Photos: Interior birch trees hit by hot summer, invasive insects

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Drought conditions cause birch trees to pull back chlorophyll to the center of leaves, causing other parts of leaves to fade to yellow and brown.

Interior Alaska's hot and dry summer of 2013, coupled with an invasion of insect pests that proliferated in number this year, has taken a steep toll on the region's birch trees, experts say.

Had it not been for the heavy rains that swept in during the second half of this summer, a large numbers of the trees might have been doomed, said Glenn Juday, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks

"If we had not had something like a near-record rainfall, we would have seen mass tree deaths," Juday said.

Read more: Summer heat, invasive insects take toll on interior Alaska birch trees