Pine pitch canker, caused by a non-native fungus, is devastating Monterey pines. These trees, native to our area, are dying all around us--in backyards, beside our highways, and in our native forests. There is no known prevention or cure.

Although Monterey pine are grown world wide in plantations as a source of lumber, only a few small native forests exist in the entire world--three located on the California Central Coast and two on small islands off Mexico. The native forests exhibit a genetic diversity that is not found in the plantation trees.

The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is petitioning the Department of Fish & Game to add the native Monterey pine to the list of species protected under the California Endangered Species Act. Listing the pine as "threatened" would bring the attention and the dollars necessary to address its conservation. Some 36 endangered or special status plants and animals are found in or near the Monterey pine forest and may be dependent on the forest habitat for survival.

The Sierra Club unanimously voted to support listing the Monterey pine as "threatened" in July, 1998.

Some private landowners are concerned about what the proposed listing will mean regarding management of their property. Developers are feeding this concern by circulating misinformation about the impact of listing the species.

Landowners' concerns include fear of extensive permitting or even an Environmental Impact Report to remove a seedling pine or a dead or dangerous tree, extensive red tape for Monterey pine research or prescribed burns, increased fire hazard as dead and dying trees increase in number, and long wait periods for permitting since one Fish and Game ecologist covers nine counties.

An informed source at Fish and Game clarified these issues for The Ventana: If the Monterey pine is listed as "threatened," a landowner would need a permit to "take" native pines, however, it is not true that an EIR would be required unless major habitat loss is anticipated as in a proposed housing development. Permitting could be delegated to local jurisdictions to speed up the process. According to our source:

". . . we are looking to implement memoranda of understanding with various state and local agencies to allow for a program which would delegate our authority for permitting to the local agencies, subject to standard mitigations which would be contained in the program; these would be made a part of existing programs such as county tree removal permits, timber harvest plans, etc."

"The goal is not to over-regulate activities which will not result in significant conversion of habitat. . ."

At press time the State Department of Fish and Game was preparing to issue a press release about the proposed listing. Readers are encouraged to check out the Fish & Game website rather than rely on developers' propaganda and fear tactics for information. They may be reached at http://www.dfg.ca.gov.

The threat to the Monterey pine must be handled with facts and science rather than fear and falsehoods. The CNPS is leading the fight to protect this species and is working with California Dept. of Forestry employees, Fish & Game personnel, forestry and tree pathology scientists, and planners to ensure the survival of the pine habitat.

How to help

Express your support for listing the Monterey pine as "threatened," by writing a brief note or postcard to Fish & Game Commission, 1416 9th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. They are being lobbied by developers and need to hear from the other side.

The Northern California Regional Conservation Committee of the Sierra Club has unanimously supported a resolution to the State Fish & Game Commission to list the native Monterey pine as a "Threatened" species.

Meeting July 11 at Monterey Peninsula College, the representatives from northern California chapters agreed that the native tree meets the legal definition for "Threatened" status: "Although not presently threatened with extinction, [it] is likely to become an endangered species in the foreseeable future in the absence of . . . special protection and management efforts. . . ."

The vote took place following a presentation by Monterey Pine Forest Watch, a committee of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society that has been working for the past six years to protect the most important remaining large stands of Monterey pine. The impact of listing on the urban forest would be minimal, but it would help to protect the native forest from disruption of significant habitat values.

One possible outcome would be the preparation of a Habitat Conservation Plan or Natural Community Conservation Plan designed to protect the biological and genetic diversity of the forest. Such a plan would respond to concerns from forest managers in the multibillion dollar global timber industry, which has made the Monterey pine the most widely planted timber tree in the world.

A recent letter from a New Zealand researcher stressed that the native stands are the "ultimate genetic resources" containing "genes that are not represented in domesticated stocks" that "provide opportunities for evolving resistance to diseases and pests that have not reached New Zealand . . . we see the species potential for evolving resistance as being alarmingly compromised by the urbanization at Monterey-Carmel and Cambria. . . ."

Developers of Canada Woods and other projects have repeatedly misrepresented the laws protecting rare and endangered species. It is important for us to help the public understand that a plant or animal does not have to be "listed" by the state or federal government to qualify for protection.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) specifies that all endangered species -- not just those that have made it through the political minefield involved in both the state and federal listing processes -- shall be considered during the environmental review process.

The Department of Fish & Game publishes a Special Plants list with the names of those species over which it exercises management responsibilities. This list is based on those plants in the California Native Plant Society's Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants that meet the definitions of Section 1901, Chapter 10 (Native Plant Protection Act) or Sections 2062 and 2067 (California Endangered Species Act) in the Fish & Game Code and are therefore eligible for state listing.

The destruction of such species, according to CEQA, constitutes a significant impact that needs to be mitigated. The destruction of Monterey pine forest by development is especially significant because of the rapid spread of pine pitch canker, an exotic disease for which there is no known cure. The best mitigation is to revise the project to avoid or reduce the impact. Unfortunately developers usually prefer to plant trees elsewhere. This choice is not a true mitigation because a "plantation" does not recreate a natural community with genetic diversity and a full complement of plants and other organisms.

Intact stands of the native Monterey pine forest have been reduced to only a few thousand acres. The pines and the community they support are truly endangered. Let us do everything we can to protect the trees that define the Monterey Peninsula landscape. Only in this way can the native stands maximize their genetic diversity and thus their potential resistance to pitch canker and other diseases.

Corky Matthews is Conservation Chair for the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) and State Forestry Coordinator for the CNPS.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared the Monterey pine an endangered species. In its official update of March 1995, "Natural Forests of Monterey Pine: A Global Resource," it notes, "Monterey pine is included in FAO's listing of endangered tree and shrub species and provenances."

The report recommends protection of all the remaining natural forests of Monterey pines in order to protect the species. Forest protection is necessary, the report explains, because the degree of genetic variation occurring naturally in the Monterey Pine species is not fully known. Greenhouse specimens could not be expected to provide the entire variation; only natural forests could.

There are several advantages to preserving this entire range of genetic variation found in natural Monterey Pine forests, according to the report. First, it provides a source of future genetic material for tree improvement programs. Second, "the Monterey pine species is an integral component of the unique flora of California, a state which contains many endemic plant species such as the Torrey pine, Giant Sequoia, and Monterey Cypress. . . If human society is indeed committed to the protection of biological diversity for the benefit of present and future generations, then certainly Monterey pine with its restricted natural range and its high value as a plantation species, should be a leading candidate" for this type of protection.

How appropriate that even the conservative and cautious United Nations recognizes the importance and threat to our local forest on the 50th anniversary of their founding.

Another golf course? As you may know, owners of Pebble Beach Company want to turn the best remaining Monterey pine forest (Jeffers Forest) into a golf course.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Call your Monterey County Supervisor TODAY and tell them to protect this priceless princess of a forest.

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