Photo – U.S. Forest Service

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is asking the Interior Department to list the whitebark pine under the Endangered Species Act. The petition could become a watershed case for species in need of protection due to the effects of climate change.

The whitebark pine is a high-elevation species common in the northwest U.S. and Canada. According to NRDC, a number of environmental hazards are threatening the whitebark pine including white pine blister rust, a nonnative fungus, mountain pine beetle, and years of misguided forest fire management.

The hazards are interrelated, and all are tied to the warming caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As NRDC points out, warming also has the potential to make the whitebark pine more susceptible to hazards in the future:

(1) warming associated with global climate change will limit the geographical range of whitebark pine while increasing the range of neighboring tree species; (2) pest ranges will shift into new locations that are currently only marginally suitable climatically for infestation; and (3) hotter and drier conditions are predicted to accompany climate change thus increasing the frequency and intensity of stand-replacing wildfires.

The role of climate change in the trials and tribulations of the whitebark pine is significant not just to the fate of that species but to the future of Endangered Species Act implementation.

As part of the Bush administration's midnight regulations campaign, Interior is trying to finalize a rule prohibiting itself from considering the effects of climate change when making judgments about whether a species warrants protection.

Climate change's threat to plantlife is only going to worsen as atmospheric concentrations increase. The effects of climate change outpace the ability of treelines to shift upslope toward cooler temperatures or the ability of species to strengthen their immunity to pests and funguses. Animal species are at risk as well.

Critics of the Endangered Species Act support Bush's effort to divorce climate change from species protection. While the act is certainly not the ideal way to impose new emissions controls on power plants, vehicles, or other facilities, climate change cannot be ignored as a factor in making endangered species determinations.

If evidence of warming's effects is embargoed from the discussion, the case for protection is harder to make. And reversing warming is not the only way to aid a species. "Researchers are already investigating blister rust resistant trees," according to NRDC. "Whitebark pine trees can also be helped by protecting its critical habitat, preparing a recovery plan for species, and changing government forest suppression policies."

But in order to extend those protections to the whitebark pine, and other species experiencing similar struggles, it must first be listed under the Endangered Species Act.