Two pines in decline

As keystone species of high-elevation forests in Western Canada, whitebark and limber pine both have beneficial influences on other species and natural communities. For example, their seeds are nutritional foods for birds, squirrels and bears; their growth influences snowmelt, soil development and the habitat conditions of other subalpine plants. When the health of whitebark and limber pine suffer, so too do the species and ecosystems they support. That’s what’s happening in the mountain national parks. The two pines are in decline across Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, Yoho, Mount Revelstoke, Glacier and Waterton Lakes national parks. Both are threatened by a combination of blister rust (an Eurasian fungal disease), mountain pine beetle outbreaks, historic fire suppression and stresses exacerbated by climate change, such as drought.