Impressive Coordination.

While Camp news is slow over the winter, I hope you haven't minded the random interesting news I've been posting.  In that vein, here's a crazy story from Alberta, Canada. It appears that two species of 5-needle pine (limber and whitebark) were added to the endangered species list after losing up to half of the members of most stands to pine beetles and blister rust.  Since they can live up to 1500 years, losing half of the local trees is a big deal.  (But no, that's not the interesting part.)

The interesting part is this: no one is yet sure how, but the trees seemed to get together last year to produce far more cones than usual, effectively helping to bring themselves back from the brink. Each tree typically produces 25 cones per year; last year, most trees produced around 75, and some produced up to 300. The extra cones served to outwit hungry squirrels and grizzlies, who just couldn't eat enough before the seeds were scavenged by birds.

The Clark's Nutcracker (or Nuthatch, depending on where you are) scrounges and hides the seeds left over by the squirrels and bears. The ones that get forgotten by the Nutcrackers then grow into new pines. Last year, there were so many seeds left over because of the overabundance of cones that more were hidden and forgotten than usual, increasing the chances for the stands to come back.

If pine trees were people, they would have never even gotten that idea off the ground without seven steering committee meetings and a few forms filled out in triplicate.  Have I mentioned before that nature is awesome?