‘Firmageddon’: Oregon conifers suffer record die-off as climate crisis hits hard

Ominous swaths of red dot Oregon’s green expanses where the fir trees have died. Photograph: Danny DePinte/US Forest Service

Scientists have discovered a record number of dead fir trees in Oregon, in a foreboding sign of how drought and the climate crisis are ravaging the American west.

A recent aerial survey found that more than a million acres of forest contain trees that have succumbed to stressors exacerbated by a multi-year drought. Images released by the US Forest Service show Oregon’s lush green expanses dotted with ominous swathes of red.