That Deer Is Eating My Tree! (https://www.livescience.com/61116-mule-deer-are-eating-pando.html)12/7/2017 Pando, the world's largest living organism — and possibly its oldest — is being destroyed by the voracious appetite of mule deer. Also known as the trembling giant, Pando is a colony of quaking aspen that spans 106 acres (43 hectares) of south-central Utah. Because of an explosion of deer in the area, new sprouts from Pando are eaten before they have a chance to mature, and the venerable organism is at risk of dying out altogether. It's essentially a forest of one tree, Rogers said. It's very, very desirable to these herbivores," Rogers said. "If we had a community of 50,000 people and every one of them was over 80 years of age, we wouldn't have a very sustainable community," Rogers said. "It's really actually not a big number that are chronically feeding on that area," Rogers said. "The system is not replacing itself; it's highly out of balance," said Paul Rogers, an ecologist at Utah State University and the director of the Western Aspen Alliance. Rogers is working with several different agencies and interest groups to find ways to save Pando that everyone can live with. Finally, there are cabins near Pando, and one campground is located within the grove itself, Rogers said. The problem has been going on for decades, Rogers said. Meanwhile, the older stems are almost all between 110 and 130 years old, which is about the typical life span of individual quaking aspen stems, Rogers said.
Maybe this is a good time to take up hunting...or maybe it isn't. This is a moral dilemma for scientists, because if one values all nature equally, then it would be environmentally ethical to let nature take its course; However, if one values the rarity/oldness of the natural species, then they would o there best to remove the deer. Be it by poison, guns, or adding predators to the environment, anything should be done to save these trees. This is the worlds OLDEST living organism...I think the world can do without a few mangy deer...wouldn't you agree? The deer will not go extinct because they are eradicated from an area...but the Pando is a once in a WORLD kind of thing.
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