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Elk browsing and conifer species mixing with aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) present current challenges to aspen forest management in the western United States. We evaluated the effects of conifers and elk browsing on quaking aspen stands in and near Rocky Mountain National Park using tree rings to reconstruct patterns of aspen establishment, growth, and mortality over the past 120 years. High conifer encroachment and elk browse were both associated with decreased aspen recruitment, with mean recruitment dropping over 30% from pure aspen to mixed stands and over 50% from low-browse to high-browse stands. Maximum aspen recruitment was lower in mixed stands than in pure stands with the same tree basal area. High...
Quaking aspen cover 3.3 million hectares in the Upper Colorado River Basin, and these areas are gradually converting to conifer forest by the natural process of ecological succession. This change is being hastened by forest managment practices that reduce fires, destroy pests, or otherwise prevent the natural processes that previously caused conifer areas to revert to the subclimax aspen. The hydrologic consequence has been forecast to cause a runoff reduction in the Colorado River as large as one million acre-feet annually, a major blow to water availability in the Lower Basin. Understanding and dealing with the problems requires quantitative comparision of the evaportranspiration rates of conifer and aspen forests...