Beech Scale Disease Spreading Rapidly In Great Smokies

[hatrack]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - "Scientists say a nonnative insect is to blame for a disease that's killing beech trees in the higher elevations of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The beech scale bites through to the inner bark of the beech tree, according to scientists, and the holes it makes permit the spread of a fungus called beech bark disease that eventually kills the tree.

The park has established 10 monitoring plots to study the long-term impacts the disease is having on the forest ecosystem. "In 1993 we had a healthy beech forest," said Kristine Johnson, forestry supervisor for the Smokies. "Now, 11 years later, most of our beech trees at the higher elevations are gone."

Johnson said a recent survey between Mount Sterling and Straight Fork revealed that beech bark disease has spread since that same 14-mile route was last surveyed two years ago. "I last did the Mount Sterling hike in 2002, and at that time there were still areas that had light infestations of beech scale," Johnson said. "This year, almost all the beech trees were dead or heavily infested." While beech trees are found throughout the Smokies, they grow in dense stands — known as beech gaps — at elevations above 4,000 feet.

Park officials say the die-off is most noticeable along the Appalachian Trail, which follows the spine of the Smokies for almost 70 miles along the Tennessee-North Carolina line. Beech trees are important, scientists say, because they provide valuable food for animals like squirrels and bears in years when oak acorn is scarce, and wildflowers live beneath them in the spring."

EDIT

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/20041018/ap_on_sc/beech_tree_attack_1

[luaneryder]

1. I lived in the Cherokee Forest for three years

very near where the Trail passes thru on the TN side and this is very noticeable. Also, the locust trees became blighted and are dying at an alarming rate. Kudzu is rampant at the lower elevations and is choking out native trees and plants. Our planet is dying and the * doesn't give a shit.