Species: Pinus albicaulis

Whitebark pine has large, wingless, nutrient-rich seeds that remain in the indehiscent cone after maturity. It is not adapted for wind dissemination and is almost entirely dependent on Clark's nutcracker (<i>Nucifraga columbiana</i>) for successful dispersal and reproduction (Flora of North America, 1993; Lanner, 1982; Burns and Honkala, 1990; Murray, 2005). Nutcrackers feed almost exclusively on whitebark pine seeds when they are available and store the seeds for year-round use. With a full pouch of seeds, nutcrackers fly to a suitable site and cache clusters of up to 15 seeds 2-3 cm below the soil surface. The birds have been observed traveling anywhere from several hundred meters to over 10 km to cache seeds (Alberta Sustainable Resource Development and Alberta Conservation Association 2007). Various mammals (red squirrel, black bear, grizzly bear, chipmunk, golden-mantled ground squirrel, deer mice) also transport and cache seeds (Hutchins and Lanner, 1982; Tomback, 1978), but not nearly to the extent of the Clark's nutcracker. Trees do not reach full cone production until 60 to 100 years of age on most sites (Lewis, 1971; McCaughey and Tomback, 2001). Peak cone production extends for another 250 years, then gradually declines.