Is Pando Ok? Dying? Broken?
Much of what circulates about Pando is out of date, incorrect or has never been independently verified. Learn what is going on from the people who work to study, protect and care for Pando.
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Friends of Pando FAQ's
Table of Contents
I heard Pando is dying, is this true?
No — Pando is not dying. Dying would mean the root system has stopped sending up new stems, or is losing more than it grows back, with no way to recover. That’s not what’s happening in Pando and you can see it with your own eyes. New growth is coming up across Pando, conifers aren’t taking over, and the soil shows none of the warning signs you’d expect to see in a forest that’s actually failing.
What we can’t answer yet is whether growth has slowed compared to decades ago — that takes a verified historical stem count, and one doesn’t exist. That’s a real gap, and we’re working to close it by developing a complete census of every tree in Pando. But it’s a different question than whether Pando is dying, and the answer to that one is no.
THE 4 QUESTIONS WE HAVE TO ANSWER TOGETHER TO SAY PANDO IS “DYING”
- Has the regenerative hormone cycle stopped? No.
- Do we see large scale encroachment by conifer? No.
- Does soil studies show signs of depressed or toxic soil? No.
- Do we see more or less trees than before? Unclear, missing data.
The Four Questions we would have to answer definitively
1. Has the regenerative hormone cycle in Pando stopped? No.
No. New growth is visible across Pando’s landmass in every section we monitor, in a mix of ages showing the root system is still producing stems and still bringing them to maturity.
Even the study most often cited to argue Pando is in decline documents ongoing regeneration. The disagreement is over how much and where — not whether it is happening.
2. Do we see large scale encroachment by conifer trees into Pando? No.
No. Conifers inside Pando’s boundary are scattered and mostly stunted. LiDAR gathered by Friends of Pando, independently analyzed and reviewed by two blinded GIS analysts, found total conifer represented only 7% of the total number of pixels. Not very much.
This matters because conifer litter acidifies soil over time — but at this scale it’s a maintenance item, not a threat. Conifers can be removed and soil can be remediated as part of routine care.
Sources: Friends of Pando Data Store. | Film: Friends of Pando”Pando Living Map Project Ground Cover Study 2024″
3. Does soil studies show signs of depressed or toxic soil? No.
No — our soil studies show the opposite. In declining Intermountain aspen stands, high aluminum relative to calcium is a recognized warning sign. Sampling 13 sites across all 7 regions of Pando’s landmass, we found calcium abundant and plant-available at every site, with all other indicators consistent with healthy aspen ground.
Soil is also the condition humans can most directly influence — pH, nutrients, and organic matter can all be adjusted — and we intend to make that part of Pando’s regular care.
Sources: Friends of Pando 2023 Soil Studies.
4. Do we see more or less trees than before? Indeterminate
Unclear — and that gap belongs to everyone studying Pando, not just us.
To call a tree “in decline,” you need a verified earlier count to compare against. None exists. Pando was only genetically confirmed in 2008, and no complete stem census has ever been done. The familiar 47,000 figure is a 1976 estimate built from aerial imagery and sample plots, a method since abandoned as error-prone because it tends to overcount mature stems and undercount young ones.
What we can measure directly is encouraging. In May 2026, Friends of Pando and agency partners hand-counted 427 healthy stems in a half-acre plot that hadn’t been productive in decades — roughly 854 stems per acre, squarely inside the 800–1,000 per acre benchmark Utah’s aspen restoration guidelines set for a fully regenerating site. A full census is underway.
Sources: Kemperman & Barnes 1976, Canadian Journal of Botany 54(22) | DeWoody et al. 2008, Western North American Naturalist 68(4) | Guidelines for Aspen Restoration on the National Forests in Utah, Utah Forest Restoration Working Group, 2011| Pre-Print, Friends of Pando 2026 Field Restoration Report Data (Census Data gathered May 14th, 2026)
What would it take to actually kill Pando?
Far more than most people assume. Pando isn’t a single trunk that can be brought down by a windstorm, a lightning strike, or a disease — it’s a clone that regenerates from the roots up. Individual stems die and are replaced constantly, and have been for thousands of years. That’s normal turnover, not decline.
The root system carries the continuity. As long as it stays intact and keeps sending up new stems, Pando persists. If every part of Pando were lost except one surviving section, that section would carry everything needed to start spreading again.
Are any of these things we can actually do something about?
Yes, about two of the four issues and directly. Conifer encroachment is managed by removal, and soil chemistry can be adjusted through pH correction and nutrients — both are ordinary forestry work and both are on the list for Pando’s ongoing care.
The regenerative cycle isn’t something we control, but we can protect what it produces. That’s exactly what wildlife controls are for: giving new stems time to reach a height where deer and elk can no longer reach them.
I read deer and elk are eating Pando to death, is this true?
A 2018 study was correct that deer and elk browse Pando’s new growth, but this was not news. The 2018 study sampled about 1.8 acres of Pando’s 106 acres and used statistical models to describe the situation – but the situation was already known.
Dating back to 1939, The U.S. Forest Service had documented and used wildlife controls to protect aspen groves from deer and elk. Following on that, Utah’s Aspen Restoration Working Group reached the same conclusion in 2011. Today, Mule Deer and Elk are not the problem they once were and field conditions have radically improved.
Since 2018, wildlife controls have been raised and today, while in 2025, 80% of Pando was brought into protective care. Wildlife Camera monitoring by Friends of Pando and our agency partners show declines in Mule Deer and Elk around Pando, and have only recorded 2 elk and 4 mule deer inside Pando’s wildlife controls over four years. We also find new growth regenerating throughout Pando.
Sources: Mule Deer Impede Pando’s Recovery…” Paul C. Rogers and Darren McAvoy, PLOS, 2018 | Guidelines for Aspen Restoration in Utah with Applicability to the Intermountain West, 2019, USDA | Guidelines for Aspen Restoration on the National Forests in Utah, 2011, Utah Forest Restoration Working Group | Friends of Pando Data Store, Wildlife Studies
Do we see more or less deer and elk today than when the study came out in 2018?
Significantly Less. Friends of Pando gathers wildlife data and uses that control populations and shape their behavior moving them around Pando.
Since 2023, Friends of Pando and our partners at Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Fishlake National Forest—have worked to move animals around, and reshape their habitual use of Pando’s landmass and it is working. In 2025, we saw a 35% reduction in Mule Deer and a 65% reduction in Elk around Pando’s landmass. Preliminary data from the Winter of 2025 through present shows almost no Mule Deer or Elk activity meaning, the wildlife control system and strategy appears to be working.
Sources: Friends of Pando Data Store Wildlife Studies | $250K Project slated to protect Utah’s Trembling Giant
Why are there so many deer and elk?
Because Pando lives in an oasis. Pando’s homeland is a high desert basin at roughly 8,900 feet, built around Fish Lake — the largest freshwater source in the region — and surrounded by some 700 square miles of much drier country that functions as a de facto wildlife preserve. Water, forage, and cover are concentrated here in a way they aren’t for miles in any direction, so animals gather here, as they have for thousands of years, for the same reasons people do. This is why the goal has never been fewer animals; it’s shaping where they go and what they eat once they arrive.
Sources: A Land in Motion: Geologic History of Pando’s Home | Friends of Pando Data Store, Wildlife Studies
How do we keep Deer and Elk out of Pando?
Wildlife Controls. Today, the Forest Service uses about 16,000 feet of 8-foot tall wire-mesh fence materials to keep deer and elk from destroying Pando. The wildlife control encloses some 80 acres of the tree and is regularly monitored and maintained by Friends of Pando, Fishlake National Forestry and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Friends of Pando also gathers wildlife data and uses that data to control deer and elk populations working to move them around Pando. Since 2023, Friends of Pando and our partners at Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Fishlake National Forest—have worked to move animals around, and reshape their habitual use of Pando’s landmass and it is working. In 2025, we saw a 35% reduction in Mule Deer and a 65% reduction in Elk around Pando. Winter and Summer data for 2026 shows almost no activity meaning, the wildlife control system is working.
Sources: Friends of Pando Data Store Wildlife Studies | $250K Project slated to protect Utah’s Trembling Giant
What about wolves, would that help Pando?
No. Wolf reintroduction has shown promise in large, remote wilderness areas such as Yellowstone, where predators can establish territory away from concentrated human activity, but Pando’s homeland is not that kind of place. It is a recreation area drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, built around a lake that people and animals have both relied on for roughly 10,000 years. There is no practical way to introduce wolves here and make them stay, and no ethical way of introducing wolves as they would be in continuous contact with people.
Sources: Wolf Ecology, Yellowstone National Park | Fish Lake Recreation Area — U.S. Forest Service | Friends of Pando Data Store
Could hunting deer and elk help Pando?
Possibly, but not as a primary tool. Hunting could make Pando’s landmass less comfortable for deer and elk, but is already allowed in the area, just not around Pando while wildlife controls already do what they are designed to do.
Three things limit the value of more hunting.
- Pando’s homeland is an oasis where animals arrive year-round, while hunting season runs only a few weeks a year — not enough pressure to change year-round behavior.
- Pando’s homeland was set aside for recreation in 1976 and contains developed facilities and heavy human traffic, which makes hunting unsafe here.
- Many visitors value seeing wildlife in Fish Lake Basin as they add to the natural wonder of the landscape.
Friends of Pando and our partners continue to study whether more hunting could play a larger role, but today, it is unusually risky and of limited value when other wildlife reduction strategies are working.
I heard Pando is "breaking apart", is that true?
No — there is no evidence Pando is breaking apart. This claim traces to the same 2022 study behind the “dying” narrative, which described Pando as splitting into zones based on how much protection each area had. A closer look at that same data tells a different story: the “zones” aren’t the tree fragmenting, they’re the difference between areas with wildlife controls and areas without. Protected areas had more young growth survive long enough to mature; unprotected areas didn’t — that’s wildlife controls working as intended, not the tree dividing. Below ground, Pando is still one connected organism, regenerating and doing better wherever protections are in place, as it has since 1992.
Sources: Rogers, P.C. (2022), Conservation Science and Practice 4(10):e12804 — zone/protection data | Mueggler & Campbell 1986, Aspen Community Types of Utah, USDA Forest Service Research Paper INT-362 | Mueggler 1988,Aspen Community Types of the Intermountain Region, USDA Forest Service Research Paper INT-250 | Winter 2024 Ground Cover Study, Friends of Pando Data Store
I heard Cattle Grazing was an issue? Are people letting cows eat Pando?
No. Grazing ended in 70% of Pando in 2014. Then, the entirety of Pando 2024. This change came by agreement rather than conflict.
Local group, Seven Mile Grazers Association, whose families have grazed this region for generations, supported the Pando Protection Plan that brought 80% of the tree into protective care in 2025. Its members also volunteer on Pando community councils, help with restoration work in Pando and have also gone on record promoting work on Pando’s protection and care. Claims made about grazing are just that, claims.
Source: Friends of Pando 2025 Year in Review | Eighty Percent of Pando Now Under Protective Wildlife Fencing Thanks to Large Local Effort, October 7th, 2025, Wayne County Insider
What about diseases? Will a "cold" kill Pando?
No. Pando deals with a number of diseases that are common to all aspen trees and has for a long time.
Thinking of it another way, diseases rapidly mutate, while Pando’s genetics have been stable for thousands of years. This arguably indicates Pando has a great deal of disease resistance and resilience. While we should look at disease as a factor, there is no reason to assume that diseases drives higher mortality rates when we look at models for how aspen groves thin over time based a variety of factors including diseases.
In 2026, Friends of Pando is working to undertake a Forest Health Assessment with our agency partners to begin to map and address this as part of a larger management plan.
Source: Friends of Pando internal communications June, 2026 | Common Insects and Diseases of Aspen, Colorado State University (Retrieved July 28th, 2026)
What about drought and climate change? Will that kill Pando?
Unlikely. Pando has survived multiple severe droughts that have lasted for decades or longer in its estimated 9,000- year lifespan and for good reasons. Pando lives along a basin wall where the water travels down and across it, as it the water moves toward Fish Lake, which has been stable for thousands of years.
While there are no climate models specific to Pando we can use to be sure, Pando is buffered in many ways from climatic extremes other areas will face in the coming years thanks to its elevation and its location along a basin wall where water is constantly moving downward.
Sources: Megadrought in Southwester North America is region’s driest in at least 1,200 years, UCLA Environment and Sustainability, February 14, 2022 (retrieved July 28th, 2026) | Second Century Southwest Megadrought, CLIMAS, 2011 (retrieved July 28th, 2026)
A road runs right through Pando, did that hurt or kill Pando?
No. The road through Pando isn’t new and isn’t a threat — it’s actually much older than most people expect. What’s now paved as State Route 25, part of the Fishlake Scenic Byway, follows a route dating back to the 1700s as part of the Old Spanish Trail. The modern road was added to Utah’s state highway system in 1918 and modernized in 1935, decades before Pando was even documented in 1976. A two-lane paved road running through part of a 106-acre root system simply isn’t the kind of disturbance that threatens a tree this large and resilient — Pando has grown and thrived alongside it the whole time.
Sources: Utah State Route 25 — Wikipedia | Fishlake Scenic Byway | What is the Pando Tree?
Most aspen die-off or get replaced by conifer, how does Pando keep going?
Pando is a stable aspen clone. Scientists call an aspen clone like Pando “stable” as the tree grows large enough that they dominate the light, water and nutrient supply of the area. This makes it harder for competitors to take hold and, makes it easier for the clone to keep regenerating indefinitely. Because Pando spreads through root suckers rather than depending on seeds, its long-term survival isn’t tied to sexual fertility. Instead, its survival is tried to its ability to continue to command water, light and nutrients. Today, researchers have no reason to believe a clone cannot continue indefinitely since their growth pattern replaces every part, little bits at a time. This doesn’t mean Pando cannot be destroyed, it does mean we if take care of Pando, we have reasons to be hopeful our efforts will be met by effort from Pando too.
Sources:Mueggler & Campbell 1986, Aspen Community Types of Utah, USDA Forest Service Research Paper INT-362 | Mueggler 1988,Aspen Community Types of the Intermountain Region, USDA Forest Service Research Paper INT-250| Blonder 2024, American Journal of Botany 111(8): e16325
It seems like no one cares about Pando, why?
Quite the opposite. Work on Pando has been underway since the late 1980s. The Forest Service began using wildlife controls on sections of Pando in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with work continuing in phases ever since. In 2019 taller, more effective wildlife controls were installed as well as and deer-proof visitor gates. In 2022, the Friends of Pando launched the Pando Ambassador monitoring program to address day to day field conditions and uses data we gather to inform ongoing work to protect and care for Pando.
While the pace of work has always been shaped by the real constraints of large agency bureaucracies, little by little the arc has been toward greater protection and care. The 2025 Pando Protection Plan, brought 80% of the tree into managed care. That project wasn’t a sudden fix; it was 35 years of know-how and steady effort reaching full scale. All told, progress to protect and care for Pando, which was first documented in 1976, and verified in 2008, has developed faster than similar efforts for other iconic trees and forests. By way of contrast, protection of the California’s Coastal Redwoods involved nearly a century of effort while protection of Joshua Trees involved nearly 70 years of effort. By these measures, work to protect and care for Pando has rapidly advanced and is ahead of schedule because people care.
Sources: History of Land Management in Pando | Friends of Pando 2025 Year in Review | Joshua Tree History, National Park Service (Retereived July 30, 2026) | Preservation, Redwood State Parks (Retrieved July 30th, 2026)
Will Pando still be alive when my kids/grandkids are adults?
Almost certainly, yes. Once a stem grows past “escape height” (tall enough that deer and elk can no longer browse it, about 12 ft), it typically lives another 100 to 150 years, that is almost two human lifetimes for a single successful stem. Every generation of stems that reaches that height guarantees Pando survives another 100+ years, meaning your grandchildren’s grandchildren will very likely be able to visit the same living Pando you can visit today. Because Pando’s root system holds the real continuity, even a single surviving stem carries everything needed to start the whole process again — this isn’t a countdown, it’s a relay that’s been running for thousands of years with no sign of stopping.
Sources: Kemperman & Barnes 1976, Canadian Journal of Botany 54(22) | Kitchen et al. 2019, RMRS-GTR-390, USDA Forest Service
Should I feel sad about Pando?
No — Pando isn’t dying, and there’s no use feeling sad about a problem that isn’t real.
Misinformation spreads in part because alarm gets more attention than accurate, patient reporting, and worrying doesn’t protect the tree — action does. There is plenty you can do for this ancient lifeform, and leave it better for the next generation. Here is all we are doing to ensure it can be enjoyed for generations to come.
Sources:10 Ways you Can help Pando
What reasons do we have to be hopeful about Pando?
Plenty — Pando isn’t in decline, and Friends of Pando and its partners are shifting from reactive management to proactive care. In 2025, a state-funded project brought 80% of Pando into protective care, wildlife controls continue moving animals around to give young growth room to mature, and the 2025 Data Store shows a 35% reduction in Mule Deer events and 65% reduction in Elk events compared to 2024. Friends of Pando is also expanding research into genetics, hydrology, and soil, along with a full census of Pando’s landmass and a planned interagency Forest Health Assessment — work that will make it possible to track change year over year in ways that haven’t been possible before. It took nearly 100 years to see California’s Coastal Redwoods protected for future generations; Pando is well ahead of that pace.
Sources: Friends of Pando 2025 Year in Review | Pando Tree Monitoring & Data Store
Friends of Pando FAQ Collection
Answers from the people who work to care for Pando every day
Friends of Pando is dedicated and working to educate the public, support research and preservation efforts and inspire stewardship of Pando, the world’s largest tree.
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Friends of Pando
PO Box 12
Richfield, UT, 84701
Phone: 435-633-1893
IRS EIN: 87-3958681
