Crater Lake- Addendum

August 8th

I had another story about Crater Lake I wanted to include in the blog, but ran out of time last night.  This is another great Mother Nature story, about a bird-tree partnership for survival.  The bird is Clark's Nutcracker ( I included his picture in the blog), the tree is the whitebark pine, which grow on the rim of Crater Lake.  They are similar in looks to the bristlecone pines, as they are twisted and gnarled by the wind and can withstand severe conditions.

Clark's Nutcrackers are related to the crow family.  They are very smart birds.  They are able to open the very tightly closed cones of the whitebark, which stay closed even after they are ripe.  Once they open them, they eat what they want, then bury the remainder of the seeds in several different locations in groups of 3-5 seeds.   The nutcracker can stash up to 100,000 seeds in one summer and (this is the impressive part for us with our senior moments), remember where more than half of the seeds are stashed!

What happens to the other half?  Hopefully, they will germinate and turn into new whitebark pine trees.  Without the nutcracker, the tree would be unable to propagate.  Nearly every whitebark seen in Crater Lake National Park was carefully planted by a Clark's Nutcracker!

Unfortunately, the whitebark pine is now in trouble due to a non-native fungus which was imported to the US by accident.  The spores of the fungus travel short distances on the wind, infecting trees.  The fungus is usually fatal to the tree.  Scientists are working to develop more resistant strains of the tree in order to save the species.  In the meantime, they are trying to get the tree listed as endangered species. The tree helps to keep soil stable, helps create an environment for wildflowers to flourish, provides shelter and habitat for squirrels and other small animals,  and as you can see in this story, it provides nutrition for Clark's Nutcracker.  I think this story is a perfect example of how one small thing in nature has wide-ranging impact, and how amazing it is to understand the inter-relatedness of this tree and this bird!