in the Rocky Mountains are dying, a phenomenon that scientists are calling “sudden aspen decline,” or SAD.
But whatever the reason — many are blaming the added stresses of climate change — the situation doesn’t look good.
In Colorado, the number of acres with sick aspens — which drop their leaves, are ravaged by insects and can’t reproduce — has quadrupled between 2006 and 2008 to more than 850 acres, according to an article published by Reuters.
“What we think will happen is that aspen will disappear in some areas and there will not be anything we can do about it,” said SAD expert Wayne Shepperd of Colorado State University.
A study by scientists with the federal Rocky Mountain Research Station in Moscow, Idaho presented just such a scenario. It predicted the near total disappearance of aspen in the Rocky Mountain region by 2090.
The research, to be published in Forest Ecology and Management, links ailing aspen to global climate change and concludes that up to 41 percent of Western forests would be unable to support aspen by 2030. That figure would rise to 75 percent by 2060 and as much as 94 percent in 2090.
Read the full story at www.reuters.com, check out information from the U.S. Forest Service about sudden aspen decline, or learn about what Boulder County is doing to preserve aspen stands after the jump.
For years, Boulder County has been trying to protect local aspen stands by having volunteers cut away small pines and spruce — mimicking a healthy fire cycle by removing trees that would eventually crowd out the aspens.
Aspens are relatively short-lived trees — an aspen that lives 150 years is ancient — that grow quickly and love sun, making them the ideal pioneers to re-vegetate land after a forest fire. Once a forest has burned, the aspen roots, which were protected from the blaze by the earth, send up “suckers,” genetically identical shoots.
Lodgepole pines also require fire to regenerate. The heat from the flames melts the wax sealing their cones and allows the seeds to fall onto the ground and germinate. Shade-loving lodgepoles grow slowly, but live longer than aspens.
They take advantage of the shadows provided by the spindly aspens and slowly gather strength until they can overtake them, usually 75 to 100 years after the fire. In a healthy forest, a fire will burn through the conifers and the cycle will repeat itself, allowing younger stands of aspen to flourish again.
Read the full story at DailyCamera.com, or check out the next county-sponsored volunteer day to revitalize aspen stands, which is scheduled for Sept. 23, at BoulderCounty.org.
Read more posts about forest health on BigGreenBoulder:
 Beetle-killed trees threaten Colorado power grid |
 Battle over toxic beetle killer is on in Estes Park |
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[...] First it was the mysterious, wide-spread death of aspen trees. [...]
[...] Rocky Mountain aspens could disappear by 2090 [...]
[...] Rocky Mountain aspens could disappear by 2090 [...]