Monitoring High-elevation White Pine Forests – 2014 Report Available

In 2014, the Sierra Nevada Network (SIEN) Inventory & Monitoring Program completed its third year of monitoring high-elevation white pines in Sequoia & Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks. Forest crew members installed new long-term monitoring plots and collected data on:

• Trees species composition and structure
• Tree species birth, death, and growth rates
• Incidence of white pine blister rust and level of crown kill (white pine blister rust is caused by a non-native rust pathogen)
• Incidence of bark beetles
• Incidence of dwarf mistletoe
• Cone production of white pine species

The crew collected data on 1242 live whitebark pine trees in Yosemite and 1299 whitebark pine and 221 foxtail pine in Sequoia and Kings Canyon. No white pine blister rust infections or beetle activity were recorded on white pines within the plots.
To learn more about the results of the 2014 field season, you can download the annual report: http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/518976. If you would like a brief overview of this project, a resource brief is also available: http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/516135.