Whitebark Pine to be Designated a Candidate for Endangered Species Protection

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced today it has determined the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but that adding the species to the Federal List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants is precluded by the need to address other listing actions of a higher priority.

The Service will add the whitebark pine to the list of candidate species eligible for ESA protection and review its status annually. When a warranted but precluded finding is made for a species, the Service classifies it as a candidate for listing. If the Service proposes the whitebark pine for listing in the future, the public will have an opportunity to comment.

America’s fish, wildlife and plant resources belong to all of us, and ensuring the health of imperiled species is a shared responsibility. While candidate species receive no statutory protection under the ESA, inclusion on the candidate list promotes cooperative conservation efforts for these species. The Service will work to actively engage conservation partners in the search for improved and innovative ways to conserve and recover imperiled species.

The Service determined that threats to the whitebark pine include habitat loss and mortality from white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle, catastrophic fire and fire suppression, environmental effects resulting from climate change, and the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms. Whitebark pine is experiencing an overall long-term pattern of decline, even in areas originally thought to be mostly immune from the above threats. Recent predictions indicate a continuing downward trend within the majority of its range. While individual trees may persist, given current trends the Service anticipates whitebark pine forests will likely become extirpated and their ecosystem functions will be lost in the foreseeable future. On a landscape scale, the species appears to be in danger of extinction, potentially within as few as two to three generations. The generation time of whitebark pine is approximately 60 years.

http://www.fws.gov/wyominges/Pages/Species/Findings/2011_WBP.html

in some areas. Those beautiful mountain sides that adjoin the areas I have skied or hiked for years and which now are just devastated with the remains of dead trees is so damned sad. Not to mention all the areas that have so freely burned as a result.

I surely hope we find a solution to these damned beetles.