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Turns out, southern Utah’s juniper trees aren’t so indestructible after all. But what is killing them?

(Brian Maffly | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Botanist Kay Shumway displays beetle larvae he recovered from dying junipers in San Juan County during a tour last November. A retired science educator from Blanding, Shumway was the first to document a troubling die-off of the hardy tree species and is now helping federal scientists determine what is killing the junipers.

(Brian Maffly | The Salt Lake Tribune) Liz Hebertson, a plant pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Forest Health Protection program, inspects a dead juniper on Utah's Alkali Ridge in November as part of a team investigating a troubling die-off of the hardy tree species.