 |
"I saw today a species of woodpecker which fed on seeds of pine. its beak and tail were white, its wings were black, and everyother part a dark brown. it is about the size of a robin." -- Meriwether Lewis
Many travelers have witnessed the Clark's nutcracker perched near a Rocky Mountain campground, waiting for spilled trail mix. The more notable aspect of Lewis's observation, however, is not the bird but the interaction between bird and whitebark pine. This intertwined natural history has broad implications for the future of the West. |
Unlike other species that are stressed by a complex web of factors, the whitebark pine's shrinking numbers have a clear culprit: blister rust. This non-native fungus first appeared in 1906 and has infected 80 percent of whitebark pine stands in northern Montana. Because the rust is an exotic disease, it has no natural enemies in North America to slow its progress. Its spread to prime grizzly bear areas such as Yellowstone seems inevitable.
Blister rust attacks whitebark pines through the needles, working its way to the trunks where it causes cankers or blisters to erupt. As branches die, trees lose their ability to produce cones and become more susceptible to insect and rodent attacks. The disease, combined with years of fire suppression that have disturbed the natural composition of Rocky Mountain forests, threatens the future of whitebark pine.
Overall, whitebark pine has declined 45 to 50 percent since 1900, and experts estimate these stands will take 500 to 700 years to grow back, if they recover at all.
|
