At present, I am finishing a study on sugar maple decline in northern Pennsylvania. Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, thousands of acres of sugar maple exhibited high mortality and crown dieback. This problem was not unique to the US Canada too was experiencing a similar problem.
Forest decline is an important economic and social issue in Pennsylvania.
The timber industry, the fourth largest industry in the state, provides jobs for many people in and out of the state and in industries indirectly associated with the timber industry. Sugar maple s maple syrup industry and brilliant fall color changes are also important to the state s agricultural and tourism industries. Thirty of these plots were intensively sub-sampled for soil and tree characteristics. My work has focused on soil physical and chemical properties on 15 healthy and 15 declining plots. This, in turn, results in foliage that is nutrient-deprived and causes stress for sugar maple.