![pando networks pando networks](https://pandopopulus.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/SK-A-2624.jpg)
![pando networks pando networks](https://www.advanceduninstaller.com/images/aup/89fa91c3b8915a8a3d15f5f2d1d71539.jpg)
Even as imperfect Earth stewards, we have a duty to reverse this trend. A single infection may decimate the colony overnight. The old are now dying and younger generations are absent. There are no longer infant, teenage, or young adult aspen we are left with a community comprised entirely of the elderly. When this persists for decades, we skew the grove’s demography. The construction of roads, cabins, and other forms of human decision-making have compounding effects. In short, an overabundance of deer and cattle stymies the growth of aspen sprouts. This system has survived for millennia down to the recent past when we started to manipulate domestic and wild ungulates, predators, prey, and human development for recreation. A forest of one tree! The very existence of aspen forests toys with distinction between individuals and communities. You may think of it this way: Every “tree” is really a branch from a once-united root system. This is how the clone expanded in the first place to its great size. Aspen forests are otherwise very good at self-replacing via vegetative sprouting from the roots. The core issue is over-browsing by deer and cattle over the past several decades. On balance, this is a failure of society to gauge Pando’s condition and change tack before system collapse.
![pando networks pando networks](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/336eae_3caa79fe6fcb412393eb541015ebce14~mv2.jpg)
The cause of this divergence is mishandling on behalf of wildlife, recreation, and ranching interests. Recent research suggests Pando may be breaking up a continental drift of sorts characterized by diverging plant communities where one would expect, if ever there were a uniform forest, to find consistency. Though we cannot yet accurately estimate its age, it may be as old 14,000 years, born when the last ice sheets receded. Pando (Latin for “I spread”) is a single aspen grove - technically a clone - comprised of some 47,000 genetically identical stems and spanning 43 hectares (106 acres). Yet, we humans are dismantling this masterpiece of nature seemingly one bite at a time. To walk through Pando invites a beetle-in-a-garden viewpoint. How might the messages of aspen’s survival inform Earth-human linkages from Pando to Pangea? Pando comprises an estimated 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) of interconnected roots - a distance equal to half of Earth’s circumference - and acts as a symbol of community and resilience even in the face of divisiveness. Yet these bodies bring seemingly disparate parties together they honor and encourage diversity they facilitate intricate linkages and build lasting networks. Like Earth’s original continent, Pangea, lasting aspen entities emanate and evolve from a single form. Photo courtesy of Lance Oditt / Western Aspen Alliance.īut the lessons of Pando extend far beyond matchless monikers.Īspen forests have a global reach. These bodies bring seemingly disparate parties together they honor and encourage diversity they facilitate intricate linkages and build lasting networks. The lessons of Pando extend far beyond matchless monikers. One of my subjects is the iconic Pando aspen clone in southern Utah - a colony of a single male quaking aspen thought to be the largest living organism on Earth weighing in at 5.8 million kilograms (13 million pounds), equaling the mass of 40 blue whales.
![pando networks pando networks](https://thetreeographer.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/stelprdb5393642.jpg)
You see, I’m an ecologist trying to assess the measure and mystery of human-forest connections. Such imagery seems fantastical, yet strangely tangible to my current worldview. As a child, I was captivated by the imagery of Jonah in the belly of a whale, swallowed whole, his voice echoing in the dark cavern of a single immense creature.