LOS ANGELES (AP) - A researcher says vast numbers of Southern California trees are dying from insects and disease - an unprecedented die-off that may cost the region billions of dollars and leave it much less green.
Greg McPherson with the U.S. Forest Service says just one species - the polyphagous shot hole borer beetle - could kill 27 million urban trees in Los Angeles and neighboring counties.
That’s roughly 38 percent of the 71 million urban trees in the region.
McPherson says removing and replacing them could cost $36 billion.
He tells the Los Angeles Times (https://lat.ms/2pRNILw) the region from Ventura County to the Mexican border is becoming a “post-oasis landscape.”
McPherson says trees are struggling with drought, higher salinity levels in recycled water and new pests arriving through global trade and tourism.
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Information from: Los Angeles Times, https://www.latimes.com/
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