Re: Monterey Pine

At 05:48 PM 12/8/1998 EST, you wrote:

>"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

Kurt:

You may know about the Pines of Mexico and Central America by Jesse P.
Perry, Jr (Timber Press 1991, ISBN 0-88192-174-2).  There are a number of
other endangered pines here.  He lists P. culminicola, P. maximartinezii, P.
redowskii, P. pinceana, P. johannis, P. radiata var. binata, P. lagunae, P.
jaliscana, and P. nelsoni.  Mexico, by the way, has the largest number of
pine species on earth, with 72 species, varieties, and forms.

I know that Yucca-Do collects a lot of Mexican oaks, and I have bought some
Mexican pines from them.  I hope they are going to continue with their
collecting.

I bought the book for several reasons: as a possible model for a book on
Salvias that I want to write, and because Mexican Salvias are most always
found growing in oak/pine forests.  I await opportunities to go collecting
in these areas, especially the wild barrancas of Chihuahua, Durango and
other Pacific mountain areas, and hope John and Carl get a chance to go
there.  Some of the best spots will be the remotest, where some of my
friends can't ordinarily reach, and we'd better get there before the pulp
and chip mills do - a VERY real fear.
Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, NC  27406
336-674-3105
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