A new record for California's highest tree

Summary

UC Davis Professor Hugh Safford was hiking for pleasure in California's High Sierra when he stumbled upon a new elevation record for the Jeffrey pine, which may now be the state's highest-altitude tree. His serendipitous finding is published in Madroño, a journal of the California Botanical Society. Last September, at timberline along the south slopes of Mount Kaweah in Sequoia National Park, Safford paused to admire a foxtail pine, then a lodgepole pine -- trees he expected to see at such high elevations. "Then I thought, 'What's that?'" said Safford, a forest ecologist in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. "I walk over, and it's a Jeffrey pine! It made no sense. What is a Jeffrey pine doing above 11,500 feet?" The Jeffrey pine grows in upper montane areas throughout the Sierra Nevada and is the most common tree found around Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes. It is not considered a traditional subalpine tree species, which inhabit the most extreme high elevations. Yet, Safford recorded Jeffrey pines as high as 12,657 feet elevation. That is 1,860 feet higher in elevation than the highest Jeffrey pine on record and even higher than lodgepole, limber and foxtail pines. To date, none of the six traditional subalpine forest species have been collected above 12,034 feet. This suggests the Jeffrey pine is California's highest tree -- at least for the moment. Safford's work indicates that other species are growing higher than commonly used databases suggest. The discovery signifies a changing climate amid California's highest peaks. As snow melts earlier and air temperatures rise, Jeffrey pine seeds are germinating on land they previously found frozen and inhospitable. Moving on up During his hike-turned-science-expedition, Safford found and examined 14 Jeffrey pines above 11,800 feet elevation, some of which were at least 20 years old. At least a dozen others were visible, but he was unable to visit them. He and researchers from his lab will return t...