Lodgepole Pines, Yellowstone, Montana, 1989



Photograph by Jonathan Blair

A stand of lodgepole pine trees in Montana’s Yellowstone Park are backlit by the glow of the 1988 North Fork Fire, which charred nearly 800,000 acres (324,000 hectares) of the park. Such fires are actually good news for lodgepoles, whose pine cones need extreme heat to release their seeds.



(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Extinctions," June 1989, National Geographic magazine)

I love learning things, especially things I think I perhaps should have already known as is the case with why I am posting this picture. I never knew that lodgepole pines needed extreme heat to release their seeds. An avid lodgepole burner for heat (I swear by DEAD lodgepole over anything available around where I live) It just heats the best and lasts the longest. Now come to find out for new ones to grow they need extreme heat to get their seeds released. Hmmmm. I guess that's why lodgepole is slim pickens around these parts. Gee I do live in the mountains!