A team from the Sawtooth National Forest collected 75 bushels of pine cones in August and September to restore the seed bank at Lucky Peak Nursery. (Courtesy of Elexis Bernstein, U.S. Forest Service)
One organization wants to help forest managers restore trees lost this summer in one of Idaho’s most devastating fires.
On November 3, the nonprofit Daughters of the American Revolution launched a fundraising campaign to raise money to restore scorched forests in southern and central Idaho.
The Wapiti Fire, which started on July 24 by a lightning strike two miles southwest of Grandjean, has covered about 130,000 acres in the Boise National Forest, Sawtooth National Forest and the Salmon-Challis National Forest.
The money raised, created by Project Pinecone, will be used to hire professional tree climbers for the Sawtooth National Forest who will pluck pine cones from trees to harvest mature seeds that will be used to grow and ultimately plant trees back in the Sawtooth National Forest.
As of Monday, Project Pinecone had raised a total of $11,500, including cash and check donations outside of the PayPal fundraiser, lead organizer Janice Beller said.
Beller is the nonprofit’s state leader in Idaho. Like others in the organization, she is a descendant of someone who participated in the American Revolution. Conservation is important to the organization and important to her as a fifth-generation Idahoan, she told the Idaho Capital Sun.
“Stanley is one of my favorite places in the world, and it has been in my family for years – literally generations,” she said. “When Stanley burned this summer, it just broke my heart and really had a profound impact on many members within Daughters of the American Revolution.”
“We have a big need for seed,” says Sawtooth ranger
Beller said a member of her leadership team contacted a Stanley forest ranger to ask how they could help restore the forest. Then she heard about the seed shortage at Lucky Peak Nursery, located off Highway 21 outside Boise.
Nelson Mills, the timber and forestry program manager for the Sawtooth National Forest, said his biggest challenge is that forest staff has not collected enough seeds to replenish the seed bank at Lucky Peak Nursery.
Pine cones are collected by professional tree climbers who use harnesses and spurred boots to climb trees between 75 and 130 feet tall. The pine cones are then transferred to Lucky Peak Nursery for seed processing. (Courtesy of Bill Josey)
Forest Service staff currently have enough seeds at the nursery to cover 50 to 80 acres of trees suitable for the Stanley area, Mills said. However, that is not nearly enough to allow the forest to recover from the Wapiti Fire.
Mills said wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem, but catastrophic wildfires like the Wapiti Fire require artificial tree restoration. Of the 130,000 acres burned during the Wapiti Fire, 485 acres were identified as needing immediate reforestation because the seedbed was completely burned, Mills said. If a more formal assessment is done this winter, forest staff will likely find more acres where seedlings need to be planted, he said.
In addition to the seed shortage, harvesting pine cones is a complicated, risky and expensive process, Mills said.
The main way to collect pine cone seeds is to hire professional tree climbers for $2,500 per day. Equipped with harnesses and spurred boots, they climb trees between 75 and 100 feet tall to collect pine cones that are perfectly ripe.
Timing is crucial because maturity varies by species and elevation, usually between mid-August and mid-September, Mills said. An unripe pine cone will not have a viable embryo, an overripe pine cone will open and release its seeds, and pine cones that have fallen to the ground have been exposed to mold – making the seeds unsuitable for use, he said.
The pine cones are then transferred to Lucky Peak Nursery where they are tested, processed, cleaned and seeded to create baby lodgepole pines, ponderosa pines and Douglas firs.
Mills said Project Pinecone creates flexibility for foresters because it is not appropriated by Congress. If it’s not a good year for pine cone production, he said, foresters can wait until the next year or look at other species in another area.
“Everyone is going through all the phases of this reforestation problem to find a solution and regrow forests, specifically in the Stanley Basin that was impacted by the Wapiti Fire,” Mills said. “It’s a great collaborative effort, and I’m so grateful that people want to come together and grow a forest ecosystem.”
The fundraising campaign will run until spring 2025
Beller said the fundraiser will last until May, when she plans to hold a ceremony to present the money to the Stanley community and forest officials. She said she encourages individuals to donate because it is tax deductible and people who donate more than $10 will receive a wooden magnet with the project’s logo.
The overall goal of the project is to raise $15,000, which will cover six days of pine cone picking.
The fundraiser is partnering with Boise Cascade, which has committed to a day of pine cone picking for the project.
“Boise Cascade’s roots run deep in the state of Idaho, and we are honored to contribute to this incredible project to help restore some of Idaho’s most cherished forest areas that burned during the brutal summer 2024 fire season” , Boise Cascade Vice President of Human Resources and Contributions Committee Chair Angella Broesch told the Sun. “As one of the largest manufacturers of wood products in North America and a leading wholesale distributor of building products in the U.S., our company is committed to contributing to responsible forestry practices and the protection of our environment.”
Beller said the successful donations exceeded half of his goal and show how much Idaho and beyond Idaho people care about the Stanley area.
“We’ve heard so many people say this is truly the heart of Idaho, and it means a lot to them and their families,” Beller said. “So it’s very humbling to see everyone come together and contribute even a little bit to bring it back.”
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