Recovering Whitebark and Limber Pine in the 7 mountain national parks
Parks Canada's report on conservation from 2018 to 2023
- Report section
- Looking to the future
- Location
- Banff National Park, Glacier National Park, Jasper National Park, Kootenay National Park, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Yoho National Park, and Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and British Columbia
Using multiple connected approaches, Parks Canada is increasing the number of Whitebark and Limber Pine trees within the 7 mountain national parks that are resistant to the primary threat to the species: the Eurasian fungal disease, white pine blister rust.
The 7 mountain national parks are coordinating efforts to establish self-sustaining, rust-resistant populations of Whitebark and Limber Pine that demonstrate natural seed dispersal, population connectivity, genetic diversity, and adaptability to changing climate. The long-term efforts to recover these long-lived trees will provide benefits on a time scale beyond a human lifetime.
Project highlights
- Over 79,000 Whitebark and 15,000 Limber Pine seedlings planted since 2019
- 850 Whitebark Pine trees identified with possible rust-resistance
- 179 Limber Pine trees identified with possible rust-resistance
- Approximately 1433 hectares of habitat restored with prescribed fire, mechanical thinning and planting
Resource Management Officer, Nicholas Lai, cages Whitebark Pine cones along the Endless Chain, a mountainous ridge in Jasper National Park. Photo: Iain Reid/Parks Canada
Context
Whitebark Pine is the only SARA-listed Endangered tree species in Western Canada. As of 2023, Limber Pine is in the process of being listed to SARA as Endangered. Both pines play a special role in mid- to high-elevation forests across Western Canada. These species, collectively referred to as five-needle pines, support a wide variety of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. They provide shade, which slows snow melt, helping to reduce spring floods and maintain stream flow throughout the summer. Their seeds are highly nutritious and are consumed by a wide variety of wildlife throughout the fall and winter, including Clark’s Nutcrackers, Grizzly Bears, Black Bears and Red Squirrels. When the health of these pine trees suffers, so do the species and ecosystems they support.
Jasper, Mount Revelstoke, and Glacier national parks have Whitebark Pine, and Banff, Kootenay, Yoho, and Waterton Lakes national parks have both Whitebark Pine and Limber Pine. Both pine species are declining across their range due to a combination of white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle outbreaks, historic fire suppression, and the threat of wildfire, all of which are exacerbated by climate change.
Outcomes
The mountain parks are actively restoring Whitebark Pine and Limber Pine using a series of actions that as of 2023, are still ongoing. Through field surveys, the mountain parks identified some Whitebark and Limber Pine trees that appeared resistant to white pine blister rust. These trees were then formally tested in a lab to confirm their resistance to the disease. Cones from these trees were protected from seed predators by securing cages over the cones. The seeds were then collected and sent to nurseries to be grown into seedlings. Habitat for planting was often prepared through prescribed fire and forest thinning practices to remove competitive conifers. The seedlings were then planted back into the parks, increasing the proportion of Whitebark and Limber Pine trees that are likely to be resistant to white pine blister rust.
Since 2019, tens of thousands of Whitebark and Limber Pine have been planted across the mountain parks. The planting of this substantial number of trees contributes to and was supported by Natural Resources Canada’s 2 Billion Trees Program which is committed to nature-based climate solutions.
Working together
Many recovery actions extend outside the boundaries of the parks. Parks Canada is working closely with partners, including the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation of Canada, the Province of Alberta, and the Province of British Columbia, as well as the Nature Conservancy of Canada, to collaborate on this transboundary work. The partners worked together to screen trees for natural resistance to white pine blister rust, share resources, knowledge on best practices, and collaborate in training opportunities. In 2022, staff from Jasper National Park also helped support a training workshop delivered to the Simpcw First Nation who are working to restore Whitebark Pine within their traditional territory.
Seed orchards
Together, the partners have established seed orchards and nurseries to grow seedlings using harvested seeds and grafts from white pine blister rust resistant trees. Seed orchards for Whitebark Pine were established with the Province of British Columbia in Prince George, BC, and with the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation at the Elkhart Seed Orchard in BC. In 2021, a Limber Pine seed orchard was established in Waterton Lakes National Park.
“We want to plant enough trees at a high enough density so that in eighty years, we will have a forest of cone producing trees that will attract Clark’s Nutcrackers back, and these birds will continue to allow these stands to persist. That’s how we will create these self-sustaining recovered Whitebark Pine stands. As Nelson Hendersen said ‘The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit’.”—Brenda Shepherd, Ecologist Team Leader, Parks Canada
Video
Watch how Parks Canada is working to help Whitebark and Limber Pine.
Transcript
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit
>> BRENDA: There have been a couple of whitebark
pine in the Canadian Rockies that have been aged around 1000 years old.
Sun shining through a Limber Pine tree.
I mean these trees have seen such incredible
change in the world since they were seedlings like the ones we’re planting.
Planting the Future
Woman leading a pack horse up a mountain
Whitebark and limber pine are at risk of extinction.
Seven national parks have joined forces to recover, monitor and protect these special trees.
Looking out a helicopter at Mountains and valley cloud
All of the Mountain Parks, so that’s Waterton,
Revelstoke-Glacier, Kootenay, Yoho, Banff and Jasper.
Parks Staff hiking and climbing a Whitebark Pine tree.
We all work together, we’re relying on each other trying to recover whitebark pine and
limber pine together.
Brenda Shepherd, Biologist, Jasper National Park
Whitebark pine is a pioneering species and
so it moves in and it creates, often, these little tree islands and other species are
able to move in after it.
Allison Fisher, Biologist, Yoho National Park
>> ALLISON: My favourite thing about whitebark
pine, the fact that nutcrackers are almost exclusively responsible for allowing them to regenerate.
Hilary Cameron, Biologist, Banff National Park
>> HILARY: I love that they just grow in these
really rough exposed areas and that they are so resilient and they just live for hundreds
of years.
Genoa Alger, Biologist, Waterton Lakes National Park
>> GENOA: Once we found a limber pine that
was just growing straight into a cliff, like it’s surviving and thriving.
Rebecca Smith, Biologist, Banff National Park
>> REBECCA: These trees have an absolutely
crucial role in both the plant communities and the animal communities, the soil communities,
probably more communities than we understand right now.[Laugh]
>> BRENDA: The Clark’s nutcracker and the whitebark pine have a really important relationship.
It’s called a mutualism, really rare in nature, where both species depend on each
other for their survival.
Clark's Nutcracker picks seeds out of Whitebark Pine cones.
The cones will not open on their own.
The nutcracker has a specialized beak to be able to open the cones and then it will fly
off to different parts of the forest where it will deposit seeds and then months later
Allison points to seedling from a Clark's Nutcrack cache.
they will fly back, find that exact spot and dig out the seeds and eat them.
And it’s only seeds that they don’t eat that become whitebark pine seedlings.
Rebecca walks through a stand of White bark Pines.
They evolved together, these two species,
over tens of thousands of years.
Whitebark and limber pine face many threats.
The deadliest threat is an invasive fungus called white pine blister rust.
>> ALLISON: So you can see that kind of spindle
Allison shows a diseased branch of a Whitebark tree.
shape, there’s a lot of swelling, coarse bark, and you can see some of the inactive
rust oozing out, and then this section of the branch is all dead.
>> BRENDA: These trees did not evolve with white pine blister rust and that’s what’s
really important about why this causes the tree to become endangered.
This disease came in in the early 1900’s and the tree just doesn’t have the traits
to be able to fight it off.
So we worry about these big ghost forests.
If there are ghost forests, will there not be enough whitebark pine to attract nutcrackers
and if there are no nutcrackers, there’s no future.
We climb the tree in the early summer.
We put cages on the cones, the cones mature, but they don’t get eaten by birds or squirrels.
We climb back up late September, pick the cones and then the cones dry and then we extract
the seeds from the cones.
We send those seeds to a nursery and then the nursery spends two years growing these guys.
We want to plant enough trees at a high enough
Parks Canada Staff planting trees.
density that in eighty years we will have a forest of cone producing trees that will
attract Clark’s nutcrackers back and these birds will continue to allow these stands
to persist and so that’s how we will create these self-sustaining recovered whitebark pine stands.
So there’s a lot of hope involved in keeping
a really positive attitude about what we’re doing, the fact that none of us here will
be alive to know whether this was successful.
Since 2014, Parks Canada has planted over 60,000 whitebark and limber pine seedlings in the mountain national parks. This work will continue for years to come.
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