In December 2022, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced it would be listing whitebark pine, an iconic tree species central to high-elevation ecosystems in the western United States and Canada, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. American Forests and its partners have been working for decades on whitebark pine restoration; these trees can live for 1,000 years but have been severely impacted by a non-native (or invasive) fungal disease in the last century, as well as by pests and wildfires fueled by a changing climate.

In the two years since the whitebark pine’s listing, American Forests has increased the reach of its efforts to save this iconic species. The organization has developed new partnerships with agencies including the National Park Service, put together a restoration plan that is shaping current whitebark pine recovery efforts, and expanded its support of research into whitebark resilience, as well as the people who continue to work to help these trees.

Spreading the word

One of the first efforts following whitebark pine’s listing was to let more people know about the importance of whitebark pine — and the threats to this tree and the high-elevation ecosystems it supports. The 2023 documentary short film, “Hope and Restoration: Saving the Whitebark Pine,” showcases the whitebark pine’s natural beauty as well as its role feeding and sheltering nearly 20 species and supporting local water supplies. 

The film, co-produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Conservation Media and The Ricketts Conservation Foundation, features rare footage of Clark’s nutcrackers, grizzly bears and other species in this seldom-seen habitat. In it, researchers and whitebark pine supporters from agencies and organizations including the U.S. Forest Service, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Bureau of Land Management, American Forests and the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation discuss the work being done to restore whitebark pine and the surrounding ecosystems.

“Threatened” listing spurs momentum

Whitebark pine restoration, until recently, was a labor of love for many of the organizations and individuals involved, says Dr. Elizabeth Pansing, American Forests’ director of forest and restoration science. “People have been doing the work largely unrecognized and behind the scenes for a really long time,” she says. When the whitebark pine received its listing, the recognition brought new funding and energy to this movement, she says, supporting both whitebark and “a community of really dedicated, passionate individuals who have really pushed the restoration work forward.”

This momentum has seeded new collaborations and strengthened existing ones. One of these promising partnerships is a new five-year agreement between American Forests and the National Park Service to restore whitebark pine in national parks across its range in the western U.S. Signed in September 2023, the agreement is part of a larger $44 million investment in climate and conservation from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Before this agreement was signed, American Forests had already been at work on a science-backed strategy to restore whitebark pine with the National Park Service and partners at the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Tribal land managers from across the West. The National Whitebark Pine Restoration Plan, released in fall 2023, is now guiding efforts to restore identified core areas throughout the species’ range, with efforts including projects in Montana, Wyoming, Washington and California.  

Sowing seeds in the Rocky Mountains

The new investment in the partnership between the National Park Service and American Forests has already started funding whitebark pine restoration research and projects in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks. American Forests has been working for more than a decade with the National Park Service in the greater Yellowstone area to learn more about whitebark pine, but the addition of federal funding has allowed both partners to step up their efforts.

In the Rockies, a coalition of partners including American Forests, the National Park Service and local conservation organizations are working on direct seeding, or planting whitebark pine seeds right in the ground in their natural habitat.

Direct seeding is particularly important in some of the remote areas where whitebark pine makes its home, Pansing says. The rocky, steep areas where whitebark pine grow can make it both impractical and, sometimes, nearly impossible to bring in the nursery-grown seedlings used in many restoration efforts. In one area of Grand Teton National Park, American Forests and National Park Service staff climbed 3,000 feet over 4 miles of travel — across terrain that is too steep and technical for a mule train to pack in seedlings, but possible for hikers carrying bags of seeds.

Direct seeding can also happen much more quickly and inexpensively than planting seedlings. A person on a planting crew can plant about 1,200 seedlings in a full day; the same person could sow several thousand seeds in a few hours. But sowing seeds also comes with challenges. Whitebark pine provides food and habitat for nearly 20 species, including the Clark’s nutcracker — the birds that disperse whitebark pine seeds — and the grizzly bear, so planted seeds can seem like a dinner invitation for seed-loving birds and rodents.

Pansing and her colleagues are studying how seed theft may affect this method of planting in Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, as well as looking into how climate and weather variation may affect the next generation of whitebark pine.

“We’re not envisioning that direct seeding is going to replace seedling planting by any stretch of the imagination,” Pansing says. “But what we are hoping is that it can increase the area where restoration activities are possible, and that we can start seeing restoration in areas that are high priority but would otherwise be omitted from some of the restoration plans because they’re either too hard to access or policies don’t allow for planting seedlings.”

Expanding research and restoration

Along with the National Park Service, new partners are stepping in to support the whitebark pine. In May 2024, a grant from the Life Time Foundation directed $1 million toward whitebark pine restoration, supporting research into genetic resilience as well as field work in the national parks where whitebark pine grow.

American Forests is also adding staff members dedicated to whitebark pine restoration. In fall 2024, the organization hired an ecologist focused on restoration efforts in California’s southern Sierra; additional personnel will be hired in the coming months to lead whitebark pine projects in national parks in Washington and the Rocky Mountains.

In three California national parks — Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon — American Forests and Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative crews are collecting cones and seeds from healthy whitebark pine as part of a wider effort to understand what makes some trees more resilient to threats like the blister rust fungus and the hotter, drier conditions that are emerging with climate change.  

This fall, American Forests Senior Manager of Forest Restoration Kat Barton worked with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative crew to collect pine needles and cones — up to 30 per tree — from 190 whitebark pine in these national parks.

These samples will be used as part of the Whitebark Pine Genome Project, led by the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, a partner of American Forests. Researchers working on the genome project will use collected whitebark pine samples to understand whether some whitebark pines have natural genetic resistance to threats like disease, pests, and warmer, drier temperatures — and how to quickly identify these trees on the landscape.  

Currently, cone collectors must guess which trees might have some natural resistance to blister rust by looking for healthy trees growing in otherwise-decimated whitebark pine stands. Seed from those trees, Swaffar says, “are collected and submitted through this fairly laborious, expensive and time-intensive process.” They’re then grown into seedlings and subjected to tests against the fungus — a process that can take many years.

With the support of American Forests, researchers at the University of California, Davis are working on a genetic test for resilience that could identify whitebark pine with desirable genes in a matter of months. “This would allow managers a faster way to understand disease resistance and resilience,” Swaffar says, “which is a big piece of the puzzle in terms of getting more disease-resistant trees on the landscape.”

Through partnerships in the lab and in the field, American Forests is working to fit even more pieces into place to protect whitebark pine. Whether planting new seeds in the Rocky Mountains or working with the National Park Service to learn more about healthy trees in the southern Sierra, each project bolstered by the 2023 whitebark pine listing will be an important contribution to the ultimate goal: restoring and conserving whitebark pine ecosystems that thrive for generations to come.

Whitebark pine research and conservation is supported in part by the Life Time Foundation.

To learn more about efforts to restore whitebark pine, visit SaveTheWhitebarkPine.org. Support this important conservation work with a donation to American Forests.