{"id":75038,"date":"2020-03-01T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/scars-of-aspen-decline-persist-nearly-20-years-after-drought\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:34:25","slug":"scars-of-aspen-decline-persist-nearly-20-years-after-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/scars-of-aspen-decline-persist-nearly-20-years-after-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Scars of aspen decline persist nearly 20 years after drought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sudden
Sudden aspen decline has affected stands of aspen trees near Hesperus. The Forest Service has approved the logging of problem areas, which can improve their resiliency.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On a drive from Durango to Cortez, groves of aspens house dead and dying trees, ghostly reminders of the lingering effects of a drought 20 years ago and the region\u2019s changing climate.<\/p>\n

Sudden aspen decline \u2013 one of the causes of those declining trees \u2013 is a widespread, severe and rapid dieback and mortality of aspen groves. The phenomenon is closely associated with the severe droughts in the early 2000s, said Suzanne Marchetti, a technician with the U.S. Forest Service in Gunnison. This rapid aspen mortality was not fully obvious to the Forest Service until 2004 and continued to expand until 2009, Marchetti said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was most prominent at low elevations and on hill slopes already prone to dryness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to studies seeking to better understand SAD, the U.S. Forest Service has funded projects to promote the logging of problem aspen areas<\/a> and ultimately improve the resiliency of aspen groves overall. But experts say similar droughts, fueled by climate change, could spark another high tree-mortality event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese droughts associated with high temperatures have had widespread impacts on our forests,\u201d Marchetti said. She added that the research shows \u201cdroughts like the one in 2002 will be more common with a warming planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

While aspen groves, which share large root systems and have an average lifespan of 100 years, have always been responsive to changes in climate and environmental disturbances, SAD is unique for a couple of factors, said David Casey, a forester in the Dolores Ranger District.<\/p>\n

\"Sudden
Sudden aspen decline, associated with droughts in the early 2000s, has slowed in growth but is still affecting areas originally impacted, like this area in the Dolores Ranger District.<\/span>Courtesy of Jim Worrall, U.S. Forest Service<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Forest Service found mature aspens at low elevation in open stands are particularly predisposed to be affected by the hot and dry conditions that hit Colorado from 2000 to 2005. Insects and diseases then exacerbated the problem, killing trees already stressed by the drought. This storm of factors led to a rapid and sudden death of aspen groves, which was determined to be separate from general aspen decline but rooted in similar causes, Casey said.<\/p>\n

The continued impact of SAD is exacerbated by climate change and historic fire suppression techniques, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it gets hotter and drier, the lower elevation stands are seeing more impact and spread,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n

A U.S. Forest Service assessment published in 2008<\/a> found 139,000 acres in Colorado were affected by SAD in 2006. A year later, that number had more than doubled, topping 358,000 acres of Colorado aspen. In 2013, those SAD stands were remeasured, and the Forest Service found they were continuing to deteriorate, while the stands that were healthy remained stable, Marchetti said.<\/p>\n

While there have not been signs of significant expansion into new groves, the aspen groves already exposed to SAD continue to fall apart. Now, about 550,000 acres in the state are affected by the decline, said Marchetti, who helped to collect the original data reported in 2008.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy of Phil Kemp, U.S. Forest Service<br><br>A dying stand of aspen shows evidence of sudden aspen decline in the Dolores Ranger District. U.S. Forest Service research has shown sudden aspen decline is not infecting new stands in western Colorado.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In addition to environmental implications, SAD can also have effects on local businesses.<\/p>\n

David Sitton, owner of Aspen Wood Products<\/a>, said when sudden aspen decline affects a grove, \u201cthe quality of the timber is drastically reduced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitton\u2019s business logs aspens and has a mill located in Mancos. He said there is a prevalence of aspen groves affected by the sudden die-off in that area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just finished harvesting an area this last summer that was a sudden aspen decline area near Mancos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If the area is hit particularly hard by SAD, Sitton said the wood will be unusable and it will be waste, used for firewood or left in the forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it hits an aspen stand, it\u2019s pretty devastating to the aspen,\u201d Sitton said. He added he\u2019s seen \u201cmore and more decline in the aspen in our area.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said if the grove is bad enough \u2013 too dead, too dangerous to cut or trees falling over onto each other \u2013 \u201cit doesn\u2019t even make sense to go in and cut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sitton added when his business has gone into log a grove affected by SAD, he saw a healthy regeneration of the aspen in that area afterward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changes are very noticeable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A grove of trees affected by sudden aspen decline burns during the 416 Fire in 2018.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Marchetti said the research of the Forest Service partially backs up Sitton\u2019s assessment. In aspen stands with less than 50% die-off from SAD, cutting and logging \u201cwas an effective way to promote vigorous regeneration,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When the stand experienced a higher mortality rate, the regeneration success was spotty. There are also challenges in regenerating areas with high elk populations because \u201cthey are just too good at eating the baby trees,\u201d Marchetti said.<\/p>\n

While sudden aspen decline is less of a problem than it was in the early 2000s, Marchetti said the recurrence of periods with high aspen decline is \u201chighly likely if this pattern continues of episodic droughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

lweber@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logging can regenerate some stands, but changing climate a threat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":75039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[402,1030,13,28,1625],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-75038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-drought","tag-environment","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-nature"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90287,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75038\/revisions\/90287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75038"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=75038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}