Fraser fir, Albies fraseri(Pursh) Poir., is the
southern most fir in eastern North America where it is only found in the Southern AppalachianMountains from Virginia
through North Carolina
and Tennessee
into Georgia. Fraser fir is listed as threatened in Tennessee.
The spruce-fir forest that are dieing in the Smoke Mountains just happen to be the same ones that were clear-cut about a hundred years ago thus this is an even aged forest so they are more vulnerable to what ever is the cause. I doubt it is pollution because there are younger trees that are growing including several that are in areas disturbed since the original forest was cut. If it was really pollution these should have also died. Fraser fir is called she-balsam while the red spruce, Picea rubens Sarg., is called he-balsam, but balsam fir,Abiesbalsamea (L.) Mill., actually grows further north in eastern North America while all the other native firs are out west in the mountains. An interesting thing about fir trees is that the cones are upright, but disintegrate
rather than falling to the ground thus making it seemingly impossible to ever get one. Firs make one of the best Christmas
trees partially due to the cones appearing as ornaments, but this would be only
at the top of a mature fir tree. Just to avoid any confusion of fir trees with true cedar trees such as cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani A. Rich. [excluded],
or Deodar cedar, C. deodara(Roxb.) G. Don f., where the cones are also upright, it is the true cedar trees usually Deodar that are grown as ornamentals much further south than firs will thrive if they even survive.
When a fir tree is mentioned in the Bible it actually refers to a pine tree and vice versa due to the binomial naming system being devised after both the original and King James translation thus indicating how confusing common names can be with trees in the Bible besides just cedars and junipers such as eastern red-cedar, Juniperus virginiana L. One detail of a sermon I'll never forget mentioned how the smaller fir trees would get knocked down when the very large cedar trees were cut for beams of the the temple Solomon built; these fir trees were then used for trim work.
