Farragut State Park clears the way for revival of the western white pine

Farragut State Park is about to get little patches of the mighty white pine forest that once covered most of North Idaho. “Back in the day, white pine was king of the forest,” said David Leptich, a regional wildlife habitat biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. S-R reporter Becky Kramer writes that a century ago, foresters penned rapturous descriptions of cathedral-like stands of western white pine that towered 200 feet above the forest floor. Timber barons moved into North Idaho to capture the tree’s commercial value.

But by the 1920s, a blister rust from Asia was attacking and killing Idaho’s stands of white pine. Wildfire suppression also took away the openings in the forest that white pine need to regenerate. Today, less than 5 percent of the region’s white pine forests remain.

Idaho Fish and Game embarked on efforts this spring to return blister-rust resistant varieties of white pine to Farragut. The agency had 70 acres logged to create the open, sunny stands that white pine need to get established. The sight of logging trucks rolling out of the 4,000-acre park prompted calls to Fish and Game from members of the public, who wondered what was going on.

“It’s kind of like remodeling your kitchen. It looks like a disaster in the beginning,” Leptich told Kramer, as he hiked through a heavily logged area on the park’s northwest side. “But this is the ugliest it gets.” In six years, the site will look much different, he said. Blue-green foliage will mark the growth of young white pines. Over time, a diverse and resilient western white pine forest should emerge. You can read Kramer’s full report here at spokesman.com.