US Forest Service Moves To Restore Idaho’s State Tree

The U.S. Forest Service is trying to bring back Idaho’s state tree to its former prominence.

Western white pine were wiped out in the early to mid-1900s by a fungus that arrived from Europe in 1910.

The blister rust fungus was widespread in the 1940s.

By the late 1960s, forest managers moved to salvage as many harvestable trees as possible.

Richard T. Bingham, a scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the 1950s began looking for white pine trees that appeared unaffected by the fungus.

He collected seeds and pollen from those trees to breed rust-resistant ones.

That effort is continuing at the Forest Service’s Coeur d’Alene Nursery in northern Idaho.

“Ever since the 1970s, all the seeds we use to grow western white pine come from resistant stock,” said Aram Eramian, the nursery’s superintendent. “It’s not total immunity, but it allows the seedling to grow to a rotational age and hold off the rust and get mature.”