It lives in south-central Utah. And it’s huge. In fact, it is thought to be the largest living thing on the planet. It’s a stand of trees, a field of aspens all clones and all connected at the roots. Called Pando, the grove was first characterized by scientists in the 1970s, and it’s probably existed for many thousands of years. But now a study finds that this massive, ancient organism is failing. “More than 80 percent of the entire Pando clone is in a non sustainable state that has the potential to collapse and significantly reduce the size of this world’s largest organism in the next 10 to 20 years.” Paul Rogers, director of the Western Aspen Alliance at Utah State University. The cause of this crisis? Herbivores, mostly deer. Parts of Pando are fenced off, but even those areas are still under attack. “Young aspen trees are so nutritious that animals really want to get to them, particularly late in the year when - when the rest of the forest plants are sanest and dried up. I think that there’s perhaps some very healthy are able to jump over the eight-foot fence.”