Re: Monterey Pine

Please excuse my sending this somewhat stale message.  Sean says it didn't
go through the last time.  I'm trying it again to see what happens.

>>Please allow me to weigh in with an explanation for the confusing
>>behavior
>>of Pinus radiata:
>>
>>The answer(s) lie in the edaphics, i.e. the soil.  Monterey Pine is
>>native
>>to a sandy littoral in California as we all know.  There it is hardly
>>more
>>than a large shrub for much of its life, slow growing, deep green.  Just
>>the kind of tree that would attract an adventurous landscape designer.
>>
>>During the depression of the 1930's the US dept of agriculture supplied
>>thousands of Pr's for 'reforestation' efforts in conjunction with the
>>Works
>>Project Administration.  There was a need to employ thousands of
>>destitute
>>men.  Planting trees was an obvious choice.  There are numerous
>>reservoirs
>>and public acreage in the San Francisco Bay Area heavily populated with
>>these trees.
>>
>>The predominant soil of this area is clay or clay-loam.  In such highly
>>fertile soil Pr's grew well beyond the height of their forebears along
>>the
>>coast.  They also grew quickly.  Their lifespans were attenuated from
>>the
>>hundreds of years that the endemic population achieved to approx. 70
>>years
>>in the interior.    Designers and homeowners quickly caught on to this
>>attractive species and they became *the* staple tree of the area.  In
>>the
>>late 70's every nursery advertised cheap (sometimes 99 cents)
>>Moneterey's
>>on the covers of their newspaper inserts.
>>
>>Like any monoculture this enthusiasm for Pr's opened the species to many
>>pests that would not have been able to establish a foothold in the
>>endemic
>>area.  It started with two beetles, Ips paraconfusus and Dendroctonus
>>valens, both cambium feeders.  Then came Sequoia pitch moth, Pine
>>blister
>>rust and, lately, the most virulent of all, pitch canker.  Most of these
>>organisms had probably coexisted with the species for millions of years
>>without doing any great harm but the vast reservoir of food provided by
>>people made these deadly.
>>
>>By the mid 80's sales of Pr's declined rapidly.  Except for sheared
>>living
>>christmas trees we don't sell Monterey's at all in my mass-market
>>nursery.
>>But the damage has been done.  The hot interior valleys of California
>>average under 15 inches of rainfall/year.  The stress of urban
>>plantings,
>>dry climates, pollution, etc. undermined the species.  The pests that
>>thrived in Sacramento and Berkeley now are ravashing the endemic
>>populations.
>>
>>New Zealand is, if I remember correctly, almost entirely sandy soil.
>>Thus
>>the trees should grow more slowly than in Oakland.  As a previous post
>>indictated New Zealander's have been very vigilant about detecting and
>>eradicating any incipient pests from abroad(much as California has done
>>with the Gypsy Moth and Japanese Beetles, both rampant in the Eastern
>>U.S.).
>>
>>Will there come a day when Pinus radiata will be extinct in Monterey but
>>thriving in Wellington?
>>Jerry Heverly, Oakland, CA
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