In other places, it's pesticides, or toxic heavy metals released by burning coal and oil. In Alaska and Florida, it's rising temperatures and rising sea levels from global warming. In most places, in truth, it's probably various combinations of all these factors. Scientists are playing catch-up now, conducting studies that may explain the complicated causes of widespread tree death. But when we postpone action until the scientists have described the problems completely, we get the answers too late to do any good.
Answers come slowly.
So, in 1965 he made a thorough survey of Camel's Hump, a 4083-foot peak in the Green Mountains. So far as he knew, he was describing a healthy ecosystem. He measured the types and sizes of the trees, and various other aspects of the ecosystem. He had no particular purpose in mind, other than to gather knowledge about nature. Periodically, he resurveyed Camel's Hump, and a pattern began to emerge.