National magazine presents the Pando of Utah

Popular Mechanics magazine recently published a feature article on the gigantic aspen poplar stand of Utah in the Fishlake National Forest. Here is an exerpt:

The largest living organism in the world, not to mention one of the oldest, lives in the Fishlake National Forest in central Utah. Sometimes called the trembling giant, sometimes called Pando (Latin for "I spread"), it's a grove of 40,000 individual trees that function as a single organism by connecting their roots. A new study from Utah State University shows that unsuccessful conservation efforts leave this magnificent body "collapsing under our watch".

Formally called "Aspen's clone", the Pando sits on over 106 acres and weighs 13 million pounds. Scientists only have the most approximate estimates of their age, with the end of the last ice age, about 2.6 million years ago, as their best estimate.

Regeneration problems are at least 30 or 40 years old. According to the National Forest Service, "it is thought that the lack of regeneration is due to surfing on deer and other ungulates [hoofed animals]"The Utah State study confirms that deer are a major problem.