Dying Forests

[Hughmac]

Now that the smoke is clearing in the Southern Highlands, swathes of local forest are revealed to be dying from drought, not fire. Mt Gibralter, Gibbergunyah and Mt Alexandra are all affected, as are a variety of other locations in the district. Affected species include scribbly gums, silver top ash, Sydney peppermints, black she-oak and Acacia longifolia, among others, so it is not limited to particular species. Wondered if other districts were suffering the same fate. As if the fires weren't doing enough damage.

[michael_p]

It's dry as a bone everywhere. I have noticed the death of nearly all the Mistletoe around my area. It has been happening slowly for the last six months but over the last two months the die-off has become almost total. Amazingly the host trees appear to be OK so I am not sure why the Mistletoe has died.

[highercountry]

I'm in coastal East Gippsland.
The already rare stands of Coast Grey Box are looking very spindly. The oldest trees seem to be suffering most. Quite a few are dead, many more are dying back.

... Amazingly the host trees appear to be OK so I am not sure why the Mistletoe has died.

I have also noticed lots of dead misletoe sitting on the roadsides.
My reasoning is that perhaps the host tree can shut off translocation/circulation to it's extremities.
On the box trees first the leaf foliage thins out, even the the individual leaves look smaller, then the trees dies-back from the extremities inwards to the limbs and trunk.
I'd imagine anything attached to and living on the outer reaches of the tree will also die.