What is the Pando Tree? | The Pando Tree

The Pando Tree

Life on The Boundary Between Discovery and Imagination

A Natural History of the Pando Tree

See the Large Scale Version of this Installation of this Exhibit at Richfield Visitor Center | Richfield, Utah

Pando is the world's largest tree...

In a high mountain basin in central Utah stands the world’s largest tree, Pando, a quaking aspen clone comprised of over 40,000 stems. Stems which appear to us as individual trees, but in fact, are one part of a genetically identical tree that spreads out over 106 acres and is connected by a massive interwoven root system. Despite a history spanning thousands of years, we have only been aware of this amazing organism for a short time. Its discovery in 1976 and verification in 2008 sparked a wave of scientific research and countless headlines. A tree for every season of wonder, Pando not only expands our sense of what a tree can be, but is also testament to the possibilities and marvels of Utah’s heartlands and the need to understand and preserve them so they may be enjoyed for generations to come.

Born into a Land Carved by Fire and Ice

Born to a land of glaciers, earthquakes, volcanism and wildfires, Pando’s home is a case study in the dynamics of life on the boundary between the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau ecological provinces. Although there is no way to reliably test the age of Pando, today, scientists agree that it could not be any older than 9,000 years old, as ice age climate currents dominated its homeland.

Pando is a Quaking Aspen, species, Populus tremuloides. A tree species that thrives in disturbed lands. Landscapes where natural forces like glaciers, volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, floods or, fires re-shape the land. Although we still have much to learn about the land Pando calls home, it is arguable that the variety of natural forces at play in the Fishlake Basin, have played a supportive role in Pando’s establishment and the trees’ dominance over the land.

A Pioneer of Nature's Imagination

The idea of a tree that spans across 106 acres (43 Hectare) doesn’t fit with our common-sense view of what a tree is, or can be. Pando is a tree that transcends nearly every concept of trees we have today and defies the bounds of every classification system we have for large trees we have today. Pando is simultaneously the largest aspen clone, the heaviest tree by dry weight and the largest tree by land mass. A masterpiece of botanical imagination, how Pando came to be is even more improbable than challenges of classifying it.

Carried on the Winds of Change...

On one of the first warm spring days in thousands of years after the last ice age, a single Aspen seed floating 9,000 feet in the sky came to rest on the southeastern edge of the Fishlake Basin. A land littered with massive volcanic boulders, split apart along an active fault line, carved by glaciers, littered with mineral rich glacial till and shaped by landslides and torrential snow melts that continue to this day.

... Into a Wilderness Ripe With Possibilities

What would appear to be a wasteland to the untrained eye, made for a perfect home for the Pando seed. A location along the steep side of a spreading fault zone that provides water drainage to the lake below and a barren landscape with rich soil laid down by glaciers. A place where the light hungry Pando seed would have faced no competition for sunlight. Underground, a tumultuous geologic landscape favors Pando’s sideways-moving root system giving it advantage over other native trees, which prefer to dig down.

A Tree With Roots That Could Span Halfway Around the World

Able to grow up to 3 feet per year, if we saw the first branch of Pando, we would have thought nothing of it. Those first years, any number of disasters could have destroyed the tree altogether. In fact, for Pando to exists at all, means at least one disaster, set the tree on a new course that created the tree we have today. As a male tree, Pando only produces pollen so, to advance itself over the land, Pando replicates itself by sending up new stems from its root, a process called suckering. Some time in those first 150 years of Pando’s life, something disrupted the growth hormones underground and hormones in the trunk, creating an imbalance and Pando began to sucker. Although there’s no way to tell what that force was, we do know that was the moment Pando started to self-propagate, spread across the land, and toward us in time. Today, that one tree has become a lattice-work of roots and stems that a rapid field estimate by Dr. Paul Rogers suggests, could stretch 12,000 miles or, halfway around the world.

40,000 Ways to Survive the High Wilds of Utah

In a Windy Land, Be Flexible

Living in a land where winds can reach 60 Mph, Pando’s branches have two structural features that make life sustainable. First, Pando’s roots spread laterally across the ground where they also tie in with the larger root mass providing added strength to the base of the branches. Second, the wood of each stem is pliable allowing them to bend without breaking. Both qualities lend credence to the nickname locals give the tree “ Quakies” for the way the trunks bend and sway in the wind.

Where Fires Rage, Be Less Flammable

In Canada, aspen have earned the nickname “asbestos forests” as they have two unique characteristics that make them more fire tolerant. Aspen store massive quantities of water allowing them to thwart low and medium intensity fires by simply being less flammable. They also do not create large quantities of flammable volatile oils that make their conifer cousins so fire prone. Second, their branches reach high allowing them to avoid fires that move over the land below.

Don't Rely on Leaves Alone

Living where the growing season is short, and winters are harsh, Pando features another advantage over other trees. It contains chlorophyll in its bark which allows it to create energy without leaves during the dark, cold winter months. Although this process is nowhere near as efficient as the energy production of the leaves in summer, this small energy boost allows Pando to surge into bloom once temperatures reach 54 degrees for move than 6 days in spring.

When Humans First Roamed Pandos' Home

Archeologists studying the area around Pando have unearthed human artifacts dating to 10,000 years ago, consistent with the end of the last ice age from what is called the Paleo-Indian period. From this era, few artifacts survive, but what has been found, suggests a nomadic people used obsidian points used for hunting Bison and Wooly Mammoth until climate and weather patterns drove extinction and new lifeways emerged; a period archeologists refer to as the Western Desert Archaic period (8,500 BCE-2,000 BCE).

An Ancient Mountain Retreat

It was out of the Western Desert Archaic Period that the Nuwuvi people and the related Fremont Culture emerged. The term “Fremont” does not to a singular nor exclusive group of people, rather, a period of change in culture and lifeways that came to dominate the region from around 2,000 BCE until about the year 1350 CE. It was the people of the Fremont culture who would begin a 2,000 year tradition at Fishlake Basin; retreating to the cool, high mountain shores Utah’s largest natural mountain freshwater lake, Fish Lake (5mi²). An oasis in the sky (Elev. 8,800 ft) that offers respite from the intense summer heat in the valleys below as well as prime hunting and fishing grounds and rich volkcanic soils to raise crops.

Land Management Before European Settlement

In the essay The Problem with Wilderness, environmental historian William Cronon details the problem with the popular notion that America was a “god given” paradise for the European colonists. A notion that neglects millennia of successful land management practices used by indigenous peoples to sustain themselves and preserve their life ways in a region that also featured some of the largest metropolitan areas of the world in their time. New research led by Vachel Carter of University of Utah, offers insights on land management practices used in thePando’s homeland in the Fishlake Basin between the years 500 and 1400. Practices that include the use of fire to shape Fishlake and promote crops that respond to fire disturbances such as the grain, Amaranth. Their primary fuel? Aspen.

Drought, Ice Age, War, Treaties and Diaspora

Carter’s work indicates our human ancestors who developed and emerged from the Fremont culture abandoned Fishlake around 1400. Coincidentally, a time that corresponds with a tumultuous climatic period that started with a drought and ended with the “Little Ice Age” which lasted until 1750. First contact with the people who call these lands home today occurred in 1776 when Spanish Missionaries first met the Paiute people as they were collecting seeds in nearby Cedar City. The Old Spanish Trail connecting Santa Fe and Los Angeles brought people and goods through Pando’s homeland until 1864 when tensions around water and land use between indigenous peoples and European colonists sparked the Black Hawk War, which lasted until 1867. Once bloodshed stopped, census records and anecdotal accounts suggests only a small group of Paiute remained. In 1889, a Treaty was signed securing Paiute rights to lands just south of Pando’s edge.

From 1889 until 1954, the Paiute people exercised independence over their affairs until the passage of the Public Law 762. A law that effectively ended Federal accountability to treaties. The rule’s writer, Senator Arthur V. Watkins, personally worked to disband Utah Paiute communities in and around Pando. In 1970, his policies were reversed by the Nixon administration, but it took until 1991 for the Paiute to begin to recover, ratifying a constitution that gave each band a vote with sole authority of its ancestral home lands. Today, the local Koosharem Band maintain rights through the 1889 treaty.

To Gather by the Cool Waters in a Land for All

Fishlake Basin, the land Pando calls home was set aside as a Forest Preserve by President William McKinley on February 10, 1899. In the modern era, where many groups would like to see federal land controls be loosened or released altogether, many may be surprised to learn that it was local who called the area home that petitioned the federal government to protect the land and water resources. Previous to its recognition, Fish Lake’s waters were spoiled by animal waste leading to multiple epidemics while grazing decimated vegetation and arable land. Today, Fishlake National Forest covers 1.8 million acres (2,800 square miles) and is defined by a discontinuous boundary that spans the Pahvant, Monroe and Tusher mountain ranges. Considered the “jewel of Fishlake National” the cold, clear waters of Fish Lake are located in the Fremont River Ranger District and as it has for thousands of years, remains a popular summer retreat and hunting ground while also being one of the most popular ice fishing sites in all of Utah.

A Roads Runs Through It

Many people who visit Pando for the first time are surprised to learn that Utah Highway 25, also known as the “Fishlake Scenic Byway” cuts through the heart of the giant. A fact that deserves more context. Going back to the 1700’s, the Fishlake Basin hosted one leg of the Old Spanish Trail and provided a cool, high mountain stop with ample water and forage for pack animals carrying goods from Santa Fe to Los Angeles. Highway 25, was built before Pando’s discovery and provides a critical route to recreation lands and the historic Fish Lake Lodge, a log building that took four years to build and once figures as largest Douglas-Fir built cabins in the west. The road also provides an alternate route to the nearby town of Loa where the Fremont River cuts toward Capitol Reef National Park and begins to make its way toward the Grand Canyon.

A Land of "Many Uses" Faces Many Challenges

Fishlake as we have it today, was primarily developed before Pando’s discovery. Each year, Fishlake National Forest estimates some 300,000 people visit the 10 mi² basin. Designated as a Recreation area in 1976, managing the large crowds involves efforts by local, state and federal agencies working to provide water treatment, wildlife management, maintenance, trail and road crews, power and law enforcement. In addition to recreational use, as with all Forest land, Fishlake Basin is also a land of many uses, including cattle grazing, which is permitted and regulated by Fishlake National Forest 10 days a year each fall. As it relates to Pando, the Forest Service began work to stimulate regeneration in the 1980’s when research indicated the tree was shrinking. The culprits? Diseases and, Deer and Elk who eat Pando’s young stems before they can mature. Surrounded by some 700mi²of de-facto wildlife preserve managed by federal, state, sovereign, local and private agents who do not necessarily maintain Pando’s protection as a central concern in land management policy, today, protective fencing is used to protect Pando. Today, about 53 acres of Pando is under permanent protection with more work planned. Does fencing work? To date, the results are positive, but to be effective, fencing requires dedicated resources and regular maintenance bringing one challenge into relief; staffing. In 2003, two Forest Service districts were consolidated to create what is now called the Fremont River Ranger District. What was once, 500,000 acres managed by 14 people, is now 500,000 acres managed by 7 full-time staff. Protecting special trees in America has always involved private/public partnerships; from the Redwoods to Joshua Tree. Local group, Friends of Pando leverages insights from previous efforts to educate the public, bring community stakeholders together while working to fill capacity gaps to care for Pando as they also support research, monitoring and preservation efforts.

In a Time of Discovery, New Challenges in Stewardship

If you have heard about Pando before today, chances are heard about the tree in countless headlines written about the tree each year. Perhaps, have heard that research indicates — the tree is in decline. The challenges Pando presents are unique to the tree but also, solvable. Unlike other superlative trees (EX: The Methuselah Tree, The General Sherman), the situation is not “all or nothing”, a curious persons saw blade will not fell Pando, a single lightning strike or wildfire will not wipe it from the face of the earth as it power lies below the licking flames. What makes Pando unique, is also what makes it possible to take care of the tree long term; Pando regenerates itself and thrives on land disturbances. In this way, we can become Pando’s constant gardeners if we think long-term, collaborate and develop insights based on field work, and what we know has worked and not worked before. Below, are some of the challenges that scientists, land managers and Pando’s lovers know will require ongoing attention.

Deer and Elk (Ungulates)

Deer and Elk have always played a role in the life of Pando. The problem is not that there are deer and elk, but controlling their use of the tree to prevent over-browsing on immature stems and branches. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the Forest Service began using fencing to control the number of deer and elk, which also allows other work to take place to promote re-generation. Today, over 53 acres of the tree are protected, and the results of the effort to protect Pando, and stimulate and protect new growth are positive. Plans are in the works to use permanent and temporary fencing around the tree to promote a “new crop” of regeneration bringing the tree into a new balance of health and sustainability.

Disease

Pando suffers from three diseases commonly found in aspen. Sooty Bark Canker, Leaf Spot and a Conk fungal infection. Although the diseases are well known and generally understood, today, we do not know the extent of these infections across the tree nor, its impact on Pando’s root system which coordinates energy production, defense and regeneration across the tree’s expanse. Have these diseases strangled the tree? Do these diseases play a positive or, negative role in Pando’s ability to regenerate since adverse events typically tilt the balance of regenerative hormones ? The human answer that all disease is bad, may or, bewilderingly, may not apply with Pando, for example, some disease will also limit insect activity. Finally, can current techniques available to manage these diseases—work on a tree the size of Pando? We will have to answer these questions and more in the coming year to be better stewards of our friend Pando.

Failures of Imagination

Another critical issue that endangers Pando is how we communicate about the tree. To the right, is an examples of false, misleading and/or incomplete information about the tree. Common errors that have been copied and continue to be repeated. How we apply what we know and, how we exercise our imagination will be vital to bringing about a bright future for the tree. Promoting easily fact-checked falsehoods and using alarmist language leads people to believe the solutions are simple or, the work that needs to be done, demands heroics, rather than thoughtful diligence, day-to-day work and long-term thinking. There is no question, Pando remains largely unknown and misunderstood. The challenges ahead demand we address our desire for easy answers—and insist that extraordinary claims are backed with proper evidence (Pando is not dying or breaking apart). Should we fail to do that, it will distract energy and good will from the day-to-day work of caring for this ancient wonder. To care for Pando will involve ongoing innovation, curiosity, collaboration and a focus on how to best spend our time, energy and resources.

The Human Experience of Pando

As the world’s largest organism, Pando is a natural wonder that stands as a testament to the magnificence of nature’s imagination. Although Pando belongs to itself, it’s well being is now tied to how we respond; a situation worthy of introspection. Just as Pando has imagined and— re-imagined itself over millennia, we might do well to consider how we imagine ourselves as part of nature and the role we can play. The challenges before us will require creativity, collaboration, compromise and sweat. The challenges also require humility and patience as many of the questions before us, will take generations to answer as Pando operates on scales of time well outside the human experience. Just a few of the ways Pando challenges our notions of what a tree is, or what a tree can be. A flicker of thought that encourages us to do as the Pando does; remain flexible, work together, adapt and think long-term.

Ready to learn more and lend a hand to care for this ancient wonder?

Visit our Pando FAQ’s to learn how Pando Works and what makes it special
Get the Facts: Visit our Science Communication Center to learn more about popular claims made about Pando.
Learn what you can do to help protect and care for Pando. Every little bit helps!
Visit our Data Store and explore our work to monitor and protect the Pando Tree.
Explore Pando from Home: Take a virtual walk of Pando from home usuing your desktop, mobile device or VR headset.

References

2021: Legacies of Indigenous land use shared past wildfire regimes in Basin-Plateau Region by Vachel Carter et al
2019: Past Management Spurs Differential Plant Communities within a Giant Single-Clone Aspen Forest by Paul Rogers and Jan Šebesta
2018: Mule deer impede Pando’s recovery: Implications for aspen resilience from a single-genotype forest by Paul Rogers and Darren McAvoy
2017: Guide to Quaking Aspen Ecology and Management by Paul Rogers
2008: “Pando Lives…” by Jennifer DeWoody, Carol A. Rowe, Valerie D. Hipkins, Karen E. Mock
2006: Signal Controlling Root Suckering and Adventitious Shoot Formation in Aspen (Populus tremuloides) by Wax Xianchong et al.
2006: Beneath These Red Cliffs: An Ethnohistory of the Utah Paiutes by Ronald Holt
1997: A History of Sevier County by M. Guy Bishop
1993: The Trembling Giant by Michael Grant
1974: Clone Size in Quaking Aspen by Burton Barnes and Jerry Kemperman

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.

Friends of Pando is a proud partner of Pando’s public land stewards, Fishlake National Forest of the U.S. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. Learn more about our partnership.

Friends of Pando and its partners are equal opportunity employers.

Just $18 a month supports work to ensure Pando can be enjoyed for generations to come. Make a one-time or, recurring tax deductible donation today.

Friends of Pando
PO Box 12
Richfield, UT, 84701
Phone: 435-633-1893
IRS EIN: 87-3958681

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