Scientist to lecture about pines threatened by rust
Mail Tribune
Medford, Oregon
August 27, 2006
By PAUL FATTIG
Mail Tribune ASHLAND — If you've ever admired the regal
whitebark pines on the rim of Crater Lake or other
high-elevation pines, you may want to spend this evening with
Diana Tomback.
The scientist, a professor of biology at the University of
Colorado at Denver, is one of the nation's leading experts on
whitebark pine and the white pine blister rust which threatens
them.
Tomback will be addressing the issue at 7 p.m. today in the
Meese Room in Southern Oregon University's Hannon Library. The
lecture is free.
She is among the scientists gathering at the university for the
conference "Whitebark Pine: A Pacific Coast Perspective" which
begins today and continues through Thursday.
Tomback's presentation is "Whitebark Pine Ecosystems: Their
Ecological Importance and Future Outlook Why All the Fuss?"
The conference will be the first major opportunity for
scientists to share and discuss information about whitebark pine
and other five-needle pines, including how to restore stands
decimated by the blister rust, explained Ellen Goheen, plant
pathologist with the Southwest Oregon Forest Insect and Disease
Service Center. The center is based in Central Point at a Rogue
River-Siskiyou National Forest nursery.
In addition to whitebark pine, sugar pine and western white pine
also are susceptible to the blister rust, she explained. Fire
suppression over the past century also has contributed to the
decrease in high-elevation pine stands, scientists say.
"We have some beautiful stands of whitebark in the Cascades and
down through into the Sierras," she said. "It's considered a
keystone species because it's the only conifer that grows in the
highest elevation levels. It helps regulate snow melts, reduce
soil erosion and is an important food source for wildlife."
But whitebark pine and the other high-elevation pines that
symbolize the West are being killed by the white pine blister
rust, a disease that originated in Asia, she said.
Introduced to North America in 1910, it spread into Southern
Oregon in the late 1920s and early '30s, she said. Evidence of a
tree dying from the exotic fungal disease includes cankers on
stems and branch die back.
For the past half century, scientists have been working to
increase populations of disease-resistant trees, she said.
"Growing resistant trees looks promising," Goheen said. "But we
have had to start from scratch to research and develop and
germinate resistant trees. It's a little more challenging to
collect cones from whitebark pine than from other
(lower-elevation) trees. We're still in the early stages of
research."
Conference sponsors include the U.S. Forest Service, National
Park Service, Southern Oregon University, Crater Lake Natural
History Association, Crater Lake Institute and the Whitebark
Pine Ecosystem Foundation.
For more information about the conference, see
www.fs.fed.us/r6/nr/fid/wbpine/index.shtml.
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or at pfattig@mailtribune.com
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