Whitebark pine tree faces threat of extinction
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
The Fish and Wildlife Service determined Monday that whitebark pine, a tree found atop mountains across the American West, faces an “imminent” risk of extinction because of factors including climate change.
The decision is significant because it marks the first time the federal government has identified climate change as one of the driving factors for why a broad-ranging tree species could disappear. The Canadian government has already declared whitebark pine to be endangered throughout its entire range; a recent study found that 80 percent of whitebark pine forests in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem are dead or dying.
The Natural Resources Defense Council asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to place the tree on the endangered species list. In its determination, the agency said that it found a listing was “warranted but precluded,” meaning the pine deserved federal protection but the government could not afford it.
The whitebark pine will remain a candidate under the Endangered Species Act and will come under review annually.
An invasive disease, white pine blister rust, along with insects such as mountain pine beetle, has infiltrated the historically colder altitudes where whitebark pines thrive. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Amy Nicholas said these factors, along with fire patterns and global warming more broadly, are undermining the tree’s viability.
Please, the climate change bogeyman is at it again.
“An invasive disease, white pine blister rust, along with insects such as mountain pine beetle, has infiltrated the historically colder altitudes where whitebark pines thrive.”
So, if this isn’t a result of climate change over the last century then why have species not adapted to high alpine environments started to invade these areas? Please do explain.
Whitebark is related to sugar pine and western white pine here in Tahoe. Whitebark has evolved to be able to live in very poor soils and at very high elevation. In Tahoe I am not sure if climate change is really a threat, but clearly white pine blister rust is killing this tree very rapidly. Over 50% of the trees at Heavenly are infected. About 5% of sugar pine and western white pine have a gene that gives complete resistance to white pine blister rust. For some reason no useful resistance has ever been found in whitebark pine. So there is really no restoration strategy like we have with sugar pine.
Tahoehuskies, whitebark evolved to be able to thrive at ridgelines and in very high elevation stands. If any other tree can survive, it will outcompete whitebark. So its not just climate, its soils, wind, cold and avalanche. Whitebark can survive in all of that. Whitebark is slow growing, short and shade intollerant; basically it cannot compete with any other tree, but it can survive where no other tree can.