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09 November 2009 - 02:53

pining for pines

I've taken a lot more photos than usual on my trips north lately.

I've been taking pictures of pine trees.

Most of these are ponderosa pines. At this latitude, this small mountain range is pretty much the western limit of this species. Everything to the west is either the smaller, less impressive limber pine, the crowded, skinny lodgepole pines, or not a pine at all.

I grew up with ponderosa pines. Members of my family made part of their living logging what they all called "yellow pine".

And yes, the ponderosas in my local mountains also come in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors.

And yes, they also are susceptible to the lethal fungus carried by the pine beetle infestation that is sweeping the West.

Many of these yellow giants are centuries old. Which is exceptional for a western pine forest. When one was killed by lightning thirty years ago, the federal agency made a table out of a cross section of the bole, identifying important years of history in the rings of the tree.

The rings started in the late 1500s.

And now, lately, I've been forced to accept the fact that many, if not all, of these magnificent giants are going to die. Not only in my lifetime, but in just the next few years.

And so, I take pictures of pines.

Before they all become naked skeletons on the rocky mountainsides.

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