Resort honored for work to save whitebark pine

After more than 20 years of working to protect the keystone species, Whitefish Mountain Resort on Saturday was recognized as the first Whitebark Pine Friendly Ski Area by the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation.

It was the conclusion of the foundation’s fall meeting held in Whitefish, after two days of lectures and presentations were held at the O’Shaughnessy Center for the organization’s more than 200 members. The foundation is a nonprofit that focuses on conserving and restoring whitebark pines through education, management and research.

Representatives from the foundation, the ski resort and the forest service gathered for the certification presentation at the Base Lodge before taking the chair lifts up for a demonstration of conservation methods on protected trees on the mountain.

“Ski areas in general are a good place to help educate the public about the tree and how important it is to a variety of species. In our case, since we’re helping with the restoration project it’s a good place to educate people because they’re on the mountain and can see how we’re helping to generate a new generation of trees,” said Riley Polumbus, public relations manager for the resort.

Whitebark pines play a central role in their ecosystem by regulating snowmelt runoff, reducing soil erosion by growing early after wildfire has charred the land and providing a fatty, high energy food source in its seeds for about 100 different species. The Clark’s nutcracker, which opens the cones, takes the seeds and buries them in caches in the ground, is the tree’s only method for seed dispersal.

Although more than 90 percent of the whitebark pines on Big Mountain have died off as a result of a disease called white pine blister rust, some trees have shown signs of resistance, standing tall while others around them succumb to disease. The cages protect the cones until the seeds inside are ripe in mid-September. The seeds will then be used to grow seedlings for outplanting, generally in recent wildfire areas.

In July Forest Service workers and contracted climbers climbed to the treeline of Big Mountain to cage young whitebark pine cones and protect them from birds and other animals that could hinder their growth. As part of Saturday’s demonstration, a worker again ascended a pine to open a few of the cages and show how trees are climbed and protected on the mountain.

The mountain has been a leader in conservation efforts since the trees started being protected in 1994. There are 14 total whitebark protection sites in Flathead National Forest, and for the last five years the Forest Service has planted new trees in about 125 acres per year. Since it takes a whitebark pine between 50 and 70 years to mature and produce cones, the Forest Service has sped up the process, selecting trees, exposing them to rust to see if they’re resistant to the disease and, if they are, putting the resistant mother trees into seed orchards. The full process for a seed to be planted takes about three years.

For the resort, the certification was a recognition of decades of working with the Forest Service and researchers to keep the species alive.

“We’re honored to receive it and really excited that we’re able to help with this project, and we look forward to continuing to educate our guests on whitebark pines,” Polumbus said.

For more information on Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, visit whitebarkfound.org.