Never before has the U.S. government officially recognized that an entire species of tree is at risk of extinction due to climate change. Until today, that is.

This morning, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will publish its decision which says that a listing of the Pinus albicaulis under the Endangered Species Act is "warranted but precluded." That's bureaucratic babble for: the whitebark pine tree should be listed, but we're really limited by budget and resources right now, so we won't actually be taking the necessary steps to add it to the list right away.

If you've spent any time in the Northern Rockies, you're likely familiar with the whitebark pine, a widespread species that climbs countless ridges and mountains throughout the American Northwest. And if you've spent any time on this site or reading our magazine over the past few years, you're likely familiar with the species' plight.

Tens of thousands of acres of whitebark pine forests are being decimated by a tiny insect the size of a grain of rice. Last summer, Erika Brekke produced this alarming video for OnEarth that explains how mountain pine beetles are climbing to higher elevations as temperatures warm and laying waste to vast swaths of whitebark pine forests:

The petition to list the whitebark pine was filed in December 2008 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which publishes OnEarth. And while the official announcement is expect this morning, the findings are already available on the Fish and Wildlife website (PDF).

The decision is based on "reams of scientific research," as NRDC's senior wildlife advocate Louisa Willcox puts it, but can be boiled down to this takeaway point, found on page 27 of the finding:

“Climate change is expected to significantly decrease the probability of rangewide persistence of Pinus albicaulis … At the end of the century, less than 3 percent of currently suitable habitat is expected to remain …The above studies all suggest that the area currently occupied by P. albicaulis will be severely reduced in the foreseeable future.”

Now that the official pronouncement is finally in, and the whitebark pine is officially to be listed as endangered (whenever the agency has the funds to bump it onto the list), the question becomes one of protection. While there is research underway for band-aid solutions to protect the trees themselves from the insect infestations, ultimately, it comes down to a question of climate.

A couple years ago, OnEarth asked NRDC wildlife scientist Dr. Sylvia Fallon what would happen if the species were added to the endangered species list. Fallon answered:

As with any species threatened by climate change, the single most important thing we can do is address global warming. But there are also a few things that can be done in the short term that might help stop the spread of the beetle and the fungus. One strategy might be to selectively cultivate trees that show natural resistance to the blister rust. There's also some research into using pheromones that trick beetles into thinking a tree is already infested, which makes them less likely to burrow into it. But there's no way to predict how long it will take to see any recovery.

So as long as temperatures keep rising and the beetles continue to be driven to higher-elevation habitats, their assault on the trees will continue. To save the species, a massive and immediate reduction in greenhouse gases is necessary. In this sense, the case is similar to that of the polar bears, which were determined in 2008 to be a "threatened species" due to loss of sea ice habitat in a warming Arctic, but which haven't yet been listed as "endangered."

These climate-endangered species decisions will surely become more and more common in coming years. The big question is whether the government will actually be able to do anything to protect them. 

Photo: Josh Mogerman/NRDC