AMERICAN FORESTS SPECIAL REPORT Key to the Species List 1. Whitebark Pine, Pinus albicaulis 18. Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus 2. Common Raven, Corvus spp. 19. Pine Grosbeak, Pinicola enucleator 3. Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus 20. Clark’s Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana 4. Red Crossbill, Loxia curvirostra 21. Williamson’s Sapsucker, Sphyrapicus 5. Clark’s Nutcracker, Nucifraga thyroideus columbiana 22. Cassin’s Finch, Carpodacus cassinii 6. Black-backed Woodpecker, Picoides arcticus 23. Paintbrush, Castilleja miniata 7. Smoke from a distant wildfire 24. Chipmunk, Eutamias spp. 8. Whitebark Pine seedlings & saplings: 25. Grizzly Bear, Ursus arctos horribilis the next generation of whitebarks. 26. Beargrass, Xerophyllum tenax 9. Mountain Bluebird, Sialia currucoides 27. Whitebark Pine cones and seeds, 10 Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsoni cus important food sources for all these animals. 11. White-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis 28. Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata 12. Mountain Chickadee, Parus gambeli 29. Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta 13. Fire scar on trunk of a whitebark Canadensis pine; an indication of past fires these trees have survived. 30. Clark’s Nutcracker, Nucifraga columbiana, tearing cones apart 14. Whitebark Pine seedlings - the next for seeds. generation of whitebarks. 31. Black Bear, Ursus americanus 15. Spreading Phlox, Phlox diffusa 32. Mature and healthy whitebark pine 16. Currant Ribes spp ., host species for blister rust pathogen Cronartium 33. Dead whitebark pine, providing ribicola that is currently killing many homes for animals. of these ancient whitebark pines 34. Brown whitebark pine treetop 17. White-headed Woodpeckers, Picoides needles showing effects of blister albolarvatus rust pathogen Cronartium ribicola . Illustration courtesy of Larry Eifert, 2007 © Estuary Press. For more information go to www.larryeifert.com. The original Mural was commissioned by The Crater Lake Institute, at www.craterlakeinstitute.org. Cooperation & assistance for the mural was provided by The Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, www.whitebarkfound.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining whitebark pine ecosystems. WWhhiitteebbaarrkk PPiinnee AN ECOSYSTEM IN PERIL WHITEBARK PINE: Special Report Imperile d in High Places A tree that in many ways defines life atop the Mature whitebark pines do much to orchestrate windswept crown of western North America’s high the way life revolves near mountain summits. To country is in trouble. Whitebark pine, which has begin with, the tree’s seeds are crucial to much high- evolved to both live and foster other life forms in a elevation ecological interaction. They’re large, landscape where existence is a struggle, faces deci - extremely nutritious, and capable of boosting a mation from blister rust, an outbreak of mountain whitebark seedling’s chances in a habitat where the pine beetles, fire suppression, and increasingly elements seem to conspire against survival. Despite warm weather. If something can’t be done to help all the inclemency they’re up against, whitebarks are “When we these trees, whitebarks could disappear from the successful reseeders. However, due to an evolution - If efforts to Sierra, Cascade, and northern Rocky Mountain sum - ary twist of fate, they can’t manage this crucial act of Amits. And along with the trees, we could lose a com - species self-preservation on their own. protect the plex web of plant and animal life, all with the poten - Unlike other pines, whitebark seeds neither drop try to pick out tial to become ecologically unraveled if efforts to pro - from the cones, nor wait for the wind to provide dis - whitebark tect this symbol of subalpine tenacity should fail. persal. Instead, these pines have evolved a mutualis - Whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis ) is a five-needled tic partnership with a bird at home in subalpine pine fail, species most often found near the timberline. forests, the Clark’s nutcracker. anything by itself, Younger trees are known for their whitish bark, thus These handsome, gray, white, and black members we could lose the name. The trees often grow in clusters, the of the Corvid family (crows, jays, ravens, and mag - crowns can be bushy, and the trees themselves some - pies), are vital to manipulating a specialized environ - a complex web times display the gnarled effects of harsh, high-alti - mental niche, and in doing so, are fostering the suc - we find it hitched tude living. cess of their own species by simply planting a seed. of plant and animal life. to everything else -by- Gary Lantz in the universe.” Whitebark pines (left) are essential to life in subalpine ecosystems. —John Muir T R E F I E Y R R A L O K Z E I N S D E A H C I R , E C I V R E S T S E R O F S U WHITEBARK PINE IMPERILED 1 WHITEBARK PINE: Special Report WHITEBARK PINE RANGE Some altitudes sometimes nine months of the year.” John Muir, naturalist, father of the Sierra Club, biologists and poet laureate of the western North America high country, loved these trees that grew at the top estimate that of the world. “During stormy nights,” he said, “I have often camped snugly beneath the interlacing a single Clark’s arches of this little pine. The needles, which have accumulated for centuries, make fine beds; a fact nutcracker well known to other mountaineers such as deer and wild sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie may store beneath the larger trees in safe and comfortable concealment.” K as many C Muir reported that he once counted 255 annual O T S I / I R rings in a whitebark pine tree that stood a scant E R A as 35,000 G three feet tall. Another three-footer, he said, con - H P E S O tained 426 annual rings. Muir added that although J the trees were of great antiquity, the branches remained so supple he could tie them into knots. Autumn arrives early in whitebark pine country. While Clark’s nutcrackers prepare for the winter by R planting whitebark seeds, red squirrels are busy E T N E gleaning cones and gathering them into large caches C E C R U called middens. Certainly the squirrels go about this O S E R end-of-season task with no intention of sharing. But C I T E N Clark’s nutcrackers are transformed into a dense forest with a complex veg - black and grizzly bears could care less. Whitebark E G A N adept at prying seeds from the etative understory, attractive to elk, bear, moose, red seeds are a prime source of nutrition prior to hiber - E R O D whitebark cones and carrying squirrels, and a variety of songbirds. nation. Grizzlies are experts at locating squirrel stash - them in a throat pouch with As the high-altitude canopy spreads and matures, es, even in the snow. And when sow grizzlies emerge whitebark the capacity to hold 80 to 100 of the nutritious nuts. it creates a microclimate supporting an increasing from the winter den with cubs in tow, the famished Then the birds spread out to do their gardening. A complexity of plants and animals. Whitebark pine bears seek out pine seeds as an emergency ration. seeds in as nutcracker may fly several miles before caching groves block wind and prevent rapid snowmelt. This The big bears carefully pick each seed from the seeds an inch or so deep in the soil. The birds often in turn prevents erosion and ensures a constant cone, much like a kid from the South shells peanuts many as 9,500 seek open, sunlit meadows like recently burned source of cold water to feed mountain streams or sunflower seeds. Whitebark seeds are the gift of areas or places where strong winter winds will throughout the summer. Trout fishermen are among life for this rare and charismatic predator, just as sites during sweep away the snow. Then, somehow, the nut - those who benefit from the role these high-altitude they are for red squirrels, nutcrackers, and others T crackers manage to remember the location of the pines play in preserving the quality midsummer creatures that benefit from the nuts’ rich suste - R E F I one fall E caches as summer turns to autumn, and the cold flows that trout require. The loss of good trout habi - nance. Were it not for the whitebark pine, grizzlies Y R R A and unrelenting winter winds begin to blow. tat can, in turn, affect mountain life ranging from the would be forced to seek food at lower elevations, and L cone crop. Some biologists estimate that a single Clark’s nut - well-being of grizzly bears to the regional economy. thus suffer even more frequent contact with man. cracker may deposit as many as 35,000 whitebark Donald Peattie, in his classic book A Natural As history has shown, the grizzly is better off as The Clark’s nutcracker, seeds in as many as 9,500 sites during one fall cone History Of Western Trees , noted, “Of all the trees in a bear of the wilderness, beyond man’s daily haunts, From the Canadian Rockies and North seen above right, crop. About half the seeds are then recovered as its range, [the whitebark pine] is the most complete - and few trees better symbolize America’s remaining separates the seeds either food for the adult birds or essential nutrients ly alpine. And at last it stands, or rather creeps and wild places than the whitebark pine. What would Cascades, to Yellowstone and the high from the whitebark for their young. struggles, alone, rooted in desolate mountain rock, happen to the endangered bears of the Greater pine’s cones (above) The rest have the opportunity to sprout as tough its limbs on the windward side dismantled, its stem Yellowstone region if whitebark pines were to disap - Sierra, some 98 percent of the tree’s range is and buries them to seedlings with a rapidly stabilizing taproot and the foreshortened to a height of three or four feet, its pear remains a matter of speculation.