Krummholz. If there is one word to describe how whitebark pines deal with living at high elevations, in not so perfect soils, long winters with windy storms, that word would probably be krummholz.
Krummholz describes how trees can be twisted and made crooked by wind and winter weather. Found most often at the highest places that trees can grow, called tree line, krummholz trees are the trees sculpted and pruned, sometimes into amazing shapes. Whitebark pines are very good at krummholz. They can go with the flow of the winds and winter storms found in the high elevations of the subalpine environment. They are most easily viewed at Sunrise, our park’s highest summer road.
Whitebark pines are not tall trees. Without wind sculpting, they tend to be about 16-66 feet tall. They are wonderfully long lived trees ranging from 500 to 1,000 years old. Because they live in areas with not so wonderful soil (kind of rocky), with long winters, lots of snow and wind, whitebark pines are also slow growing trees. But as small and twisted as they may be, whitebark pines have big roles in the subalpine environment. They help stabilize soils, regulate run-off and snowmelt, and provide an important food source to subalpine animals with their seeds.
Currently listed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Threatened species, the whitebark pine is under threat from non-native white pine blister rust, native mountain pine beetles, impacts from altered fire regimes, climate change, and combinations of all four of these. Scientists have been working on these problems, especially the blister rust, for a while now. Programs are under way to find a way to save these amazing trees even as their numbers decrease across their range and in the park.
Where is your favorite place to see whitebark pines? Have you hiked trails or gone to scenic viewpoints and found some fantastic krummholz shapes in the pines? ~ams
More information on trees in the conifer family in the national park can be found here https://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/nature/conifer-trees.htm . Research done by the North Coast & Cascades Inventory & Monitoring Network can be found here https://www.nps.gov/im/nccn/monitoring-reports.htm .
These photographs are from years past and do not reflect current conditions. NPS/E. Brouwer Photo. View from Sourdough Ridge trail looking through a gap. Trees cling to rocks and cliffs on both sides of the gap. July, 2014. NPS/S. Redman Photo. Whitebark pine in the Sunrise area. Light, almost white, bark visible on trunk. August, 2011. NPS Photo. Close-up of branch of whitebark pine showing 5 needle bundles.
