After living a tough life, a Ponderosa Pine that stood proudly at Sacajawea Park is no more.
But despite its death this year, the tree goes on to serve the Billings city park system.
When the tree was young, it was wounded by a lawn mower.
“Every tree depends on nutrition that travels from its roots throughout the tree by a cambium layer just under the bark. When any bark is removed on one side of a trunk, even at the base, the tree above that section never gets fully fed again,” explained Jon Kohn, seasonal forestry technician for City of Billings Parks, Recreation and Public Lands.
That problem led to another.
Because the tree wasn’t eating well or had open wounds, the pine became infected by native bark beetles.
“Their larvae tunnel under the bark, eating even more of the cambium layer, which can kill a mature tree. Their telltale sign is a beautiful blue color in the dead wood, left by a microscopic blue stain fungus which lives upon the baby beetles,” said Kohn.
Original source can be found here.
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