Laminated Root Rot is one of the major problems we're dealing with right now. It's endemic to forests of a certain age -- say, 50-130 years old -- and will usually result in a resistant residual stand... over time. It's common knowledge among loggers that you have to get 'em down before the disease takes 'em down regardless. I was working on one study a couple of years ago GPSing stump locations of individual trees immediately after harvest; the crew was still skidding as I worked. Bullbuck asked me, "Why'd you guys let 'em stand so long and get this bad?" It was a valid question. Fact is, Douglas-Fir and LRR co-evolved and are very much dependent on each other. In moist forests that are unlikely to see fire, LRR (with a bit of cooperation from the wind) is one of the critical disturbance agents that allows a single-aged stand to become a many-aged stand, or "Old Growth". It's totally incompatible with the idea of "trees as a crop", however, which is why it's such a major issue in second- and third-growth forests. None of this is news to anybody who has worked in these woods, but the public seldom gets any insight into these issues until they see a clear-cut.
