Series: Five-Needle Pine Monitoring on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management Forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Five-needle pine trees are vital to forest health where they occur in the western US. But they are threatened by white pine blister rust infection, mountain pine beetle attack, dwarf mistletoe, and other stressors. This series describes how and why the NPS Greater Yellowstone Network monitors whitebark pine and limber pine on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and what they are finding. The data summary article in this series is updated each year.

• Article 1: Five-Needle Pine Monitoring Program on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management Forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—Overview

  

  The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is home to two five-needle pine species: whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) and limber pine (Pinus flexilis). Multiple ecological stressors, including a nonnative pathogen, insect infestations, and mistletoe variously affect these two ecologically important species. On Wyoming Bureau of Land Management lands, NPS scientists monitor the health of five-needle pines in conjunction with long-term monitoring of whitebark pine in the region. Read more

• Article 2: White Pine Blister Rust Infection Status, Mortality, and Recruitment of Five-Needle Pines on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management Forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—Data Summary of Monitoring in 2023

  

  Multiple stressors affect two ecologically important but declining five-needle pines in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: whitebark pine and limber pine. NPS scientists monitor stressors, mortality, and recruitment of trees into the cone-bearing population on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management lands in conjunction with long-term monitoring of whitebark pine in the region. This article summarizes data collected during the 2023 field season. Read more

• Article 3: Methods for Five-Needle Pine Monitoring on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management Forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

  

  This article describes methods for monitoring stressors, mortality, and recruitment of five-needle pines on Wyoming Bureau of Land Management forests. Monitoring occurs in conjunction with long-term monitoring of whitebark pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and both follow an interagency whitebark pine protocol, with one exception: rapid, impermanent transects are added to five-needle pine surveys to account for lower tree densities in some five-needle pine stands. Read more