Geoff Bennett:
Many of the tree species identified as most at risk are in the southern U.S., Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, and out west in California. Many are recognizable species Hawthorne, oak and pine, among others.
That brings us back to the struggling ash tree. We trekked deeper into the forest off the trail and through streams to find one of the largest living black ash trees in the forest. Is the threat posed just by the insects or its climate change a factor here as well?
Ron Hughes, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources: A species like this which is actually a northern species and survives in a few places in Virginia where the climate is just right and that means a little cooler.
When you start getting increases in temperature, then you start affecting that plant that likes a different climate. When you get a tree that is a very integral component of a forest, and it goes away. It's a disruption in the whole system. And there are microclimate changes that happen when you open a part of the canopy up.
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