Program on the Environment

Over the past 13 years, the Western Sword Fern has been dying off throughout the Puget lowlands. These ferns provide a multitude of uses for animals in the wild, including food for large mammals and habitats for smaller critters. No one knows what is causing this phenomenon, but without Sword Ferns, forests in the Pacific Northwest may become more vulnerable to collapse. The aim of this study was to evaluate how extensive Sword Fern die-off is throughout Western Washington by going to state parks and surveying and mapping die-off. The parks surveyed were chosen based on if they had previous reports of suspected die off, as well as if they lacked reports but had similar characteristics to known die-off locations. Once on site, I recorded data points such as slope, aspect, canopy cover, mortality rate, and other factors that were stored in a central database. With over 50 discovered die-off sites and countless data collected, my partner and I concluded that Sword Ferns die-off is rapidly spreading throughout the Puget lowlands. The main cause as to why these ferns are dying is still unknown, but with the data collected this summer, scientists can continue to explore possible answers as to why the die-off is occurring. If researchers can figure out why this phenomenon is happening, they may be able to predict where else it might have spread too and slow or stop the die-off completely. Figuring out the solution to this anomaly could lead to the saving of countless ecosystems.