Planting Pine

In 2012, a wildfire burned through Oak Creek Canyon, killing a portion of a ponderosa pine stand located in a popular dispersed camping area. This week, the District Ranger asked if we had any trees that could replace the burned ones. Fortunately, we had 600 extra pine seedlings sitting in the cooler, so we went over there and planted them for him. Or, I should say that some other people planted them. Of the 600 in the truck, I helped on about 50. (I guess that's what happens when you start to get into program management . . . you stand around talking to other managers while the real people get the work done.)

In any case, there were a couple of interesting things about this ponderosa stand. First, it was off-site pine: It was planted there, brought in from elsewhere. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any "native" pine in the canyon. I cored one of the larger live trees (19 inches) and counted eighty-some rings. The ranger thought it might have been planted by a CCC crew, which would have been in the 1930s. However it got there, it is clearly well adapted to the site and I would think that it might naturalize. Which brings me to my second comment: In order to naturalize, it must survive. Given the density (230+ square feet of basal area) and the fire damage, I am worried about a beetle attack. If a little pulse of mountain pine beetle gets started, it might kill all the trees that survived the fire.