In fact, a healthy birch tree can survive several years of roller infestations, by which time Nature usually supplies the predators that bring the numbers of leaf rollers into balance.

Brown birch trees in both Southcentral and Interior Alaska this summer aren’t signaling an early fall. Rather, they are subject to an infestation of small, leaf-munching larvae.

Many birch leaves in Fairbanks and Anchorage are going from green to brown as the result of an insect infestation. U.S. Forest Service entomologist Stephen Burr in Fairbanks says a leaf mining bug ...