Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD) Reported in the Rocky Mountains

colorado trees dying:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/sad-fate-in-store-for-rocky-mountain-aspens.php
Every year around this time, "leaf peepers" from all over the world descend on Colorado's mountain towns to gape at the white-trunked aspen trees as they don their fall colors, setting the hillsides ablaze with bright swaths of yellow and orange foliage. But a mysterious syndrome may leave the Rocky Mountains aspen-free by 2090. Scientists with the federal Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) in Moscow, Idaho, have predicted the near total disappearance of aspen in the Rocky Mountain region by 2090, when they say up to 94 percent of Western forests will be unable to support the trees. Their research is set to be published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management...

Arizona's dying aspens a mystery to scientists
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/09/26/20090926env-sadtrees0924.html
The Arizona Republic
Northern Arizona's aspen trees are dying in ever-increasing numbers, tearing holes in the blankets of color that spread across the high country each autumn.
The tree deaths have mystified scientists, though the list of suspected causes is long: drought, disease, insect infestation, wildfire suppression and even the grazing habits of elk.
In some lower-elevation forests near Flagstaff and in the Kaibab National Forest, the death rate of aspen trees has neared 95 percent, and fewer appear to be regenerating, or sending up replacement trees. At risk is both the health of the forests, where aspens play a role in everything from wildlife habitat to recovery from fire, and the tourist dollars that help high-country businesses bridge the gap between the summer and winter visitor seasons. ....

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
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