Ancient Forest Society

Whitebark Pine Cone Collections

by Wendy Baxter

This summer, Ancient Forest Society (AFS) completed its first ever Lake Tahoe Basin-based project collecting whitebark pine cones on the Heavenly Mountain Resort in collaboration with Sierra Ecotone Solutions and the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the US Forest Service. Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a long-lived keystone species of growing concern due to threats from climate change, pests, and altered fire regimes. In 2022 it was listed as a threatened species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act. These rugged, slow-growing trees are able to survive at high elevations throughout western North America, sometimes living for more than 1,000 years. Thriving in mountainous areas where little else grows, these trees provide a critical food source for birds, squirrels, and bears.

Whitebark pines are one of five species of tree known as "stone pines.” When their seeds are ripe, their cone scales don't open like other pine species. The seeds are kept inside the cone, perfectly accessible for the Clark's nutcracker, which they have a mutualistic relationship with. The nutrient rich whitebark pine seeds sustain the Clark’s nutcracker through harsh mountain winters. As skiers and snowboarders glide down Heavenly’s snow-laden terrain, the Clark’s nutcrackers forage for seeds they stashed in the ground during the fall. Inevitably, the birds are unable to relocate all of their caches and the seeds buried shallowly in the soil germinate after the snow melts, giving rise to the next generation of whitebark pine trees.

Whitebark pine trees are facing increasing threats including insects, diseases, climatic changes and severe wildfire. One of the most pressing threats to whitebark pines is white pine blister rust, a fungal pathogen that is decimating several species of five-needled white pines. This non-native fungus was introduced to the US in the early 1900s and spreads to trees by windborne spores from infected Ribes hosts, which include plants like currants and gooseberries. During cool wet conditions, spores from host plants land on the needles of the pine trees and over time grow inward through the branch and finally to the trunk. The fungus creates cankers on the branches and trunk that can kill the cambium, and sometimes the entire tree. Another burgeoning threat are native mountain pine beetles that lay their eggs in the trunks of whitebark pine trees. The beetle larvae hatch and eat their way through the cambium, potentially killing the tree.

With converging threats like blister rust, mountain pine beetles, increasing temperatures and severe fire, fewer whitebark pine seeds are being cached by the Clark’s nutcrackers, leading to reduced regeneration. AFS stepped in to help these important trees by collecting seeds for reforestation and seed banking efforts.

In order to ensure cones are available for collection when seeds are ripe, our team first needed to cage cones on trees without visible signs of blister rust. Due to the harsh conditions whitebark pines grow in, they have dense, gnarled crowns. Climbing them is an interesting challenge very different from climbing the world’s largest trees. Our team struggled through dense branches to the top of each selected tree to install wire mesh cages on a subset of the cones. The cages protected the cones from birds and squirrels until we returned several months later to collect the cones, which were then transported to the US Forest Service Placerville nursery for processing and storage. The seeds will be tested for blister rust resistance and banked seeds will be available for reforestation efforts when they are needed.

You can support our seed collection program by making a donation today!

Park Sessions

We are excited to share that Ancient Forest Society was featured in the Sequoia episode of Outside Magazine’s Park Sessions series. Throughout the series, artists perform live at various National Parks to highlight the importance of our parks and to promote their continued protection. 

The Sequoia episode features Scout Willis, a singer-songwriter who loves nature. Viewers get to follow along as she performs live in Sequoia National Park in several beautiful locations. In July, a film crew from the series joined our cone collecting team to highlight the critical work we are doing in collaboration with the Park. The segment featuring AFS is partway through the episode. The stunning video captures the vivid beauty of the giant sequoias and shares the importance of collecting their seeds to ensure their continued survival.

To see the Sequoia episode and others, follow this link. We hope you’ll watch it and enjoy Scout’s passionate music as she wanders through the giant sequoias!

It’s the Season of Giving

As 2025 draws to a close, we reflect back on a year of accomplishments, challenges, and growth. The year started out with uncertainty posed by the incoming administration. Funding for our National Park Service supported research and conservation projects was frozen, but thankfully we were able to recover these funds and move forward with this critical work. Due to reductions in force and early retirements, we lost Federal colleagues we’ve worked with for years, making our work more difficult. We overcame these obstacles through close collaboration with dedicated remaining staff and together made great strides in protecting ancient forests.

This year also was full of accomplishments, which would not have been possible without support from multiple organizations, volunteers and individual donors. Your support enabled us to complete the field work for several research projects and move into the next phase of data analysis and disseminating results. Stay tuned for updates about these groundbreaking studies! We continued to make great progress in our seed collection program, gathering giant sequoia, sugar pine and whitebark pine seeds for reforestation and seed banking efforts. In our outreach and education program we engaged volunteers from around the world and created precious memories together in the giant sequoias. We collaborated with several filmmakers and storytellers to reach a wider audience and magnify the impact of our work.

Additionally, 2025 was a year of significant growth. We started a bark beetle monitoring program to gain a better understanding of how pressing this threat is to the giant sequoias. The whitebark pine project was our first Lake Tahoe-based project focused on an endangered tree species that is new to our organization. We also established new partnerships and built on existing collaborations with other research and conservation organizations. We have big aspirations and are expanding our reach so we can understand, protect, and restore more ancient forests.

We couldn’t have achieved all of this without your generous support! We are so grateful for your dedication to our vision of a world where ancient trees and forests are valued, protected, and restored for their profound ecological, scientific, and cultural significance. During this season of giving, we hope you continue to show up for our revered ancient forests. We would be honored if you include Ancient Forest Society in your holiday giving so that together we can continue to protect old trees and ancient forests.

Gift Idea: Photo Prints

Some of us love these trees and landscapes so much that we just want to take them home. Now you can! Our team has the privilege of witnessing and capturing spectacular moments among some of the world's most iconic landscapes. You can bring the splendor of these landscapes into your home or as a gift. These images are ultraHD, printed on Aluminum Dibond and are ready to hang with mounting hardware installed. Standard prints come in 30” x 20” landscape although custom sizing is available by request. Visit our website to view available prints.