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Researchers at the University of Georgia have a message for Southern pine tree farmers worried about unexplainable pine tree deaths: Don’t panic.

A new study published in Forest Ecology and Management analyzed growth in thousands of pine tree plots across the Southeast and indicates that “southern pine decline” isn’t happening on a large scale. Some earlier reports and studies had hinted at large-scale deaths of pine trees from unexplained reasons. But looking at the hard data shows that this is not the case, said Kamal Gandhi, an associate professor and forest health expert at UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

“No one freak out,” Gandhi said bluntly. “There are some pine health issues that need to be addressed, but southern pine decline isn’t one of them. There are a whole bunch of factors we need to consider at the local instead of regional level.”

Since the 1950s, when mature stands of loblolly pine in Alabama died, there have been reports of trees either dying or deteriorating for unknown reasons across the Southeast, and some researchers have pointed to root-feeding weevils and associated fungi as the culprits.

These tree deaths have been called loblolly pine die-off, pine decline and, in the past five years or so, southern pine decline. The Southeast is the “wood basket of the world,” Gandhi said, so any hints that one of the most important economic drivers in this region is just dying off is a concern.

From UGA Today: https://news.uga.edu/releases/article/rumors-southern-pine-deaths-exaggerated-uga-researchers-say-0715/