Colorado State Forest Service supervisory forester Kamie Long points out a bark beetle stuck in the bark of a dead Douglas-Fir tree on Ute. Mountain on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen ...

To carve an aspen tree — to take a blade to the trunk for the sake of your initials, for example — is to do harm. Harm to a being with a life expectancy much like our own: 100 years, if we ...

Sudden Aspen Decline, or SAD, is the widespread rapid and severe deterioration in tree health. Researchers observed this decline across Colorado nearly two decades ago, and it hasn’t let up.

For example, the bark of young quaking aspen may be grayish-white but as the tree ages, the bark, especially around the base, becomes darker and furrowed and even a bit “warty.” ...

“Aspen are a very vulnerable species to bacterial infections as well as fungal infections,” she said. Elk eat aspen bark and scrape it off with their teeth, which can damage the tree.