Video Credit: Andrew Studer, Ashlan Bonnell / American Forests
AS THE SUN CRESTS over the Cascade Mountains on a crisp September morning, warm light washes over the towering silhouette of Mount Rainier, painting the dormant volcano’s snow‑covered ridges with alpenglow. The moment is fleeting — a quiet passage between night and day in one of the country’s most storied forest landscapes.
At Sunrise Rim, the highest point in Mount Rainier National Park accessible by car, the stillness has already given way to motion. Tourists from all over the world shoulder daypacks while scanning the horizon. Volunteer park rangers field questions. And nearby, restoration crews prepare for a long day ahead.
Eve Bernhard moves with purpose. She checks her supplies, cinches her pack and secures her copper‑colored curls with a few practiced twists of bobby pins. Experience has taught her to move with mastered efficiency. Before heading out, she exchanges easy jokes with a crew of tree‑climbing contractors — camaraderie forged in shared work and short timelines.
As Bernhard approaches the trailhead, a ranger stops her. “You’re on the whitebark crew, aren’t you?” he says, grinning with gratitude. “It’s really great work you’re doing.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
Bernhard smiles warmly back at him as she begins the 2‑mile hike to the day’s restoration site. Clark’s nutcrackers call overhead, their sharp kraaks cutting through the steady crunch of her boots on the trail. A mix of subalpine fir and whitebark pine flank the way, offering brief shade as the sun climbs higher.
Bernhard, an ecologist working with American Forests and the National Park Service, has just five days in Mount Rainier National Park to conduct restoration activities to conserve and restore the iconic whitebark pine. After a two‑day detour home, she will move on — first to Olympic National Park, then remote sites in North Cascades National Park Complex — racing against the close of the narrow window between when whitebark pine cones reach peak ripeness and when landscapes become inaccessible due to snow.
Each stop is part of a broader, ongoing effort to restore the keystone species across its range.
Racing to restore a resilient species
A true representation of resilience, the tenacious whitebark pine grows in some of the most extreme high‑elevation environments and can withstand the harshest conditions.
Reaching elevations of up to 12 000 feet, the whitebark pine’s range covers more than 80 million acres across seven U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, throughout which the species plays a critical role.
“A lot of people refer to whitebark pine as a keystone species,” Bernhard says. “That term is echoing the keystone in a bridge — the one stone that’s holding it all together. In a similar fashion, whitebark pine plays a crucial role in holding the entire ecosystem together so that it does not collapse.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
Whitebark pine supports the regeneration of many other plant species within the ecosystem. Its canopy helps to shade and regulate snowmelt, ensuring timely dispersion into many key Western waterways that provide millions of people with drinking water. And its seeds — locked away in difficult‑to‑penetrate cones — are highly nutritious and feed more than 20 different wildlife species, including foxes, squirrels, bears and the Clark’s nutcracker.
But right now, the whitebark pine faces a quartet of threats, placing its important role in the ecosystem at risk. Climate change, changing wildfire regimes, mountain pine beetle infestations and an invasive fungus known as white pine blister rust have wiped out an estimated 325 million whitebark pine. This is why Bernhard, and many others, are working so hard to restore the species through a variety of restoration activities.
Employing every tool in the restoration toolkit
Moving at a quick pace, Bernhard reaches her restoration site — a basin cleared in the ‘30s for a drive‑in campground that was ultimately decommissioned. Now, the meadow is only sprinkled with trees. Bernhard’s job is to help restore it with whitebark pine with the assistance of her National Park Service colleagues.
Photo Credit: Nick Grier / American Forests
“There are a lot of happy and sick whitebark nearby,” Bernhard says. “We’re just trying to restore the whole basin with native vegetation. It’s been a huge restoration effort right smack‑dab in the middle of prime whitebark habitat.”
To do so, Bernhard is employing a technique known as direct seeding. She thoughtfully maps out plots using a 9‑by‑9‑inch PVC frame, relying on knowledge and a bit of curiosity to guide her choices for each planting location. She then digs 1‑inch openings, placing five seeds directly in each hole.
This emerging restoration method provides ecologists like Bernhard with an efficient way to replant whitebark pine in logistically challenging locations. Because the species grows in such difficult‑to‑access landscapes, planting crews can bypass lugging large pallets of seedlings up the mountain to restoration sites.
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
Traveling light in this way is a reasonably welcome gift for Bernhard today but a true necessity for accessing her upcoming field visits in Olympic and North Cascades National Parks, some of which require double‑digit round‑trip hikes covering thousands of feet in elevation. Additionally, by testing and assessing direct seeding, the results can inform restoration practices at all the parks, using science in action to continue to improve efforts.
Bernhard records every measurement and detail meticulously before shifting her attention to nearby newly germinated seedlings planted during previous seasons.
“In this cache, there were five seeds, and now five germinants,” Bernhard says of a group of tender sprouts. “This plot overall had good early establishment for a harsh high‑elevation environment — just over 50 % survival from the first year — which is a really good sign.”
Bernhard checks on the tiny yet thriving seedlings as she encourages them — like a mother to her young child — before embarking on her next task. “Alright, little babies. Time to keep growing up big and strong.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
To conduct direct seeding, Bernhard and her colleagues need high‑quality seeds. The trees only produce cones once every 3–5 years, which is why Bernhard, tree‑climbing contractors and National Park Service crews work swiftly throughout the season to collect the trees’ ripe cones.
Whitebark pine cones experience a several‑week window of peak ripeness. During this time, crews climb and retrieve cones from trees that have been identified as having natural resistance to white pine blister rust. The cones they collect are usually surrounded by protective mesh cages placed earlier in the year to keep the seeds safe from critters, particularly the Clark’s nutcracker.
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
The Clark’s nutcracker is a crow‑sized bird on which the whitebark pine is reliant for natural regeneration — an essential partnership within its ecosystem. The bird uses its beak to break the cones and release the seeds, then buries thousands of caches of those seeds across the landscape — the process mimicked by direct seeding. While the small nutcracker’s mighty memory allows it to retrieve many of those caches later, some of those it forgets are able to grow into whitebark pine trees.
Bernhard, who completed climbing training in June 2025, carefully ascends a whitebark pine and methodically navigates the canopy to remove the cages and collect the cones.
“Looks like 35 cones in total. That’s good,” she says. “There’s some more great‑looking cones here, but I’ll leave those for the critters.”
Bernhard and the other crews go on to gather nearly 1,500 cones, totalling 75,000 seeds, during their short five days in Mount Rainier. By the end of the season, they will collect 2,000 cones and more than 110,000 seeds in western Washington parks alone.
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
Although Bernhard is conducting these activities in just three national parks in Washington, her American Forests colleagues and an array of partners are carrying out similar activities across national parks in other focal regions. With the whitebark pine’s vast range, this collaborative approach is essential to success.
Leveraging an ecosystem of people
Just like the interconnected web of partnerships that the whitebark pine relies on and supports, restoration efforts are using a similar collective system that brings people from a range of sectors together.
“It takes a whole ecosystem of humans to work on trying to save this species,” Bernhard says. “There’s the National Park Service, nonprofits, the U.S. Forest Service, volunteers. There’s plant pathologists, botanists, entomologists, wildlife biologists and Tribal partners. There’s all different people contributing to this work.”
Because the whitebark pine’s range crosses jurisdictions, which include varying land‑management practices, regulations and guidelines, deep collaboration has emerged as the linchpin for success. This holistic, collaborative approach is something Bernhard’s colleague Dr. Elizabeth Pansing, American Forests’ senior director of forest and restoration science, has spent more than a decade fostering.
“A holistic approach to whitebark pine conservation and restoration is necessary to get the work done across the range,” Pansing says. “We really do need to have an all‑hands‑on‑deck approach to ensure that we’re getting the right prescriptions for conservation and restoration implemented on the ground.”
A hallmark of this collaborative approach is a five-year agreement between the National Park Service and American Forests, signed in 2023, to conserve and restore whitebark pine in national parks where it grows. This monumental agreement is supporting Bernhard and her colleagues’ work in western Washington, as well as efforts in the southern Sierra and Northern Rockies.
During the 2025 collection season, these efforts resulted in more than 5,700 cones collected across these landscapes. This collaboration provides a prime example of how cross-sector partnerships are essential to conservation and restoration success.
Photo Credit: Nick Grier / American Forests
“Partnerships across landscapes and agencies improve our potential for success because local individuals understand their landscape conditions and can adapt the knowledge gained from research to their own environment to enhance our success,” says Regina M. Rochefort, Ph.D., a retired National Park Service ecologist, who spent 24 years of her career devoted to whitebark pine restoration efforts. “The partnership between American Forests and the National Park Service strengthens the network of land stewards and information sharing, providing a keystone collaboration to long-term restoration success.”
Restoring whitebark pine across some of America’s most iconic national parks will have benefits that extend beyond their mountain ecosystem. Pansing, whose love of whitebark pine was born out of childhood memories in high-elevation parks, stresses the tree’s importance for recreationists and others who have treasured memories within these landscapes.
“Whitebark pine is an iconic tree species in many of our Western recreation meccas,” Pansing says. “If you are mountain biking, running or backpacking — no matter what way you’re accessing these cherished spaces — you’re likely going to be coming into contact with whitebark pine.”
Conserving our iconic, beloved recreation backdrops
Whitebark pine’s presence in beloved recreation backdrops is part of the major draw for support from a wider community to conserve and restore the species.
Just days after Bernhard completed her field tour, many whitebark pine landscapes — including in the North Cascades — were blanketed with snow. It’s here that Bernhard and Pansing are collaborating with Life Time Foundation, a major supporter of American Forests’ whitebark pine efforts through the Foundation’s Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Healthy Way of Life initiative.
Photo Credit: Nick Grier / American Forests
Sarah Emola, director of Life Time Foundation, says American Forests’ collaborative, holistic approach mirrors that of Life Time Foundation’s perspective on wellness and is a driving factor in their support of this work.
“I really value the collaborative approach that American Forests takes,” Emola says. “It feels like not just us partnering with American Forests, but us taking on many partners to create a solution as a whole. Life Time Foundation looks for partners that take a very holistic and systematic approach that isn’t just going to change the problem today, but really generate positive impact for the future.”
The positive impact whitebark pine restoration can have on beloved high-elevation landscapes is of deep value to the larger Life Time Foundation community and recreationists as a group, says Barbara Powell, ultramarathoner and Life Time Foundation athlete.
“These landscapes where whitebark pine live are the very places that athletes like myself go to be challenged and to experience something greater than ourselves — to experience a sense of awe and wonder that one might not be able to find living in the city,” Powell says. “Being able to commune with the natural habitat instills a deeper sense of purpose. And with a deeper sense of purpose comes a deeper sense of well-being.”
Powell spends much of her time running in the mountains and has completed the Leadville 100 race twice while raising funds to support the Foundation. She believes the connection between recreationists and nature is what should compel people to become part of the whitebark pine’s conservation story.
“When you are hiking or running, you’re able to look up, look around you and realize that each and every species, including the whitebark pine, is part of this interconnected ecosystem that all depends upon each other,” Powell says. “And then you realize that you showing up into that ecosystem gives you an opportunity to interact with it, to appreciate it, to be a part of its story.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
Because of its role in overall ecosystem health, as whitebark pine populations decline, these ecosystems could begin to unravel, and how we interact with them would look very different. That’s why Valeria La Rosa, program director for Life Time Foundation, believes so strongly in the Foundation’s commitment to support this work.
“I can imagine the many different consequences to this system failing,“ La Rosa says. “For us, the right thing now is to invest in these very important projects so that the entire ecosystem that the whitebark pine is part of doesn’t cease to exist. It has to happen, and it has to happen now. It’s urgent.”
The passionate collaboration and support from partners like Life Time Foundation is exactly what is needed right now to further advance conservation and restoration efforts, says Pansing.
“American Forests has been really lucky to be supported by Life Time Foundation,” Pansing says. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do for whitebark pine without that support and the shared visions that we have for the future of this planet. Together we can achieve not only the restoration and conservation of whitebark pine, but also the broader mission of conserving and restoring forests for people, for water and for wildlife.”
This shared vision is centered on a hope of creating a better future for our forests and for the next generation.
“Nobody in this game for whitebark pine restoration and conservation is doing it because they expect to see or bear the fruits of the restoration efforts,” Pansing says.
“They’re doing this because they treasure the ecosystem. They treasure the forest. They treasure the next generation of people who are going to be able to have these experiences.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
Leaving a legacy for the future
Back on the side of a mountain in Mount Rainier National Park, Bernhard reflects on her own relationship with and passion for the whitebark pine, which she describes as “love at first sight.” For Bernhard, the tree — and her personal drive to save it — goes well beyond a career choice.
“I think whitebark pine is something that’s bigger than myself that I feel like I can still make a difference about,” Bernhard says. “Kind of like when you look at the night sky and you feel really overwhelmed by how tiny you are. I think I look at the world of whitebark pine, and it’s this vast ecosystem that in a way makes me feel that sense of awe. But I also feel like it’s something that I can make a difference in.”
Photo Credit: Andrew Studer / American Forests
That difference is what Bernhard hopes will be a lasting legacy she can leave behind long after her time.
“One of the reasons that I personally care so much about this work is that I can’t have children,” Bernhard says. “It’s made me think a lot because many people see their children as their legacy. But in a way, this work with whitebark pine has really come to feel like something that could be my legacy. And I think that plays a role in why, when I am working with the seedlings or planting seeds, it really does hit me deeply . . . I kind of feel like they really are my little babies.”
The millions of people who traverse whitebark habitat each year may never recognize Bernhard’s years of dedicated, collaborative work, and they may never hear her story of passion and drive.
But one thing is certain: Her legacy will live on in the baby whitebark pine seedlings that will continue to grow and help restore these beloved landscapes for generations to come.
Ashlan Bonnell serves as American Forests’ editorial director and writes from Washington, D.C.