Earth Equity News

Aspens Dying Off Across Rockies. By Laura Zuckerman, Reuters, September 4, 2009. "Aspen, the white-barked trees with golden leaves that gave their name to the famed Colorado ski resort, have been dying off across the Rocky Mountain states. The die-off is puzzling but some foresters point to climate change. This disaster coincides with beetle outbreaks that have laid waste to millions of acres of pine and spruce forest in the American and Canadian west. They too have been linked to warmer winters... Recent droughts and other factors linked to global warming are seen as likely causes for 'sudden aspen decline,' or SAD, so named because it can strike a forest so quickly... 'A large die-off could be devastating,' said Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland. Colorado acreage ravaged by SAD quadrupled from 2006 to 2008 to more than 850 square miles (2,200 square km). The syndrome has also struck in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, where researchers suggest a warmer, dryer West may all but eliminate aspen from the Rocky Mountains by the end of the century."