Whitebark pines ailing but don't get protections

A high-elevation pine tree devastated by disease, beetles and climate change warrants greater protection under the Endangered Species Act, the Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday. But the agency said it will not immediately list the whitebark pine as threatened or endangered because of higher priorities and a lack of funding.

Environmentalists had sued the government earlier this year in a bid to force it to confront the tree's decline.

Whitebark pine nuts are an important food for threatened grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park. The pines can live up to 1,000 years and thrive in conditions considered too harsh for most trees.

Yet in recent years stands across the West have been devastated by the mountain pine beetle, a fungus known as blister rust and warmer temperatures.

Trees on an estimated 2 million acres across the West were killed by the beetles two years ago, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. In some areas, 80 to 95 percent of trees with the beetles were killed as a changing climate has allowed the beetles to take hold in new areas, the agency said.

"There is currently no refuge from these threats," the Fish and Wildlife Service wrote of the beetles and blister rust.

Whitebark pine are found in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington and western Canada.

Authorities in Canada determined whitebark pine was endangered there last year.

Louisa Wilcox with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a plaintiff in the lawsuit that prompted Monday's decision, said she hoped government agencies would take new steps to restore whitebark pine stands before they are wiped out.

"This is a red flag that whitebark is in trouble," she said.