Welcome

This web site has been designed to serve as a consolidated and centralized source of reference information dealing with the ecology and management of aspen (Populus tremuloides) communities in North America. Its purpose is to provide bibliographic, research, and management information to all stakeholders, including land and resource managers, scientists, and the general public.

Additionally, this portal is designed to facilitate digital collaboration and information sharing. Individuals and agencies have the ability to post data and documents related to aspen communities (habitats), thereby enhancing communication and improving research and management effort.

The Aspen Delineation Project is a collaborative effort of the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Region, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the California Office of Bureau of Land Management.  This undertaking falls within ADP goals to help agencies identify, map, treat, and monitor aspen habitats.  The ADP has also been asked to explore challenges, issues, and roadblocks surrounding aspen management on public lands.

New Items on www.aspensite.org:

Aspen Events in 2008.

• Restoring the West Conference 2008: Frontiers in Aspen Restoration

  September 16 - 18, 2008, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Build on the foundation laid by the Restoring the West Conference 2006, this conference will focus on aspen management and restoration efforts going on throughout the West.

• Northern Rockies Aspen Conference 2008 - October 1-3, 2008. Coordinating by the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, and The University of Montana, College of Forestry. This event is being held in Butte, Montana. 

• Aspen Symposium at The Society of American Foresters National Conference . November 5-9, 2008. Reno, Nevada This half day symposium will be sponsored by the Aspen Delineation Project and the Nevada Aspen Working Group. The SAF will also sponsor a full day field trip to the Lassen National Forest to examine the National Forest's extensive aspen management program being conducted in Eastside Pine ecosystems. The Symposium agenda is now available

New Aspen News

• Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD) Summit Report.  In February 2008, a meeting sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Research Station and Rocky Mountain and Intermountain Regions of the U.S. Forest Service was convened to share information on Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD) and discuss research and management activities dealing with the issue. The meeting was held in Fort Collins.

• New Western Aspen Alliance is established. Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources and the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station are working together to develop an alliance to facilitate and coordinate research issues related to aspen communities of the West. 

• California Aspen Database Launched The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and Aspen Delineation Project consolidates and centralizes reference information dealing with location and assessment of aspen (Populus tremuloides) communities in California. 4000+ stands are located in this database.

• Wayne Shepperd was asked to make a presentation (March 2008) at the Aspen Institute's Aspen Environmental Forum. Check out the company of speakers that he was  a part of. Also, listen to Wayne's radio interview discussion of Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD) and Mountain Pine Beetles.

• "Fading Gold: The Decline of Aspen in the West" produced by the Rocky Mountain Research Station has be re-released on DVD. This film received the National Association of Government Communicators First Place - Video/Public Affairs Gold Screen Competitions Award in 2000. The production can also be viewed on line.

• The USDA Forest Service Botany Program's new website describes how aspen grow, the symptoms and possible causes for the decline of aspen from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the challenges for maintaining this species in the western landscape. You can also link to this web site through the Forest Services main web page.

• "Forest Ecology and Management" has a paper in press about Sudden Aspen Decline.  It's entitled "Rapid Mortality of Populus tremuloides in Southwestern Colorado" and is authored by Jim Worrall and others.   Publication information will follow shortly. (Posted October 1, 2007)

Older News But Significant News

• A series of news stories reporting on Sudden Aspen Decline have been published this Fall (Posted October 1, 2006)

• News story and video clip about aspen regeneration in the "Angora Fire" (near Lake Tahoe)

• Back Fire (burn out) in the Castle Rock Fire (Idaho 2007) (#1) and (#2)

• New aspen working group formed in Northern Rockies

• Aspen Ecology and Management in California: A Field Seminar for Non-Governmental Organizations (September 2007)  

The Aspen Delineation Project, Sierra Forest Legacy, and Lassen National Forest resource managers and their collaborators including researchers from University of California and PRBO Conservation Science, and aspen scientists from the Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station joined together with 40 participants in a open discussion that help establish a common understanding of aspen issues.

• Secretary Kempthorne Lauds Bureau of Land Management
  Volunteers at 2007 National Awards Ceremony. David Burton, Director of Aspen Delineation Project recipient of "Bureau of Land Management’s 2007 "Making a Difference" National Volunteer Award.

• Aspen Delineation Project is recipient of USFS AND BLM Joint Conservation Partnership of the Year Award at the Chief and Director's Awards Reception during the 72th North American Wildlife Conference, Held in Portland Oregon, March 2007. This award honors an organization for their outstanding leadership in the development and implementation of conservation programs and activities that directly benefit fish, wildlife and /or native plants on public lands.

• Oldest aspen stem every recorded. Dan Binkley Reported that Peter Brown ( Rocky Mountain Tree Ring Lab) confirmed the age of a very old aspen we found in the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute randomized sampling in Rocky Mt. National Park last summer. The tree rings counted back to 1689; the core did not quite include the pith, and Peter estimated the pith year would have been about 1685. This is the age at 1.4 m above the ground, so the stem was likely at least 5 yr older than that. As far as we know, this is the oldest aspen anyone has documented -
  at least 320 years!

• The Rocky Mountain Research Station convened (December2006) a summit of 30 researchers and managers on the aspen "die-off" occurring in the intermountain west.

• Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation signs 260,000 acres Stewardship Agreement with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming.

• The Rocky Mountain Research Station announced the publication of a new General Technical Report (RMRS-GTR-178) Ecology, Biodiversity, Management, and Restoration of Aspen in the Sierra Nevada. The authors of the publication are Wayne Shepperd, Paul Rogers, David Burton, and Dale Bartos. Download the GTR or order a hardcopy now!   or see Table of Contents

• Restoring the West Conference 2006 Web Site is launched. Explore this site to find presentations, photographs, and documents from the 2006 Restoring the West Conference held at Utah State University in Logan, Utah September 12-13, 2006.

• Aspen Ecology and Management in the Western United States the 1985 General Technical Report from the Rocky Mountain Research Station now available online.

• New aspen management rules in California: The California Board of Forestry (September 2006) passes new rules on aspen management on private lands in California. Download complete 2007 rules or excerpted aspen rules. This effort was the result of a petition by the Northern California Society of American Foresters.

• Rocky Mountain National Park Draft Elk and Vegetation Management Plan/EIS is released. Comment period 4/20-7/04/06 (See News Reports for stories about this action.

• US Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region adopts

an effectiveness monitoring protocol for aspen on rangelands.

• This site was officially launched on November 15, 2005