Whitebark pine tree faces extinction threat, agency says

[alp227]

Source: The 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.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/whitebark-pine-tree-faces-extinction-threat-agency-says/2011/07/18/gIQA7tMcMI_story.html

[denbot]

1. White Bark Pine cones are a major food source for Grizzly Bears.

Sigh..

[Quixote1818]

2. A small slice of what the die off looks like

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_1f7f10b7-bf0c-5b13-a68e-0b5b1d4d04af.html

[Baclava]

6. So the beetles have won.

Beetles take bite out of whitebark

Aerial photographs document 1 million acres of whitebark forest dead or nearly so from mountain pine beetles and an invasive fungus.

An invasive fungus, blister rust, has been taking a toll on whitebark pine for a century.

The recent toll from beetles has been far greater, however. "Whitebark pine is basically a sitting duck to the mountain pine beetle."

[Quixote1818]

7. What I imagine will happen is perhaps one in 100 trees or perhaps more

will have a strong enough immunity to the beatles and fungus. Those trees will survive and the species as a whole will be better able to handle this kind of thing in the future. Problem is, it's just going to get hotter and hotter so who knows? Also, there will be less trees competing for ground water which might allow some to create enough sap to fight off the beatles. It's going to look really ugly for about 20 years until all those dead trees fall down and decay. After that probably species like Aspen will move into the areas where the die offs occurred. Mankind is putting a lot of species to the test for survival.

[Mendocino]

3. Chestnut ,elm ,ash

the list goes on, these trees don't.

[WatsonT]

4. Fortunately we have the knowledge these days to at least save specimens

so they can be brought back later.

Not that this is a good thing, but it will be less permanent (possibly) than previous extinctions.

[NickB79]

5. If the driving force for their extinction is climate change, there won't be a "later"

At least, not in their native range, for tens of thousands of years (the amount of time it will take nature to sequester all the CO2 we've emitted in the past few hundred years).

Of course, we could possibly start new populations further north of their current range, or alternately maybe we'll discover some new technology to sequester CO2 from the atmosphere in the future to speed up carbon reduction.