High Elevation Forest Monitoring

[ski3pin]

A USFS friend sent me the link below because she knows how excited I get about "five needle" pines. Be sure and watch the video at the bottom of the page -

High Elevation Forest Monitoring

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks Ski.Very interesting video.
I really like the Foxtail pine.
I think they are what we see up on Ebbetts Pass area.
Frank

 

[Taku]

Good article. We have lost thousands of acres of whitebark here in the northern rockies. Some are still hanging on and are cherished.

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

We like to finish off our Spring Mammoth Mtn session with a ski down Whitebark Bowl. I’ve always noticed the trees along the ridge line but now I’ll go over and really check them out. Thanks for the video!

 

[Smokecreek1]

Well done and interesting feature! Ya can't manage resources of any type w/o knowing what's there first and their condition-sounds like a logical way to manage stuff, but those programs are one of the first things cut when budget cuts hit field agencies. Got my start as a fed many years ago doing inventory and setting up monitoring programs with BLM/FS and NPS because congress (it actually worked sometimes back then) passed something called FLPMA (Federal Land Planning Management Act) that required the BLM to inventory and set up mgt plans for all those public lands not managed by the USFS and NPS (who had the same types of directives and regs). Those approved management plans and their successors today are some of the major reasons that our public lands have not been mostly destroyed and or sold off to the highest bidder as certain administrations over the years have tried to do. Sorry about the political comment but w/o projects like this one there would be no mgt plans and no places to play and WTW.....

Smoke

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Well done and interesting feature! Ya can't manage resources of any type w/o knowing what's there first and their condition-sounds like a logical way to manage stuff, but those programs are one of the first things cut when budget cuts hit field agencies. Got my start as a fed many years ago doing inventory and setting up monitoring programs with BLM/FS and NPS because congress (it actually worked sometimes back then) passed something called FLPMA (Federal Land Planning Management Act) that required the BLM to inventory and set up mgt plans for all those public lands not managed by the USFS and NPS (who had the same types of directives and regs). Those approved management plans and their successors today are some of the major reasons that our public lands have not been mostly destroyed and or sold off to the highest bidder as certain administrations over the years have tried to do. Sorry about the political comment but w/o projects like this one there would be no mgt plans and no places to play and WTW.....

Smoke

Great comment IMO Smoke.
Frank

 

[ski3pin]

Our ecosystems are so incredible. I am in awe every time I travel through them, especially the high elevations. We have a grove of Western White Pines (another 5 needle pine) near Blue Lakes that is monitored. Rumor has it, the world's largest may be there. The more we learn........................how could we ever be so short-sighted to take any of this for granted. I love this stuff.

Good article. We have lost thousands of acres of whitebark here in the northern rockies. Some are still hanging on and are cherished.

We like to finish off our Spring Mammoth Mtn session with a ski down Whitebark Bowl. I’ve always noticed the trees along the ridge line but now I’ll go over and really check them out. Thanks for the video!

 

[ski3pin]

Mr. Smoke, you are right in line with what I have heard from many others who have worked, or still do, in the agencies. Good comment, thank you!

Well done and interesting feature! Ya can't manage resources of any type w/o knowing what's there first and their condition-sounds like a logical way to manage stuff, but those programs are one of the first things cut when budget cuts hit field agencies. Got my start as a fed many years ago doing inventory and setting up monitoring programs with BLM/FS and NPS because congress (it actually worked sometimes back then) passed something called FLPMA (Federal Land Planning Management Act) that required the BLM to inventory and set up mgt plans for all those public lands not managed by the USFS and NPS (who had the same types of directives and regs). Those approved management plans and their successors today are some of the major reasons that our public lands have not been mostly destroyed and or sold off to the highest bidder as certain administrations over the years have tried to do. Sorry about the political comment but w/o projects like this one there would be no mgt plans and no places to play and WTW.....

Smoke

 

[craig333]

My dad worked in the blister rust control program when he was a young man. Pulling gooseberries. Program ended in 1967. We visited a friend in Lake Tahoe when I was very young and I remember my dad getting out and the first thing he says is "you've got blister rust (or maybe it was gooseberries) ".

 

[ski3pin]

Years ago I had a forest geneticist ski with me along the crest. He spotted a white bark pine that, to his expect eyes, was resistant to blister rust and asked me to put an x on the topo for its location. He came back for seed when the snow was gone.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Years ago I had a forest geneticist ski with me along the crest. He spotted a white bark pine that, to his expect eyes, was resistant to blister rust and asked me to put an x on the topo for its location. He came back for seed when the snow was gone.

Any idea what happened to the collected seeds?
Frank

 

[ski3pin]

The geneticists collect seeds from trees with good characteristics in the hope of growing stronger trees, in this case white pines that show resistance to blister rust. Our local National Forest has a large nursery and the Institute of Forest Genetics.

 

[Advmoto18]

Great article and video. Thanks for posting Ski!

I wished the pines around here were beautiful and of unique character, but, they're are not.