By Alex Day, Marketing/Communications & Database Director
Standing under a towering, powerful evergreen tree taking in the fresh, crisp air and hearing the rustling of needles in the breeze, is an instant reminder of how small we are – and how lucky we are to live or recreate in the evergreen state. These gentle giants are truly iconic, and it’s hard to imagine a national park visit in Washington without the opportunity to walk amongst them.
These trees are more than just visually appealing, though – they are critical to the ecosystems they live in, supporting many other species as well. That’s especially true for whitebark pine, considered a keystone species in the American West.
The “Adopt a Whitebark Pine” project in Mount Rainier National Park and North Cascades National Park, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), is focused on restoring this important keystone species to healthy numbers, a park priority project that’s been supported through charitable contributions for several years now.
In December 2022, whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) was named a threatened species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, receiving Endangered Species Act protection. In the announcement, Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Director Matt Hogan said:
As a keystone species of the West, extending ESA protections to whitebark pine is critical to not only the tree itself, but also the numerous plants, animals, and watersheds that it supports.”
Whitebark pine trees live in windy, high-elevation environments across the western United States and southern Canada, including in Washington’s national parks. Whitebark pine stands to play an essential role in slowing runoff from snowmelt and reducing soil erosion in addition to providing a high-energy food source for animals.
The main threat to this key tree species is white pine blister rust, a non-native fungal disease that weakens the trees, making them more susceptible to additional threats like damage from mountain pine beetles and climate change. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, scientists estimate that more than half of all standing whitebark pine trees are dead because of these threats.
Learn more about whitebark pine – and why restoration efforts are so critical – in Hope and Restoration: Saving the Whitebark Pine, a video by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:
During the summer of 2021, staff at both Mount Rainier and North Cascades National Parks collected whitebark pine cones to test the parent trees for genetic resistance to a fungal pathogen called white pine blister rust.
Cone caging whitebark pine in the Sourdough Mountains in northeastern Mount Rainier National Park, an area that has not been previously screened for white pine blister rust resistance. Blister rust mortality in this core area is estimated to be at least 44%. From top left, Josh Drown (Mount Rainier horticulturist) in a whitebark tree in Green Park; right, James Montgomery (Mount Rainier Trails supervisor) places cone cages; bottom left, a lone large whitebark tree among subalpine fir was accessible to park climbers. The photos above are by Josh Drown, NPS.
In Mount Rainier National Park, 109 cones were collected from seven trees, including from two new populations that had not previously been tested for resistance. An additional 21 cones were collected from three trees in North Cascades National Park, including one new population.
U.S. Forest Service researchers will sow the seeds from these cones and inoculate the seedlings with white pine blister rust and observe and grade their resistance to fungal infection. If a parent tree is found to be resistant, it is considered an “elite” tree. Park staff will collect additional seeds from elite trees, then direct seed or propagate and plant potentially hundreds of seedlings for whitebark pine restoration.
While there were some challenges during the cone collection part of the project, like losing some cones to chipmunks and cages to high winds and hungry animals, the work continues as identifying resistant trees is critical to the success of restoration efforts. Ultimately, results will also provide a better picture of white pine blister rust across the landscape.
At Mount Rainier, this work is already starting with several known resistant, elite trees identified. Currently, the park is starting to use seeds from these trees to test restoration work and has started growing hundreds of rust-resistant seedlings in the greenhouse in 2022. Read more about monitoring the health of whitebark pine in the NPS’ North Coast and Cascades Network.
Funds from donations to Washington’s National Park Fund are used by the parks to cover the costs of seed storage and propagation, care of seedlings, seedling inoculation with white pine blister rust, and data analysis and reporting.
This project has the potential to guide the restoration of the federally-listed threatened tree species, producing positive effects on whitebark pine populations and the wildlife that depend on them for years to come. The information gathered will help protect elite trees from threats like wildfire or mountain pine beetle attacks, streamline restoration efforts, and increase seedling survival rates.
“Identifying these elite seed-source trees is the first critical step in making sure that the whitebark woodlands and forests of the past are in the parks’ futures,” says Beth Fallon, Plant Ecologist at Mount Rainier National Park.
We wouldn’t have been able to screen those seeds without the support of donors to Washington’s National Park Fund.”
Washington’s National Park Fund is the official philanthropic partner to Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks. With your help, we raise private support to preserve and protect Washington’s national parks, funding scientific research, youth and family experiences, and projects that will keep these parks strong and vital now and forever, for everyone. Support projects like this one by making a donation that will have a positive impact on the parks.
Cover photo courtesy of North Cascades National Park, NPS/Mendez