Re: Monterey Pine

This is just a note in way of explanation to someone (Moira?) who wrote about
Monterey pine's apparent fragility in its native habitat.  This comes from the
July 1998 issue of Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant
Society.

"Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata) is a well known and much loved rare endemic of
California and Baja California.  Over the past two million years, the
distribution has fluctuated regularly in response to climate change.  Today,
the species is contained in five small disjunct native populations:  at Point
Ano Nuevo, the Monterey Peninsula, and Cambria in central California, and two
Mexican islands, Cedros and Guadalupe.  Monterey pine has been the focus of
increasingly urgent conservation concern, with the populations facing various
onslaughts of human cause.  For instance, the Guadalupe Island population has
been threatened by goats introduced to the island in the late 1800s to provide
meat for passing sailors.  By 1978 only 320 individual trees remained, and
recent accounts indicate that many of these are now dead.  The mainland
California populations have faced impacts since the mid-twentieth century from
land conversion and urbanization, genetic contamination from non-local
plantings (including naturalized stock from New Zealand), threats from native
pathogens, especially western gall rust (Peridermium harknessii) and pine
needle cast (Dothistroma pini), and fire suppression.  Since 1986 threats to
the mainland population have rapidly accelerated due to the appearance and
spread of the lethal pitch canker fungal disease, caused by Fusarium
subglutinans forma pini.  Pitch canker has spread at an alarming rate, first
through planted pines, and more recently in native stands, threatening to
decimate Monterey pine forests within the next decade.
	The urgency to protect Monterey pine arises from several sources.  As a
dominant member of some closed-cone pine ecosystems, Monterey pine plays a
keystone ecological role in these unique closed-cone California forests.  The
conservation biology community in California has focused considerable
attention on the protection of native forests in their native habitat.  In
addition, the Monterey pine is an icon of the central California coast,
framing beaches and creating dramatic coastal forest scenery.  Last but not
least, the Monterey pine is also an extremely important commercial species.
In the United States its use is primarily for Christmas trees and
horticulture, but internationally it is a dominant crop for lumber and paper.
Of the more than ninety species of pines in the world, Monterey pine is the
most widely planted outside its native range, and a primary timber species in
New Zealand, Australia, and Chile.  In New Zealand, for instance, Monterey
pine accounts for one-twelfth of the country's gross domestic product, and
one-eighth of its export receipts, a figure expected to triple within twenty-
five years.  Several studies have indicated that native populations in
California are diverse genetically.  By chance, however, original
introductions of Monterey pine to these other countries were quite narrow
genetically, giving the diverse and unexplored germ plasm in the native
California and Mexican populations inestimable value.  Many of these countries
have expressed urgency, commitment, and concern for conservation of native
populations..."

Hope this helps shed some light on the threats to Monterey pine in its native
habitat.

Kurt Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9
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