Year: 2008

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“When the trees are stressed by heat and dry conditions, the stomatae
(small openings in the leaves) close. That slows the loss of water in
response to drought but also slows photosynthesis, the process by
which plants create energy.

“‘After years of drought, they’re basically starving to death,’ Worrall said.”
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Summit Daily News
Forest Service researchers link aspen die-off to warm, dry conditions

By BOB BERWYN
summit daily news
April 4, 2008

SUMMIT COUNTY – Evidence is growing that drought conditions are
killing Colorado’s aspens at an unprecedented rate.

More than 56,000 acres of aspens have recently died in the state,
according to a paper published by a group of Forest Service
scientists last year. Nearly 10 percent of the aspen stands in the
San Juan National Forest have been affected, witth mortality
increasing at a rapid rate.

An intense drought in the early 2000s was the likely trigger for the
startling decline in the health and vigor of one of Colorado’s
signature trees, said James Worrall, one of the primary authors of
the study.

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Tucson Citizen

Ariz.’s profusion of desert plants to dry out, stoke fire danger
The Associated Press
Published: 04.03.2008

An abnormally wet winter has spawned a rare profusion of grass and brush around the state — setting up much of Arizona’s desert lands for an active wildfire season, according to fire management officials.

That same wet weather has been a blessing for the state’s higher-elevation forests, which have been dried out by years of drought and left with millions of dead trees because of a beetle infestation.

For the forests, above-normal snowfalls mean trees and undergrowth will have high moisture content, and the fire danger is expected to be relatively low.

But by May, searing temperatures and arid conditions are expected to dry out the often hip-high grasses now blanketing desert areas.

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