Friends of Pando

The Pando Tree

Meet Pando, The World's Largest Tree

Life on the Boundary Between Discovery and Imagination

In a high mountain basin in central Utah stands the world’s largest tree, Pando, a quaking aspen clone that spans 106-acres and is made up of over 40,000 genetically identical branches (aka “stems”). If you are just learning about Pando, start here to learn how the tree came to be, and the people and land it shares its home with…

Friends of Pando Guide: Pando The Worlds Largest Tree

Download this free guide to Pando featuring the text from the large scale exhibit in Richfield, Utah.

A Friends of Pando Guide
Science Advisors: Nick Mustoe, Paul Rogers, Ryan Thalman

Pando: A Big List of Facts

Enjoy this big list of facts all about the Pando tree. A pdf version of the “BIG list” is also available for download.

A Friends of Pando Guide

Fishlake Basin: The Land Pando Calls Home

Visualizing Pando: A Map of the World's Largest Tree

A Friends of Pando Guide
Design: Lance Oditt and Stuart Smith (2021)

Sources:
Paul Rogers and Daren McAvoy (2018)
Jennifer DeWoody, Karen Mock, Valerie Hipkins and Carol Rower (2008)

A Geologic History of Fishlake, Pando's Home

A review of geology and geomorphological literature about Pando’s home.

By Lorna Campbell (Geoscientist)
Edited by Lance Oditt

The History of Land Management in Pando

Pando and the greater Fish Lake Basin where it is found, became part of the Forest Reserve system by presidential proclamation from William McKinley on February 10^th, 1899. Pando’s history since that time has, in part, been linked to this connection to what became Fishlake National Forest…

By Nick Mustoe
District Ranger, Coconino National Forest
Former Forester, Fremont District (Fishlake National Forest)

The Science of the Pando Tree

A Pando Bibliogrpahy

Gathered over years of research and investigation, start here if you want to take a deeper dive the man who discovered Pando, and gather citations from essential research that introduced this botanical wonder to the world. Organized by Friends of Pando, download this guide for to dig deeper and spread out on Pando and the land it calls home.

Aspen’s Role on the World Stage

Many have imagined Pando, the giant aspen clone of central Utah, to mirror human’s inability to live cooperatively with Earth at-large. Certainly, many elements—both good and bad—found at Pando are reflected in aspen systems globally. Six species of aspen wrap the northern hemisphere of our planet…

By Paul Rogers

Aspen at the Residential Wildland Interface

Stepping out of your front door at 8,000 feet in the montane zone of the Rocky Mountains is to know a paradise first hand: smells, sounds, and sites abound, but it’s the solitude of the moment that reels us in. If you’re lucky enough to have quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) a part of that scene, you are doubly gifted…

By Paul Rogers

Fences to Save Aspen: Good, Bad, Ugly

In valued aspen locations around the West, we frequently see small portions of forests fenced, but there is often little or no explanation for this intrusion. After all, we visit these treasured landscapes to engage with nature unfettered, not to encounter visual and physical impediments…

By Paul Rogers

Wildfire in Aspen Landscapes

Wildfires play an important ecological role in the western United States in both forest and grassland communities. Fire is nature’s way of rejuvenation and certain plants rely on periodic burning. However, popular media often paint a negative picture of wildland fire because homes may burn and, in rare instances, people may be injured or even killed…

By Paul Rogers