Greater Yellowstone Whitebark Pine Assessment Gets an "A" Grade

Last week, GEO/Graphics, the consulting group that spearheaded the 2009 innovative over flight assessment of whitebark pine health in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, got their performance grade from the Forest Service: an “A”.  With the support from the Forest Service and NRDC, GEO/Graphics and Ecoflight pilot Bruce Gordon pioneered a revolutionary new method for detecting mountain pine beetle mortality in whitebark pine.  Veteran Forest Service beetle experts, particularly Dr. Jesse Logan, brought invaluable intellectual skill to this challenging project; but there were many others, inside and outside, the government, who contributed to its success.

Bruce Gordon, Ecoflight

The analysis was important because before 2009, no one knew the extent of an exploding outbreak of climate-driven mountain pine beetles in whitebark pine.  It was simply happening too fast, so the traditional Forest Service methods, including an Aerial Detection Survey method, were just not up to the task of gauging the outbreak. 

Getting an accurate picture of what was dead and what was still healthy in whitebark pine was crucial, because of the critical ecological role played by this high-elevation tree species.  Whitebark pine is a foundational species, pioneering harsh alpine soils and creating conditions where other shrubs and trees can grow.  Its high-fat seeds, grown in an otherwise inhospitable landscape, are essential for the survival of many birds and wildlife species.  And these seeds are vital to the health of Yellowstone’s imperiled grizzly bear population.  Overwhelming scientific evidence, done mostly by the federal government, has demonstrated that the abundance of whitebark pine drives reproductive success of females.  And whitebark pine helps reduce human-bear conflicts; when grizzlies are feeding in high-elevation whitebark areas, they are typically far away from high densities of people.

The task of evaluating the status of whitebark pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem was enormous and complicated.  It involved flying over 21 different mountain ranges in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and collecting 6,000 geo-referenced photo points—all of which had been made available to other scientists as well as the public. The Forest Service evaluation cited the timeliness of the work and the excellent working relationships with the contract officer in the government, “despite some issues with other government employees, mostly unrelated to the project.”  Sadly, some of these other employees were mostly pursuing the grizzly delisting agenda and not intimately familiar with the methods of this project. Could it be that the truth was just too “inconvenient”, since it casted doubt about the wisdom of the delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly bear? 

Image from 2009 whitebark pine study

With this stellar report card, the quality of the data and this project has been vindicated.  The Forest Service is clearly proud of this work, and so are we.  If the truth hurts and ruffles feathers of those pushing a 20-year-old delisting agenda to delist the Yellowstone grizzly bear—an agenda that predated the collapse of whitebark pine—so be it.  Federal District Judge Molloy relisted the grizzly in 2009 because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could not defend its statements that whitebark pine doesn’t matter to Yellowstone grizzlies and is not seriously threatened. 

Our 2009 Landscape Assessment System (LAS) survey underscored the nature of the problem with real-world data—the best data ever collected on whitebark pine health in any ecosystem in the tree’s range. It showed that the condition of whitebark pine was worse than we had guessed, and worse than the best climate models had predicted for gauging habitat suitability for mountain pine beetles. The consequences of the loss on these magnificent forests on the functioning of the whole ecosystem will be profound and long-lived.

Kudos again to the Forest Service for pioneering this study, using a method which could help other forests, in other areas where outbreaks are at early stages—like perhaps the Sierra Nevada in California.  This study sheds new light for managers and all concerned with the future of whitebark pine about the challenges ahead for of all of us: how can we retain what is left of whitebark pine, until we do what is necessary to turn the thermostat down, so as to restore the conditions necessary to sustain healthy whitebark pine the future?

Before we try to extend the reach of this study though, we should take a close look at what made this project such a success; for there are important lessons that can be applied elsewhere to help grapple with the challenges ahead for whitebark and their ecosystems. First, in this case, we had a meaningful and respectful collaboration between the government, nongovernmental organizations, and individual citizens who have helped enormously with collecting field data on the status of whitebark pine. By freely sharing ideas and approaches, we came up with methods that no one individual could have arrived at by themselves. By pooling government and nongovernment resources to achieve a common goal, we got the project literally off the ground in just a few months.

(From left to right: Colin Peacock, Dena Adler, Matt Skoglund, Wally MacFarlane, Jesse Logan, Willie Kern)

Without exception, every single person engaged in this project was fully committed: the researchers literally worked round the clock. Under Captain Bruce’s disciplined hand (informed by decades of flying in rough mountain country), the flying starting at the crack of dawn; and the day ended typically after dinner when the day’s data had been processed on the computer. A simple formula perhaps, just as anthropologist Margaret Meade described: we were blessed with a small group of dedicated and talented people, with a passion and a willingness to work together toward a common goal – a willingness that superceded ego and personal or bureaucratic agendas.

There are some other reasons, not included in the Forest Service evaluation, that I have would offered (if someone were to ask me how I would have assessed this project) to defend an “A” grade for this work. In the urgent situation facing the future of whitebark and other ecosystems imperiled by climate change pollution, we should squeeze the lessons out of this mammoth project and remain conscientious about learning as we go – with an eye out for new surprises.  

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