The whitebark pine (click here) and the Clark’s Nutcracker are evolutionary soul mates that help hold an ecosystem together. At high elevations in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, whitebark pines depend entirely on nutcrackers to disperse their seeds. The pine nuts contain more calories than butter and provide food for more than 100 species, including (counterclockwise from bottom left) red squirrel, chipmunk, Cassin’s Finch, grizzly bear, Mountain Chickadee, and Hairy Woodpecker. Whitebark pines are also pioneers in mountain clearings and act as nurse trees (pictured center left) for spruces and firs to grow up. Illustration by Misaki Ouchida, Bartels Science Illustration Intern.
April 22, 2016
By Eric Whitney
ASHE: The population is fully recovered, and we need to recognize that and let the Endangered Species Act work on other species that need its protections.
WHITNEY: But other wildlife biologists look at the evidence and come to a different conclusion.
DAVID MATTSON: I think if you put a little magnification on Livingston Peak, it makes everything pretty darn clear.
WHITNEY: David Mattson hands me a pair of binoculars to point out what he says is a big problem for bears and the government's plans to remove their Endangered Species Act protections. He's spent more than 20 years studying Yellowstone's grizzlies, especially what they eat.
MATTSON: And what you're going to see, if the focus is right for you...
WHITNEY: A lot of dead trees.
MATTSON: A lot of dead trees. All of those are whitebark pine.
WHITNEY: Whitebark pine trees are at the heart oft he fight over protecting Yellowstone's grizzlies. Despite their reputation as ferocious killers, grizzlies here have long relied on seeds from whitebark pine trees as a primary food source, and climate change is wiping out the trees. A federal appellate court said the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to account for the loss of whitebark pine in 2005, the last time the agency tried to take these bears off the endangered species list.
Mattson says climate change is diminishing other important grizzly food sources, too. That means bears are roaming farther and taking more risks, feeding on things like elk and domestic cattle. And that, he says, means more bear encounters with ranchers and big-game hunters. More encounters usually means more dead bears. But the Fish and Wildlife Service says Yellowstone's grizzly population is robust enough to adapt to new food sources and survive....
Mattson says climate change is diminishing other important grizzly food sources, too. That means bears are roaming farther and taking more risks, feeding on things like elk and domestic cattle. And that, he says, means more bear encounters with ranchers and big-game hunters. More encounters usually means more dead bears. But the Fish and Wildlife Service says Yellowstone's grizzly population is robust enough to adapt to new food sources and survive....
