
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994                   TAG: 9405230043
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAOMA, W.VA.                                LENGTH: Short

APPALACHIAN TREE DEATHS WORRY CONSERVATIONISTS

Scientists and conservationists, concerned that trees in the Appalachian hardwood forest are dying more rapidly than elsewhere in the United States, gathered over the weekend in Raleigh County.

About 25 people took part in a workshop for those who will train volunteers to monitor the death rate of trees in 100 counties in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.

"We know that the mortality rate for trees is much higher than normal in a few small sample plots that have already been established," said Orie L. Loucks, a professor of forest ecology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

The study, the Appalachian Forest Action Project, is sponsored by several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Lucy Braun Association and Trees for the Planet.

A mortality rate of 0.5 percent per year appears to be normal for the region, Loucks said.

"At that rate, about 50 percent of the trees in a stand will die every 100 years, and you'll have some trees living well into the next century," he said. "But we've seen plots where the mortality rate is 1.5 percent and 150 percent mortality could occur over 100 years. The idea of having a forest where there are no old trees is frightening."

The first phase of monitoring will begin in 10 counties this year, said Lowell Dodge of Washington, D.C., a study organizer.

by CNB