* TREES: sugar pine forest ecosystems, including a mix of conifers like
Jeffrey pine, ponderosa pine, western white pine, Douglas-fir and incense cedar
Tahoe Conservancy and League staff carry
Jeffrey pine and incense cedar seedlings for planting about 30 acres in the Angora burn area.
Black bears (Ursus americanus) harvest
Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) seeds from tree canopies.
The truth is, thinning can't even reduce the risk of severe fire, as demonstrated by ecologist George Wuerthner's observations of 2002's Biscuit fire: "Many of the low-density, widely spaced
Jeffrey pine growing on serpentine burned up even though their natural stand density is much lower than what you are left with under even aggressive thinning." When drought, high temperatures, low humidity and wind combine - which we're seeing more of with climate change - a fire's going to burn, no matter how many stumps are in its way.
Tamrac pine,
Jeffrey pine, and red and white fir jut into the sky.
White fir,
Jeffrey pine, I have no way of knowing whether you prefer
* Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast, by Robert Van Pelt (Global Forest Society/University of Washington Press, $35), leads off with the giant sequoia and the coastal redwood, but then concisely describes and discusses 18 other western giants, among them the
Jeffrey pine, western hemlock, and yellow cedar.
The three species of pines used occur sympatrically and produce similarly-shaped, winged seeds that differ in size: lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta; 9 [+ or -] 2 mg, filled seed including wing), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa; 62 [+ or -] 11 mg), and
Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi; 185 [+ or -] 23 mg).
Western long-needled pine forests, especially ponderosa and
Jeffrey pine ecosystems, have declined in diversity and productivity over the past 150 years.
Jeffrey pine, too, reaches its northern range limit in the Klamath.
Jeffrey pine - tall symmetrical pine of western North America having long blue-green needles in bunches of 3 and elongated cones on spreading somewhat pendulous branches; sometimes classified as a variety of ponderosa pine