The Flames.

Aspens grow in clusters of interconnectedness, linked as a family unit. So a family or perhaps a tribe of aspens might do ya.

Aspen trees in northern Arizona are dying at a rate no one's ever seen before. She says part of the problem is that Aspens are tasty; tasty to elk, that is.

Elk don't depend on Aspen for their diet. They eat it because it's there.

TEICH: And that's especially problematic because there are so many elk out there. Biologists say the elk have munched their way through Aspen stands throughout the west from Colorado to Oregon, but in Arizona, the Aspens' problems predate the elk population boom. They started six years ago with a late-season snow that put the Aspens in an especially precarious situation.

Arizona Game and Fish is considering ways to allow more elk hunting in the area, and the Forest Service has fenced off some stands of Aspen until the young trees are not in danger of being eaten

Aspen regeneration by suckering following the overstory dieback has been observed on all sites by varying amounts. On the Coconino NF, timing of regeneration appears to be associated with elevation. Sprouting on the lower elevation sites was most abundant in 2003 and for higher elevation sites the spike was in 2004. Currently, there is little aspen regeneration remaining on any site due to heavy ungulate browsing. All sites have some level of browse damage; the percent of trees browsed ranges from 50 to 100 percent. Drought-stressed, overstory trees are expected to sprout suckers only within a year or two of tree death. The large die-off of mature aspen trees in many lower elevation sites coupled with browsing by ungulates is expected to result in forest type conversions, from aspen to conifer, in many of these ecologically unique and important sites across the state