Are a Lot of Trees Dying Where You Live?

Yes I have noticed it too, this is an important topic why is it in skunk works.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


I'm a newbie sorta. I think this may be my first thread I created. I wasn't sure where else to put it. What would have been a better place? Could it be moved?

Colorado has been hit hard from the pine beetle. They predict that all the large pole pine in Colorado will be destroyed in the next 5 years. We should have never created the forestry department and should have let fires burn rather than quickly put them out. They are now letting them take their course (within reason).

Summit Valley Colorado

reply to post by Bearack



Wow, that photo is gut wrenching!!

I am afraid that is what it is going to look like around here soon. This should be huge news.

In my parents yard next to us , some of their trees have a circle on the ground under it. It is as wide as the tree is and looks like it has been burnt or killed but in a perfect circle around the tree. Has anyone seen this anywhere? I also have what I call "miniature crop circles in my yard and their yard. Looks like some kind of design maybe but are burnt or dead grass circles on the ground, some side by side or below in a line. Am curious if anyone else has seen this?

Originally posted by heyo
Pine beetle is destroying forests in western canada. There was a big freeze this year, which probably killed off a high percentage of them, but they've been cutting trees down that are infected at a rampant rate, just to get a buck out of them.
Also, it doesn'thelp that most, like probably 90% even, of replanted forests are done so with pine, making it a feast for these little bugs.Pine grows faster.
A couple years ago, i was marking out cut blocks for a company, and when you get deep in to the forest and you get a view, one is awed by the destruction these things bring.

So, yes.

Oh yah, every time I drive through the mountains to williams lake and shuswap I always take a moment to view the valleys full of dead trees. I had a house up on a mountain in 100 mile, from the kitchens bay window you could look across an entire valley of dead trees its ridiculous.

I heard (though ive never bothered to research it) that back when they first realized that pine beetles were going to be a huge problem, they isolated them in some national park. They proposed that the entire section be clear cut, as well as a 5 or 10km radius to ensure that all of them were gone. At the time, the tree huggers were outraged and eventually stopped the area from being logged...

little did they know, years later the bugs that they protected have wiped out millions of trees to brown rotting twigs.. Good game.

reply to post by imysbbad



Dogwoods across the South (US) are dying from anthracnose, which was an introduced disease. Many of the disease and infect infestations that are causing problems were also introduced (Dutch Elm Disease, Emerald Ash Borer, etc).

The dead rings in the yard are necrotic ring disease. Dethatching the yard, and reseeding with a Fusarium-resistant grass seed will usually clear that up.

reply to post by cornblossom


Are you talking about kudzu? It overgrows everything and you just can't seem to kill it. Although it does have some good medicinal properties and you can make alot of stuff out of it, you can't make that much!! It is very common in the south.

reply to post by imysbbad



Sounds like fairy rings. I have seen these in my yard usually after alot of damp weather and my dad told me they were a fungus.

www.fairyring.ca...

What viking posted sounds more like what you are seeing though. What I've had as never killed the grass.

[edit on 6/14/09 by opal13]

Nothing out of the ordinary here. Last time I saw something scary with trees was when acid rain was killing off the tops of lots of trees. The rest of the tree was fine but almost every tree had a brown and dead top. This was years ago though.

Just got back from a cross country trip and I have to say I took tons of pictures of trees and nature in general, I saw no problems except a few localized areas where a single tree here and there was conspiculously dying.

I have to say when i look outside i have a mixture of green grass yet my front deck is full of dead "autum" leaves. Its weird enough The overnight temps keep dipping as low as in the high 40's....

I dont thnk something's wrong, i know somethings wrong.

It definatly looks like fall here.

I'm just south of Atlanta. We have pine beetles boring holes and killing our pines. They rot from the inside out and pretty soon, even though they might still have green needles, they break in two and fall over. It's kind of alarming to be working out in the yard when you hear a nearby "CRACK" -- all you can do is look about quickly and hope it's not heading in your direction! That's the only tree problems I've seen here. Our dogwoods get fungus which eventually kills them, but the past couple of years of drought seemed to have helped that situation a bit as our trees look healthier this year. I'll have to go around town and look more closely at the magnolias. Did you have exceptionally cold winters during the past couple of years? You are probably close to the northern boundary where they survive, and the cold might have taken them.

[edit on 14-6-2009 by mjfromga]

reply to post by Viking04


Thank you Viking04. I have never heard of this but I will try it and see.

I just returned from a 900 mile trip to Boston from Michigan. The further east I went, the more healthy the trees appeared to be. It was so obvious something was wrong when we got closer to my state.

There was no unnormal weather that could have caused this problem. I have lilac, pine and crimsom maple trees affected on my property.

I can understand the pine beetle killing pine trees and the ash bore killing ash trees and dutch elm disease killing the elms. I can not understand what is killing the other species of trees.

This is only going to get worse. I am afraid of what the trees are going to look like next summer.

Still, NOBODY is talking about the trees around here.