Since the last blog posting on November 23, 2019, the plight of the pinyon has never left my thoughts. Spare time has been filled with the reading of articles published by scientists far more intelligent than me. Fieldwork was set aside due to the heavy snows of December and January, but the hint of spring is everywhere. Soon park staff will be in the field collecting data that will narrow down the cause and effect of the premature deaths of Idaho’s rarest woodland.
This blog is an attempt to be transparent about the plight of the pinyon, and it is also an effort to invite interested visitors and stakeholders to the conversation about what can and must be done for the health of this forest. How serious are we about this effort? One of the five overarching goals of the superintendent in 2020 is stated as follows:
Work Plan Goal #5: take a leadership role in determining a course of action for managing the health of CIRO’s pinyon pine woodlands. This includes identifying the key cause of mortality and developing a strategy to counteract unnatural causes.
One of the five overarching goals of the chief of integrated resources in 2020 is stated as follows:
Work Plan Goal #1: work with Park manager on the pinyon pine status project. Inventory and monitor trees throughout CIRO/Castle Rocks to determine what is causing the forest to decline. Work with the National Park Service’s Upper Columbia Basin Inventory and Monitoring program (UCBN I&M) in the development of monitoring protocols.
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the 29th Idaho Rare Plant Conference, where I was invited to present the plight of the pinyon. One of the main purposes of the conference was to rank plant species according to their conservation status. I learned that trees rarely get assigned a conservation status, with herbaceous plants being the primary focus. The pinyon had no conservation status ranking at all, but after my presentation and the recommendation of southern Idaho working group member Carol Prentice, pinyon pine was given a conservation status of S1 (critically imperiled). This ranking is not based on a hunch or made on a whim. Various criteria are calculated that lead to a conservation status rank. Why is this status important? It helps public land managers prioritize the financial and human resources entrusted to them to save and protect Idaho’s treasured natural heritage.
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March 03, 2020
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Last updated: March 11, 2020