{"id":10625,"date":"2025-03-24T09:29:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T15:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=10625"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:31:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:31:07","slug":"public-lands-white-bark-pine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=10625","title":{"rendered":"Public Lands – Whitebark Pine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Whitebark Pine survives harsh weather conditions and can live over 1,000 years and grow over 90 feet tall. The oldest is over 1,200 years old and is living in Idaho\u2019s Sawtooth National Forest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis<\/span><\/em>) is a marvelous tree \u2013 what ecologists call a\u00a0keystone<\/span><\/em>, or foundation, species,\u201d the Bureau of Land Management notes on its website. \u201cIts roots stabilize rocky soils at the snowy, windswept 6,000- to 12,000-foot elevations where it grows, and its large, high-protein seeds feed several bird and mammal species \u2013 nuthatches, squirrels, black bears, grizzly bears, and red foxes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to feeding several birds and mammals, the tree provides shelter and nest sites for many animals including deer and elk. It is also key to helping with Idaho\u2019s water supply.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTolerant of the harshest conditions, whitebark pine grows at the highest treeline elevations; its canopies shade snowpack and protract snowmelt, thus regulating downstream flows; its roots stabilize soil, which reduces erosion, particularly on steep, rocky slopes,\u201d the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation notes.<\/span><\/a> \u201cThus, whitebark pine protects watersheds, which is important for both agricultural and drinking water.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Another interesting fact about the Whitebark Pine is that it relies solely on the bird \u2013 the Clark\u2019s nutcracker \u2013 to reproduce. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying the seeds in a pouch under its tongue, the bird buries them in shallow soil caches, sometimes up to 10 km away,\u201d the National Park Service notes on its website. \u201cNutcrackers are known to cache up to 90,000+ seeds in a good seed crop year!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

These trees are very slow-growing. For example, once the seeds start to sprout, it can take the whitebark pine 25 to 30 years to begin producing cones.\u00a0At 60 to 80 years, the tree\u2019s peak cone production begins.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the Whitebark Pine is crucial to Idaho\u2019s ecosystem, its survival has been threatened by several different factors.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, their survival as a species is jeopardized by mountain pine beetle outbreaks, altered fire regimes, climate change, and a fungal infection called white pine blister rust,\u201d BLM notes. <\/span><\/p>\n

In 2022, the Whitebark Pine was officially listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. To learn more about the efforts to save the Whitebark Pine, head to BLM\u2019s website here. <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Whitebark Pine survives harsh weather conditions and can live over 1,000 years and grow over 90 feet tall. The oldest is over 1,200 years old and is living in Idaho\u2019s Sawtooth National Forest. \u201cThe Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a marvelous tree \u2013 what ecologists call a\u00a0keystone, or foundation, species,\u201d the Bureau of Land […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,47,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-campfire","category-education","category-public-lands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10628,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10625\/revisions\/10628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}