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Forest pathogens are one of the key drivers of the dynamics and diversity of forested landscapes, contributing to structural and compositional complexity at multiple scales in space and time. Growth and yield models help guide forest management decisions but the roles of abiotic and biotic disturbance agents including pathogens are often overlooked. In our study of mid-rotation spruce plantations in northwest British Columbia (BC), Canada, we examine the influence of tomentosus root disease on the oldest managed stands in a previously unmanaged landscape allowing us to witness pathogen expression in a first rotation setting over the longest duration available. Our 10 one-hectare stem-mapped plots capture the spatial variability of root disease expression and their large size, coupled with their random selection without any prior knowledge of the pathogen, make our study unique. We found tomentosus root …