Are trees in your area dying?

Forgot to mention hemlock, the state tree of PA. It has an insect called woolly adelgid infesting them. Some reports say that the hemlock could go extinct. It is the most commonly used wood for building sheds and barns around here.

Southern pine beetle trying to take over here. Pine is a cash crop around me.

In my area, some trees are dying out, but I don't think it's not a huge problem.

Most trees around here are fine, so it could be much worse.

Yes, here in New Mexico, the pinon are being killed by bark beetles.
My uneducated theory is that the drought is stressing the trees, allowing the beetles to take hold and kill the trees.
Before too long we won’t have any pinon left, very depressing.

Forgot to mention, the main problem here is that it’s not forest. A forest has many different species, but here it’s by far monoculture (e.g. not natural forest). Only a few types of trees, purely for production (construction wood). So once an insect starts attacking and killing those species, large swatches are pretty much doomed.

I took down a bunch of ash trees this winter because they could hit the house when they do finally fall and they are dropping like flies all over my woods. No flashlight walks on windy nights :frowning: The hemlocks and blue spruce are also dying. Two extremely wet years back to back took out my bamboo and the roadies are not looking well either. Both were doing great for many years.

A professional once told me the north east trees are being hit hard with Dutch elm disease .

Very few Dutch Elms survived the disease. They are engineering a disease resistant Elm.

Western Washington and Oregon haven’t had any large scale problems that I’m aware of. There are quite a few fungal pathogens that sometimes will take out trees that are stressed for other reasons, including growing in soil not well suited for a given species, but is generally limited.

Similar for insects. There are some borers and bark beetles, but limited as far as I know on the western side of the state. My understanding is they are a bigger concern on the eastern side of the state, extending up into British Columbia, as well.

Down here we had a big problem with Citrus Canker and Yellowing Disease in our Coconut Palms. The spread seems to have slowed down. I’ve been lucky that none of my Citrus or Palm trees have fallen ill. Could be the fact that I don’t use any kind of lawn or tree service, doing the work myself which prevents any sort of cross contamination.

It’s been very sad to watch the decline of our forests over the last 30+ years. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember all the chestnuts, but when I was a teenager they were already in drastic decline and I guess now they’re awfully rare and don’t seem to make it to maturity. Lots of interesting research where they have been creating a blight resistant chestnut, blending American and English chestnut genes and I guess the plots of hybrid trees are doing well so far. Ash has been going for a long time, and black cherry. This, even with the great reduction in their use for lumber compared to decades ago. I moved west and we have a lot of healthy elm trees here, mostly red/slippery but some American as well…most of them seem to not be plagued by disease other than the usual insect and fungal things. It was really alarming to me to read about the decline of beech trees last year - they are such neat and valuable trees, it’s a shame to think of a forest without them. I guess tulip isn’t so numerous anymore, either.

On some mountain trips to northern New Mexico and Colorado, it’s been crazy to watch the decline and death of all the conifers over the years and how that has also changed the floral life of the understory. I’ve been able to compare photos in some locations from the 80s, 90s, and 2010s and the difference is stark. On a couple of trips where I camped below treeline, I had to remember my hardwood-forest wisdom when selecting tent spots…almost got clobbered one morning by a 30’ standing doug fir trunk that came cracking down in the wind. Something I never thought about much in the conifers or up near treeline before, but surely need to keep in mind now. All that standing deadwood waiting to topple and providing fuel for fires, as dry as it has continued to be up there, generally. It’s sad.

Pine beetles have sure done a number on the southern jack/yellow/shortleaf pine forests, too.

I wasn’t aware of the hemlocks, either. It’s wonderful to stroll through areas thick with hemlocks…what a great fragrance. I hope they don’t go away.

A decade or so ago a row of trees in my local park had to get cut down because of some buggage doing naughty things, but other than that I haven’t noticed anything.

Other than hyu-mons cutting down trees along streets, Just Because. When I was a kid, my street was tree-lined, and now, just a few behemoths that’d destroy whatever house(s) they’d smash into should they go down in a high wind.

You are correct, the bark beetle is a big problem in eastern WA. Large swaths of dead and dying trees are evident across the countryside. Forest Service is trying to address it with accelerated logging in the infested areas but there are conflicts. It’s hard to make logging dead wood economically attractive . The mills won’t saw dead wood. They’ll grudgingly take it for pulpwood but don’t like it. Truckers don’t like to haul it because they can’t get up to weight. Loggers typically get paid by the ton so they take a cut in profits. I don’t have the answers and I’m sure it’s only going to get worse.

Trees dying in the western US is a result of climate warming and drought, which sort of go hand in hand. The situation is quite dire. Here in NM we have had some severe wildfires that decimate the forest in large areas. All that is left at times is grey ash and blackened trunks waiting to fully dry out, rot at the base and topple on their own or by wind.

Right now, near us, the Cerro Pelado fire is running into an area that was devasted in 2017. Many of the blackened dead trees from the 2017 fires have fallen since and are now contributing to the spread of the present fire. It used to be that wildfires burned more slowly and could spend months meandering here and there. That was before commercial interests pushed for all wildfires to be extinguished to preserve the timber value. Couple that with all the various reasons that most logging was halted a few decades ago and we have ended up with too many trees crowded together. This was a problem the droughts have exacerbated.

[soapbox off]

Great points, MtnDon. I agree completely.

as Bruno B posted above….

last month, an arborist told us ALL of our Ash Trees are infected.
they are not dead yet, but will be in 2 or 3 years.
right now, they are small enough that i can
remove them by myself (and Stihl).

I have a few ash trees that have survived, but I would guess 95 percent died. I have about 2 left and the neighbor has 4.

don;t think so = atlanta area, city in a [thinning out] forest [[developers mostly doing the thinning]]

That is one thing I miss too. It used to be an every night event.

As you found out the dead ash trees make a terrible mess when they shatter as they hit the ground. They do make nice firewood though.