They are one of the iconic trees found in parts of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states. You can’t miss their massive stature and warm, red trunks when you’re out on a hike in the national parks.
And If you get close enough and try to wrap your arms around the massive trunks, you can’t help but think that you’re in a candy store. Ponderosa Pines, you see, smell like butterscotch pudding or vanilla extract if you get your face right up next to the bark and take a good snort.
But with a warming climate, and more frequent and longer lasting periods of drought, these forests of Ponderosa can quickly turn into massive wildfires that overrun the landscape.
In a new book from thse University of Arizona Press, Sylvester Allred provides a wonderful overview of these massive trees. Small enough (5 inches by 8.5 inches) to stick in your back pocket or day pack when you’re out in national parks such as Bryce Canyon, the North Rim of this Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and even up into Rocky Mountain National Park, this softcover book, Ponderosa, Big Pine of the Southwest, is a great resource to take with you.
Within its 92 pages you’ll find such basic information as the range of Ponderosa pine forests and the wildlife that take refuge in the trees or feed on their pinecones. You’ll also learn a little about how these great trees where used by humans down through the centuries. For instance, Mr. Allred tells us the ancestral Puebloans used these trees for beams in their cliff dwellings. This was not always an easy task, he adds, as communities that are recalled today at Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico were located more than 50 miles from the nearest Ponderosa forests.
Ponderosa pine also went into railroad ties, mine shafts, and even to make ammunition crates during World War II.
Spend any time hiking through Ponderosa pine forests and you’re likely to come upon some of the residents that call them home. Up in the branches or dashing down the trunk you might spot an Abert’s squirrel or an Arizona gray squirrel. Closer to the ground will be Golden mantle ground squirrels darting about, while pocket gophers might have tunneled their homes around the trees roots. The forests also are home to coyotes, elk, gray fox, mountain lions, raccoons and porcupines.
Higher up in the tree branches you might see woodpeckers, juncos, chickadees or pine siskins, a small handful of the bird species flitting about.
For those really interested in Ponderosa pines, you'll want to turn to page 11 where the author explains how Ponderosa pines of different ages gained the name “blackjacks” or “yellowbellies.” Blackjacks were named for their darker bark, which reflects a relatively young tree. Once trees get to about 100 years old, Mr. Allred explains, the bark turns a deep orange, or maybe a rusty red color, which gave rise to nickname yellowbelly.
There are more than 50 photos used to illustrate the book. The full-color pictures show such things as growth rings, the different colors of tree bark, lightening scars, the difference between male and female pine cones, and some of the wildlife that call these forests home.
For those considering a career in forestry, the book also offers suggested readings you can delve into to expand your knowledge of the Ponderosa pine. All in all, a great resource for your national park library.
Comments
Several references for a better understanding of ponderosa pines, conifer
tree rings and wildland fire histories:
Fire history of mixed-conifer forests on the North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park
ABSTRACT This study documented fire history using crossdated tree wedges and master chronologies developed from mixed-conifer forest in the Grand Canyon National Park to assess occurrences of natural fires prior to Euro-American settlement. Fire frequency was determined along an elevation gradient from the lower to the upper ecotones of the mixed-conifer forest and along a temporal gradient from pre Euro-American settlement to the present. Mean fire interval generally increased with elevation, especially during the pre Euro-American era, representing the natural fire regime. Pre Euro-American settlement fire intervals (prior to 1870) were longer than the settlement era (1870-1919) intervals, but shorter than the suppression era (1920-1995) intervals. Seasonality of burn was determined by detecting the position of each fire scar within the annual ring. The majority of fires occurred in late summer, coinciding with the July-August peak of the Arizona monsoon circulation (and lightning activity) in this region.
http://web.utk.edu/~grissino/links.htm
Henri Grissino-Mayer's Ultimate Tree-Ring Web Pages
These award-winning pages are the most complete compilation of tree-ring information on the web. Henri maintains pages on basic principles, references, jobs, laboratories, home pages of individual researchers, suppliers of field and laboratory equipment, software, and many other facets of the science. These pages are constantly updated and fun to browse.
http://nau.edu/ERI/Research/Ecological-Research/Arizona/Grand-Canyon-Forest/
Good article, and it's correct about the wonderful aroma of a ponderosa pine on a warm day :-)