Beginning a 'tree autopsy' in the Sierra Nevada

This is Teodora Rautu. She is a Biological Science Technician on the field crew for USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Sierra Nevada Forest Dynamics project. The tree she is getting read to cut into has recently died. Teo is going to remove bark to look for signs of insects or pathogens than may have been involved in the tree's death--the first step in a 'tree autopsy'. The Sierra Nevada Forest Dynamics project team conducts a tree autopsy whenever a tree in one of the study plots dies to learn more about tree mortality in the Sierra Nevada.

Learn more about USGS research on tree mortality here.