1). It’s probably not true, but distorted and/or exaggerated.
2). Whichever, it will be attributed to climate change.
Gotcha by 4 seconds....:^))
It’s happened before - the Eastern US looks totally different than it did when settlers first arrived. The American chestnut that was ridiculously common and highly rot resistant and which was used by settlers for fence rails and cabins is now long gone- not because they were all chopped down, but because of chestnut blight. It was an important component of the diet of the now extinct passenger pigeon...and many other animals and game birds.
A similar story goes for the American Elm, for all practical purposes devastated by the introduced Dutch Elm Disease.
The beeches that were once thick all over the Ohio region and supplied mast in odd years for many species, also including the now extinct passenger pigeon... were greatly reduced because settlers recognized the beech’s need for moist, fertile soil and so, sought out beech groves to clear for farming.
There’s now another introduced bug, the emerald ash borer, which is doing a number on American ash trees, a commercially important lumber species. Time will tell how big an impact that’s going to make as it spreads out from Chicago.
And some new bug’s been introduced lately that’s killing our sweet bay trees here.
Another nasty thing is wiping out our citrus trees here; it is called lethal yellowing, a disease that hitchhikes on an introduced insect. Since these are recently introduced pests trees have about as much defense against them as the American Indian did against smallpox. There will be survivors but only after a lot are wiped out, leaving gaping holes in the food chain, forest succession, etc.
My son and I took a driving tour last August through Sequia - Kings Canyon parks. I could not believe how many of the Sierras big trees are dead and dieing. A few years ago, we saw bark beetle infestations in Colorado doing the same thing.
Here on the San Francisco Peninsula, our magnificent centuries-old oak tress are dying at a fast rate. There’s a pathogen that causes “Sudden Oak Death” (SOD). Healthy trees succumb very quickly. The pathogen can be spread on your boots as you hike. You see SOD warning signs all over.
I have no doubt what they are describing I see true. This is the first I’ve heard of the problem in SoCal.