A recent inventory says 25 percent
of whitebark pines in the Yellowstone ecosystem have rust.
The hope
for whitebark pines in the face of the blister rust epidemic is that some trees are resistant and pass that resistance on to seedlings, which can be replanted in the wild, until genetic resistance to blister rust is well - distributed.
MPB mortality on
whitebark pine in western Wyoming's Bridger - Teton National Forest.
The beetle is now wiping out a whole ecosystem, high - elevation
whitebark pine forests, that saw only limited beetle outbreaks during warm spells in the past.
A small percentage of
whitebark pine trees have outlived the ongoing destruction by pests and disease.
Climate influences
on whitebark pine mortality from mountain pine beetle in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
A few years ago, Six was stunned to find sites where the mountain pine beetle was skipping right over lower - altitude stands of lodgepole pines, to focus on and kill
whitebark pine stands at higher altitudes.
Biologists including Tomback have known for only a few decades that the high fat content of
whitebark pine nuts helps grizzly bears fatten up for winter's hibernation.
Polly Buotte, a graduate student at the University of Idaho, has modeled beetle outbreaks,
whitebark pine mortality and projected temperatures.
Good years for
whitebark pine seed production mean good years for grizzly bears - abundant food far, far away from livestock, birdfeeders, orchards, garbage and other temptations in valley bottoms crowded with roads, development and people.
«By combining field data on seed and pollen production for
whitebark pines with models that simulate mature cone production, this study helps to answer that question for these pines.»
Warming temperatures allow the native beetle to thrive in previously inhospitable high - elevation forests, where the insect bores into and
kills whitebark pine trees.
The duo folded these data into a computer model of births and deaths, taking into account factors — such as age, sex,
whitebark pine crop size, and whether a bear had become accustomed to humans — that influenced the odds of survival of any particular tracked bear.
«Now, concerns about viability of
whitebark pine populations are one of the main reasons grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park are still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.»
Vast stands of
whitebark pine help to maintain the mountain snowpacks that provide water to more than 30 million people in 16 U.S. states each year.
Clinging to its rocky soil are some of the oldest trees in the western United States — slow -
growing whitebark pines, the oldest dating back more than a millennium.
An ancient record Assessing lake sediment cores from the region reaching 15,000 years into the past, a Montana State University team
found whitebark pines more abundant despite higher summer temperatures and fire frequency than today.
The agency planted almost 350 acres of rust -
resistant whitebark pine in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem this year, part of an ongoing 15 - year effort to help the species, said Mary Frances Mahalovich, a Forest Service geneticist.
Charcoal and ancient pollen records suggest the niche space needed
by whitebark pine is much larger than models estimate.
They inspected branches from seven
whitebark pine sites in western Montana, counting the scars left by pollen cones and seed cones.
«In the past, low years for
whitebark pine cones have led to six times more conflicts between grizzlies and humans, as hungry bears look for food in campgrounds,» says Crone.
Beetles gained similar strength in the Rockies during mild winters in the late»90s and early 2000s, killing not only their usual victims but also entire hillsides of
ancient whitebark pines, which live at altitudes once too frigid to support the insects.A beautifully concise explanation of what has happened in a large portion of the West, thanks in part to climate change.
Yet
when whitebark pine nut crops fail or do poorly, grizzlies tend to abandon the high country in search of food.
The bears raid squirrel middens or caches of
stored whitebark pine nuts in the fall, adding on the layers of fat that will get the bears through long winters, and improve the odds that grizzly mothers will have successful pregnancies.
As the fungal disease spreads south and east, it leaves behind «ghost» forests, Tomback said - stands of
dead whitebark pine and mortality rates of 90 percent or higher.
«A weaker defense system may also be why we are seeing a strong preference now by the beetle for
whitebark pine over lodgepole pine, which has long been its preferred host.»
These days, the beetles survive the winters and are
decimating whitebark pine trees, a species that shelters and feeds 50 species within Crater Lake National Park.
Standing on a mountain plateau south of Missoula, Dr. Six and Dr. Running pointed to the devastation the beetles had wrought in the forest around them, consisting of a high - elevation species
called whitebark pine.
Tree spatial patterns are a component in this thing and are one of the reasons that species like lodgepole, ponderosa and
whitebark pine get hit so hard — they are all capable of forming single species stands, making contagious spread easier, especially given that pheromone signalling is involved.
«This is not your ordinary pine tree,» said Diana Tomback, a professor of biology at the University of Colorado - Denver, one of the nation's leading experts
on whitebark pine.
The study, appearing in this month's issue of Ecology, also portends even harder times for the grizzlies, thanks to recent poor yields of
whitebark pine seeds, one of the bear's key foods.
«We as a society need to reduce emissions or these refugia are just going to become hospices
for whitebark pine,» she said.
Over the last decade, some populations
of whitebark pines have declined by more than 90 percent.
These conservation projects have included returning salmon to rivers in Canada, otter protection in Denmark, bee recovery in the UK, and in Hong Kong Banrock Station has been proud to support the Mai Po Wetlands, while in the US it has supported American Forests» campaign to preserve
the whitebark pine.
He is currently part of a group of scientists and citizens pushing the government to confer protected status on
the whitebark pine.
The death is a major concern for conservationists, biologists and public land managers, for
the whitebark pine supports the entire ecosystem.
Hit hard «
The whitebark pine is both a foundation and a keystone species,» said Jesse Logan, a retired U.S. Forest Service entomologist.
«In the warmest periods,
the whitebark pine was really pretty happy,» said Cathy Whitlock, MSU director of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems who led the research team.
But two - thirds of
the whitebark pine forest in the Yellowstone region grows on land protected by either wilderness status or a national park boundary — regions where intensive management is often anathema.
«The health of
the whitebark pine is very closely related to the health of the entire ecosystem.»
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — If you've hiked in the Northern Rockies above 9,000 feet, you've hiked among
a whitebark pine forest.
Other high - elevation species, such as Belding's ground squirrel and
whitebark pine, are also vulnerable and could lose a much larger proportion of their range.
«They represent the future of
whitebark pines.»
There's trouble ahead for
the whitebark pine, a mountain tree that's integral to wildlife and water resources in the western United States and Canada.
But this new study by a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin - Madison has found that the warming temperatures have resulted in mountain pine beetles increasingly invading high - elevation forests, like
the whitebark pine forests of the northern Rocky Mountains, and attacking them.
The attack by mountain pine beetles is posing a major threat to the forest ecosystems of
the whitebark pine forests.