'Largest living thing,' an 80,000-year-old Utah forest, is dying, scientists warn

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

An ancient forest in Utah considered to be the largest single living thing in the world is dying, according to scientists.

The Pando aspen, a gigantic expanse of 40,000 trees that are are all clones with identical compositions, has long been known as the "trembling giant" and covers over 106 acres in Utah's Fishlake National Forest.

The vast expanse is assumed to have one connected underground root system and is thought to be approximately 80,000 years old.

However, recent years have placed the Pando under enormous stress, which includes the impact of extended drought, fire suppression, human development and the encroachment of hungry deer, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/largest-living-thing-an-80000-year-old-utah-forest-is-dying-scientists-warn/ar-BBOy9mi?li=BBnb7Kz

[Wellstone ruled]

1. A this is happening in the number one

Climate denying State. There is a similiar type of event happening in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Interesting. I know of a fungus or moss that's a pretty big living organism. I wonder ...

if this is any bigger? I recall a supersized Moss or fungus in the forest floor that was all one organism. Perhaps this is the same thing? It's been quite a while since I've seen the article, which I apologize, I can't remember where it was or how long ago.

"The largest living organism ever found has been discovered in an ancient American forest.
The Armillaria ostoyae, popularly known as the honey mushroom, started from a single spore too small to see without a microscope. It has been spreading its black shoestring filaments, called rhizomorphs, through the forest for an estimated 2,400 years, killing trees as it grows. It now covers 2,200 acres (880 hectares) of the Malheur National Forest, in eastern Oregon.
The outline of the giant fungus stretches 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) across, and it extends an average of three feet (one metre) into the ground. It covers an area as big as 1,665 football fields.

[Kaleva]

3. There's something similiar in Upper Michigan

An article from 1992:

"Canadian researchers report today in the journal Nature that the humongous fungus lives beneath a forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, according to botanist Myron L. Smith of the University of Toronto in Ontario.

The fungus, a single continuous organism, weighs as much as 220,000 pounds and is apparently 1,500 years old.....

Although the main body of this fungus, a species called Armillaria bulbosa, is underground, it produces edible outcroppings called honey mushrooms."

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-02/news/mn-245_1_largest-living-organism

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Isn't it amazing that we're discovering stuff like this in today's time? It's a lot of fun guys!

Ha! Just a little humor (pun) here...take care.