The Kusko Times

The strange barrenness of trees on the Aleutian islands is told by H. W. Jewell of the U. S. Biological Survey, who spent part of the summer around the Aleutians. Forty-four Sitka spruce trees were planted on a small island near Unalaska in 1854 by Bishop Inokenty of the old Russian Alaska Company. These trees took to their new surroundings and were apparently on the way to providing future timber on the islands, but for some reason unknown to scientists they refused to propagate. No seeds sprang up to make seedlings; no shoots tapped off the roots to make new growth. The 44 trees grew slowly, reached a diameter of from 6 to 18 inches at the base, a maximum height of 32 feet, and are still growing, but when they mature and die it seems probable that the "forest on the Aleutians" will die also, leaving nothing but the luxuriant grasses which abound on the islands, growing to a height of six feet or more. With the temperature on the Aleutians being practically stationary, and rarely below zero, and with a soil promoting luxuriant growth of vegetation, other than trees, the mystery of the dying forest on the island remains another unsolved mystery in nature's puzzle book.