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The 2000s in America

Large-scale forest death

by Patrick G. Cooper

Definition: The death of a large tract of forest due to a variety of reasons

During the 2000s, an alarming number of US forests rapidly died off. Many of these forests were located in the western and southwestern United States, specifically in the Rocky Mountain region. The causes of this mass loss of trees include tree-killing insects, forest fires, drought, diseases, and climate change. By the end of the decade the mortality rate of trees and forests in the United States reached over a million acres.

Frequent fires, insects, and other lethal factors ravaged forests in the western and southwestern United States in the 2000s. Over the course of the decade, over a million acres had been lost. Dendrologists and other scientists believe that the catalyst for many of this large-scale forest death is climate change. Ecologists and entomologists have stated that the increase in temperature caused by climate change is associated with forest fires and the outbreaks of bark beetles. These beetles, also known as mountain pine beetles, burrow into pine trees and lay their eggs. The beetles feed on the tree and their larva kills it. Because of climate change, the life cycle of these beetles has increased from two weeks to several months, leading to a sharp increase in the destruction of pine trees. From 2000 to 2009 the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada lost nearly 70,000 square miles of forest.

In 2005 ecologists in Colorado noted that aspen trees were dying off in large numbers. By 2008, about 553,000 acres were dead. They named this phenomenon “sudden aspen decline” (SAD). They believe climate change and drier temperatures caused SAD. Ecologists in Oregon and California also noticed a similar mass death of oak trees, although they believe a disease brought on by fungus-like organism caused these large-scale deaths.

Record levels of dry weather, extremely windy weather, and drought helped cause a series of devastating wildfires in California in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Dry lightning during the summer of 2008 sparked more than two thousand fires. Some of the largest fires occurred around the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Big Sur region of the Santa Lucia Mountains. In June 2008 fires around Big Sur burned over 160,000 acres before merging with other fires, totaling in over 225,000 acres lost. Smoke from the fires caused a significant amount of air pollution, which led to an increase in the number of people with eye and throat irritation.

Stand of Fraser fir killed by the balsam woolly adelgid

AUGHTS_LargeScaleForestDeath.jpg

(USDA Forest Service/©Bugwood.org)

Impact

The large-scale forest deaths of the 2000s had harmful effects on ecology, climate, and human health. Forests are home to a diverse community of trees, plants, animals, and microorganisms. The death of forests means the loss of their ecosystems. The decimation of forests in Colorado has led to a decrease in rainfall and an increase in temperature for that region. Wildfires in California during the decade killed several people and countless animals. The various effects caused by the forest deaths of the 2000s will continue to be felt into the next decade.

Further Reading

1 

Bulwa, Demian. “Myriad Wildfires Pollute Air, Pose Health Risks and Keep on Spreading.” San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Communications, 27 June 2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

2 

Thomas, Peter A., et al. Fire in the Forest. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Cooper, Patrick G. "Large-scale Forest Death." The 2000s in America, edited by Craig Belanger, Salem Press, 2013. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=2000_0226.
APA 7th
Cooper, P. G. (2013). Large-scale forest death. In C. Belanger (Ed.), The 2000s in America. Salem Press.
CMOS 17th
Cooper, Patrick G. "Large-scale Forest Death." Edited by Craig Belanger. The 2000s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2013. Accessed September 18, 2025. online.salempress.com.