CLIFF CREGO: Friend, DAVID LANDRUM, field biologist & timber cruiser, [ click photo for next . . . ] shows me a Mountain Pine Beetle, North Wallowas

Friend, DAVID LANDRUM, field biologist & timber cruiser, [ click photo for next . . . ]
shows me a Mountain Pine Beetle, North Wallowas . . .


Whitebark Pines are in trouble around the mountains
of the Northwest. For me, they have become a sentinel species
because they are not only the grandest and, in my view, most
beautiful of pines to reach the upper limits of treeline—even
in death the sun-bleached white snags stand tall for centuries—
but also, like wounded watchful elders, these Nestors of the
high-country are sounding a dire message of warning.


This p/p DIALOGUE RESOURCE PAGE is a gathering together
of films that might help us listen to what the Whitebarks are saying.
It is also a kind of mirror of ourselves, as we reflect upon our own
response to what we see.



On the road in the American Northwest.




What we mean by GROWTH

needs to shift

from the explosive runaway

of compound interest

(or wild fire, or bark beetles... . . .),

to the sure, steady, cyclical rhythms

of a Stonepine."








WHITEBARK PINE—8 key ecological
features (after Charles G. Johnson)

(1) Of little commercial value for timber products.

(2) Distribution and abundance of the species dependent on Clark's
nutcracker for seed dispersal.

(3) Fire resistant due to its severe site and scattered nature (fire
discriminates against subalpine firs giving competitive advantage
to the pine).

(4) Fire control lengthens intervals between sanitizing burns resulting
in fire-prone stands due to increases in fir composition.

(5) Very susceptible to white pine blister rust and secondarily to
mountain pine beetle after weakening by the rust.

(6) Besides Clark's nutcracker, woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, finches, crossbills, grosbeaks and blue grouse
use the seeds. Squirrels, chipmunks and bears use the caches.

(7) Blue grouse use needles and buds.

(8) Greatest value of the tree is for watershed protection.


data from the essential classic, Alpine and Subalpine Vegetation
of the Wallowa, Seven Devils and Blue Mountains [pdf 8.4 Mb]
By Charles Grier Johnson Jr.
2004 USDA- Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region



THE LITTLE CLAVIER please preview 150 of 631 pages
w/ my black & white photography [opens in new window]


WHITEBARK PINE—resources


(1) Whitebark Pine Health in Northeastern Oregon
and western Idaho (Chrales Johnson 1998) [pdf]

(2) EarthFix: Scientists Scramble to Save Crater Lake's
Whitebark Pines, by Amelia Tempelton







DEATH OF A FOREST
by Wild Visions,

Excellent interview of leading exert,
Dr. Jesse Logan;
Gives best overview of scale & seriousness
of forest collapse problem . . .









Featured gallery, 100 MINIATURES, a set of 100 black & white photographs. ONE image. ONE idea. ONE new way of looking . . .
100 MINIATURES—online gallery

Each miniature is a kind of meditation on one idea & one image;
Each lasts 30 seconds; They play in random order;
The music is my BOREA Mix,
for hand-played ePecussion Orchestra.
[ mouse over for controls / lower right fro full-screen ]





All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 1999 -2015 picture-poems.com
(created: VIII.3.2008)