Chilgoza Pine a Path to Sustainable Management

Pinyon trees are the dominant overstory species on more than 36 million acres of land in the southwestern United States. Once considered weeds by rangeland ecologists and removed by the millions from the best growing sites in the Southwest between 1950 and 1980, pinyons are now recognized as critical elements of healthy pinyon-juniper ecosystems. However, a century of fire suppression and overgrazing created abnormally dense thickets of pinyon trees on sites that were unaffected by mid-20th century pinyon clearing programs. A prolonged drought during the 1990s increased the vulnerability of these trees to insect attacks, leading to the death of large numbers of pinyon trees in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona during the early 2000s. These dead trees, as well as the remaining live pinyon trees, are at extreme risk from wildfires.

The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service are now faced with the necessity of restoring vast acreages of pinyon-juniper woodlands to conditions less conducive to large-scale intensive fires. In order to achieve this objective, this report argues that the two agencies should seriously consider actively managing these ecosystems for pinyon nut production. We develop our argument based on a review of the literature on pinyon-juniper ecosystem management, together with data obtained through phone interviews with land managers, scientists, extension agents, and pinyon nut buyers. Although our study emphasizes the pinyon nut harvest in Colorado, the spatial and temporal variability of the pinyon nut crop required us to examine the workings of the pinyon nut industry at regional and international scales.

The data indicate that the pinyon nut industry continues to thrive in the American Southwest, despite the loss of large acreages of the most productive nutbearing trees during the conversion era from the early 1950s to the early 1980s. Additionally, although competition from pine nuts imported from China and countries in the Mediterranean is strong, the likelihood is high that demand for American pinyon nuts will continue to expand for the foreseeable future. The ecological and archeological literature indicates that managing pinyon-juniper ecosystems for nut production is highly compatible with multiple use forest management, and in the long term would likely greatly reduce the incidence of high intensity fires. Additionally, many of the recommended best management practices for enhancing pinyon nut production can be easily incorporated into on-going ecosystem restoration programs.

Introduction:

Pinyon-juniper woodlands cover more than 36 million acres of the southwestern United States and intermontane West (Shaw et al. 2005). As reflected in their name, the dominant overstory species in these woodlands are pinyon pine trees (one or more species of six species) and juniper shrubs (one or more species of four main species). The species of juniper and pinyon present and the particular mix of species vary depending on factors such as latitude and longitude, elevation, annual precipitation, topography, and soil and air temperature. In Colorado, where pinyon-juniper woodlands cover 4.8 million acres and make up 22 percent of the state’s forests (see figure 1), the common or Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis) and Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) are the dominant overstory species. The majority of Colorado’s pinyon- juniper woodlands-75 percent-are managed by the Bureau of Land Management; the rest are mostly on state or private land (Benson and Green 1987).

Once considered weeds by rangeland ecologists and removed by the millions from the best growing sites in the Southwest between 1950 and 1980, pinyons are now recognized as foundation species in pinyon-juniper ecosystems. Foundation species provide core ecological structures and functions, stabilizing local environmental conditions in ways that permit numerous other species to thrive (Sthultz et al. 2007). Removal or death of a large percentage of a foundation species population leads to rapid loss of biodiversity and serious negative impacts on the ecosystem’s overall health.

Large numbers of pinyon trees in Colorado and neighboring states died during the severe and prolonged drought conditions that occurred in the Southwest during the1990s. The mortality rate worsened between 2001 and 2004 as many trees that were weakened from prolonged moisture stress succumbed to the Ips bark beetle (Ips confusus (LeConte)). High intensity wildfires in the tinder dry forests diminished the pinyon population even further. Between 2000 and 2005, the combination of drought, insects, fire, and disease killed more than 50 percent of the pinyon in parts of southwestern Colorado and northern Arizona. The presence of the resulting large amounts of dead wood on the landscape increases the likelihood of widespread and high intensity fires at a time when very low moisture conditions combined with very hot summer temperatures are likely to become more frequent (Breshears et al. 2005).

In the past decade, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service have formed collaborative partnerships with each other and with other forest stakeholders to reduce the amount of easily flammable woody material and decrease the risk of high intensity fires. These programs seek to restore the Southwest’s forested ecosystems to tree densities and canopy coverages typical of the region prior to the late 19th century. Restoration efforts include harvesting dead and dying trees, hydro-mowing, hand-thinning, prescribed burning, spraying mature pinyon with pesticides to prevent the spread of bark beetles, and replanting to native understory vegetation. However, with costs as high as $1085 an acre, restoration is expensive (Lynch and Mackes 2003). Additionally, many firms are reluctant to bid on restoration contracts, due to the lack of profitable uses and milling infrastructure for the small diameter wood (i.e., logs under 12 inches in diameter) being removed (Lynch and Mackes 2003).

In 2003, the Colorado State Forest Service, Colorado State University, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Products Lab created the Colorado Wood Utilization and Marketing Program to overcome technological, knowledge, and market barriers to the profitable use of small diameter timber and to promote other activities that help agencies generate revenues to pay for restoration. The Bureau of Land Management is particularly interested in finding ways to offset the costs of treating the 650,000 acres of its pinyon-juniper woodlands that require restoration. In fall 2006, the Colorado Wood Utilization and Marketing Program asked the Institute for Culture and Ecology to analyze the feasibility of expanding BLM’s commercial nontimber forest product sales program as a means of enhancing land management revenues. Nontimber forest products are tree and forest understory products, such as boughs, roots, bark, berries, grasses, moss, fungi, and seeds. Transplants, seeds, roots, and evergreen boughs are just a few of the many nontimber forest products harvested in Colorado (Spero and Fleming 2002).

For many nontimber forest products, little scientific literature is available on sustainable management techniques, harvesting practices and impacts, or market dynamics. However, a small body of scientific knowledge has developed on the biology of pinyon nut production, traditional use of pinyon nuts among humans inhabiting the Southwest, and the role of birds and small mammals in pinyon nut dispersal. Since our project budget was too small to conduct extensive primary data collection, we selected pinyon nut harvesting as a case example to examine the challenges and opportunities for expanding nontimber forest product economic opportunities on BLM managed lands in southern and western Colorado. The case illustrates how active management of Colorado’s pinyon-juniper woodlands for seed production could facilitate the restoration of healthy forest ecosystems over the course of the next century.

The variability of the pinyon crop over time and space requires a management approach that takes into account a centuries-long time horizon as well as the wide range of socio-ecological conditions in the entire area over which pinyon trees grow. Due to the difficulty of obtaining information about pinyon harvesting and markets in Colorado without conducting intensive fieldwork, our report focuses on pinyon nut use, management, and trade in the Southwest as a whole, and integrates information specific to Colorado where possible.

Methods:

We relied upon a combination of secondary and primary data sources to develop this case study. The secondary data sources we used included scientific journal articles, books, and technical reports as well as newspaper and popular journal articles, government agency memos, and planning documents. To gather primary data, we interviewed key informants, analyzed BLM and Forest Service product sales databases and international trade databases, and reviewed websites of pinyon nut buyers, brokers, wholesalers, and retailers. We interviewed 33 key informants by telephone; interviews were 30 to 45 minutes in length. Key informants were chosen on the basis of their likely knowledge about pinyon nut harvesting, processing, marketing, regulatory policies or land management issues. Topics covered in the interviews varied depending on the background of the informant, but touched on one or more of the following areas:

• Value of Colorado’s pinyon crop to various user groups

• Pinyon nut harvest regulations and policies

• Issues and concerns about pinyon management and regulatory practices on BLM managed lands

• Structure and dynamics of the domestic and international pinyon markets and how those have changed over time

• Suggestions or recommendations for enhancing pinyon nut production on BLM managed lands

Pinyon Ecology and Biology:

Colorado pinyon (Pinus edulis) and singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla) are the most widely distributed of the pinyon species found in the American Southwest and Great Basin (see figures 2 and 3). Although both species thrive in cool, semi-arid environments, Colorado pinyon requires more moisture and is distributed across large portions of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and northern Arizona (Evans 1988). It typically grows in areas where precipitation ranges between 10 to 15 inches, which in the recent past has typically occurred at elevations between 5200 feet and 9000 feet (Anderson 2002). It is most abundant at elevations between 7000 to 7900 feet (Anderson 2002). In Colorado, the Colorado pinyon is distributed along the eastern slopes of the Front Range from the city of Colorado Springs south to the New Mexico border, in the canyon and mesa country in the Four Corners area, and north of Grand Junction along the far western border adjoining Utah.

Singleleaf pinyon is found primarily in Nevada, western Utah, and parts of northern Arizona (Zouhar 2001). It is a drought- and cold-tolerant species that grows in areas where the average precipitation is between 8 to 18 inches and elevations are between 3200 to 9200 feet (Meeuwig et al. 1990). The single-leaf pinyon generally grows in association with Utah juniper (Meeuwig et al. 1990). A hybrid of singleleaf pinyon and Colorado pinyon occurs in central Utah and southern Utah where the ranges of the two species overlap (Lanner 1981). All species of pinyons have large, wingless, heavy seeds, commonly called pine nuts.

The seeds are too heavy for the wind to disperse, and they fall to the ground when released from the cones in which they develop. Pinyon trees depend on numerous vertebrates, such as pack rats, squirrels, chipmunks, jays, and humans, to disperse their seeds across the landscape (Lanner 1981). Scientists have identified three species of jays-scrub jay (Aphelocoma californica), Steller’s jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) and pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) as well as the Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana)- as the most important dispersers of pinyon seeds to sites where trees are likely to regenerate (Gottfried et al. 1995; Lanner 1981). These birds cache enormous numbers of pinyon seeds in the fall and return to eat the cached seeds in the spring.

Inevitably, a significant number of seeds remain uneaten every year. The cache sites trap moisture and protect the seeds from the wind and cold, providing micro-environments that permit the seeds to survive long enough to grow into seedlings. Rodents, particularly pack rats, also gather and store pinyon seeds in their middens. Pinyon-juniper ecosystems exhibit the mosaic pattern of vegetation types and structures typical of semi-arid environments with extreme variability in the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation. In some areas pinyon-juniper systems occur as a tree-centered or woodland phase, where micro-site environmental conditions and understory vegetation are heavily influenced by large relatively dense patches of trees (West 1999). Elsewhere pinyon- juniper systems occur as a savanna phase, in which large open spaces covered by low shrubs, grasses, and forbs dominate the landscape, with only an occasional tree or small patches of trees scattered here and there (West 1999).

Uneven-aged stands with variable tree structure and understory biomass are characteristic of all pinyon-juniper ecosystems (Pieper 1993). Old growth stands are structurally more complex than younger stands in the tree layer but support fewer understory grasses and shrubs (Bowns 1999). The number of pinyon trees per acre in pinyon-juniper woodlands varies from one or two to several hundred (Ronco 1990). Pinyon pines are low bushy trees with a multiple branching structure and widespread crown. Mature Colorado pinyon reach heights ranging from 10 to 50 feet and diameters of 6 to 30 inches (Ronco 1990). Mature singleleaf pinyon are somewhat smaller, typically reaching less than 40 feet in height (Zouhar 2001) and less than 20 inches in diameter (Meeuwig et al. 1990). Both species have extensive lateral root systems that permit them to acquire water and nutrients from some distance away from the tree’s primary stem (Evans 1988). As a result, the ground surrounding a pinyon tree or a cluster of pinyon trees typically has only a sparse cover of grasses and forbs within the lateral root zone.

Both Colorado pinyon and singleleaf pinyon are very slow growing and long-lived. Moisture is the key factor limiting the growth rate, distribution, and density of both species (Gottfried 1987). If protected from fire and left to grow, dominant pinyons often live 400 to 500 years (Anderson 2002; Everett 1986), and a few pinyon trees have lived as long as 800 to 1000 years (Ronco 1987). Wild singleleaf pinyon trees rarely bear cones before they reach 35 years of age and generally do not produce commercially viable quantities of seeds until the age of 100 (Meeuwig et al. 1990). Colorado pinyon matures somewhat faster, often bearing cones by the age of 25 (Ronco 1990). Maximum seed production for singleleaf pinyon occurs when a tree is between 160 and 200 years old; the maximum seed production age for Colorado pinyon has not yet been determined but is likely similar (Evans 1988, Meeuwig et al. 1990).

Botanically, pinyon cones are fruits, and pine nuts are seeds rather than nuts. Like other fruits, pinyon cones absorb carbohydrates and nitrogen from the rest of the tree in order to produce seeds. The tree’s structural growth slows significantly when it is producing fruit (Fisher et al. 1988). Bumper seed crops occur when many pinyon trees across a large area produce mature cones with viable seeds during the same year (Gottfried et al. 1995). Large-scale climatic events that create moisture stress, such as an unusually dry summer, initiate bumper crops by triggering the growth of cone primordia in trees dispersed over large areas (Gottfried et al. 1995).

Pinyon trees exhibit the masting reproductive behavior characteristic of many nut and fruit trees (Fisher 1993). Masting is a phenomenon in which a large number of individual trees in a species population produce large seed crops at the same time (Sork 1983). Masting is common in species which rely on vertebrates to disperse their seeds, as the production of large numbers of seeds in a season enhances the likelihood that seed predators will become satiated and that a substantial number of seeds will survive long enough to germinate (Sork 1983). Masting behavior is also positively correlated with higher variability in rainfall (Kelly and Sork 2002). During prolonged periods of drought, pinyon trees divert the water and nutrients that would normally go into reproduction to maintaining vegetation structures needed to survive (Zouhar 2001, Meeuwig et al. 1990).

The onset of cone formation is influenced primarily by the tree’s size, rather than its age, and seed production is positively correlated to the surface area of the tree’s crown (Fisher et al. 1988). However, the more cones the tree produces, the less energy it has to produce wood (Fisher et al. 1988). Studies by researchers at the Mora Research Center in New Mexico indicate that levels of nitrogen and amino acids, particularly arginine, are also positively correlated with the number of cones produced (Fisher et al. 1988). A pinyon tree needs three successive growing seasons to produce seeds once primordial growth begins (Little 1977). Buds form in August after a triggering event (Ronco 1990;

• A primordium (plural, primordia) is an organ or a part of a biological organism in its most rudimentary form or stage of development.

Meeuwig 1990), and then go dormant for the winter. The cones form from flowers produced during the following spring. Paradoxically, a dry summer will lead to an above average flower crop the following spring, and if conditions are right, an above average cone drop in the fall (Fisher et al. 1988). Pinyons produce fewer cones if temperatures during the late summer are very hot and more cones if temperatures are cooler (Fisher 1993). Once formed, cones will produce seeds the following spring if moisture and temperature conditions are favorable. The seeds grow over the summer, and the cones release them in the fall, from late September to early November for singleleaf pinyon and from mid-September to late October for Colorado pinyon (Meeuwig et al. 1990, Ronco 1990). However, a very dry spring can delay seed production until the following year. A bumper cone crop occurs the year after three successive years of highly favorable conditions (Little 1977). A series of very dry hot years, such as occurred during Colorado’s drought during the 1990s, can lead to many successive years without a bumper crop.

Colorado pinyon produces 10 to 20 seeds per cone and about 1900 seeds per pound; singleleaf pinyon, which has larger seeds, produces 2 to 60 seeds per cone with an average of 900 seeds per pound (Meeuwig et al. 1990, Ronco 1990). In a good year, a productive singleleaf pinyon can produce about 11 pounds of seeds, while a productive Colorado pinyon may produce more than 20 pounds of seeds (Meeuwig et al. 1990; Ronco 1990). Pinyon nut buyers and pickers often refer to Colorado pinyon seeds as “hard shell” pinyon because their shells are too hard to be easily be cracked by hand. Singleleaf pinyon shells can easily be cracked by pressing the seed between the thumb and forefinger, and buyers and pickers refer to it as “soft shell” pinyon.

Both Colorado pinyon and singleleaf pinyon seedlings require shade and moisture to survive and do not thrive in large openings or grasslands (Little 1977). The seedlings of both species grow very slowly, adding only 2 to 6 inches to their height each year, depending on environmental conditions (Little 1977; Meeuwig et al. 1990). Diameter growth is also slow and heavily influenced by the moisture supply available, with faster growth rates in sites with more moisture and slower growth rates in droughty soils (Meeuwig et al. 1990; Ronco 1990). Several types of insects, fungi, and other organisms negatively affect individual pinyon trees and, in some situations, large populations of pinyon. The Ips bark beetle (Ips confusus), for example, kills pinyon trees weakened by other insects, fungi, or fire (Meeuwig et al. 1990).

Dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium divaricatum) and pinyon needle scale (Matsucoccus acalyptus) , are both widespread among pinyon populations. Although they don’t kill pinyon trees, they weaken them so that they are more susceptible to the Ips and other insects (Meeuwig et al. 1990). Other pathogens attack the cones, reducing the number of viable seeds produced (Meeuwig et al. 1990; Little 1977). Gall midge (Pinyonia edulicola) larvae can do considerable damage during the first year of cone growth, while pine cone moth caterpillars (Eucosma bobana) and pinyon cone beetles (Conophtorus edulis) attack during the second year of cone growth (Little 1977). Fire can easily kill or damage pinyon trees, which are thin-barked, but the extent to which fires cause significant damage or death is closely linked to stand structure and fire intensity Meeuwig et al. 1990). Fire frequency and intensity is higher in areas where understory vegetation is thick and in places where trees are still closely spaced (Zouhar 2001, Anderson 2002).

Pinyon seed production varies greatly from tree to tree, year to year, and place to place because of the pinyon’s lengthy and multi-stage fruiting cycle and the many opportunities for the cycle to be affected by factors such as weather conditions and insect predation (Keeley and Zedler 1998). Singleleaf pinyon is less variable in seed production than the Colorado pinyon, with large seed crops occurring every two to three years (Zouhar 2001). Colorado pinyon has a somewhat longer and more erratic cycle, with large seed crops occurring every three to seven years (Fisher et al. 1988, Ronco 1990). For each species, bigger and more frequent crops occur on better sites where conditions are optimum for the species rather than at the limits of its range (Ronco 1990, Meeuwig et al. 1990).

Although the extent and location of pinyon seed crops varies greatly from year to year, it is quite possible to predict what a crop will be like in advance. Pickers and buyers who know the distribution of pinyon trees with terminal buds, first-year cones, and second-year cones, as well as local and regional weather conditions and the distribution and intensity of pinyon predator activity, can predict seed production fairly accurately two years in advance, and even more accurately one year in advance. Commercial concentrations of seed producing trees of both species can be found somewhere within the species’ range even in off-cycle years, and complete crop failures are rare (Meeuwig et al. 1990; Ronco 1990). Because the pinyon crop is variable in time and space it is not amenable to management or research based on the assumptions of a stable equilibrium model. However, although crops are variable, they are not unpredictable and management approaches that take into account their variability are both feasible and necessary.

Changing Views of Pinyon over Time:

Humans around the world have long valued pine trees for the many products and services they provide: fuel wood, construction material for shelters and fencing, resin for glues and medicines, edible and highly nutritious seeds, branches for shade, and habitat and food for birds and mammals. Pine nuts, which have been a part of human diets for millennia, are an exceptionally nutritious plant food high in fat, protein, and carbohydrates (see table 1). Unlike most plant foods, the protein in pinyon nuts includes all 20 amino acids, making it nutritionally complete (USDA Agricultural Research Service 2006).

Table 2 compares the nutritive value of an ounce of Colorado pinyon nuts with the equivalent amount of butter and beefsteak. An ounce of pinyon nuts has more than 8 times the calories of lean beefsteak, but still has a significant amount protein (14.3 percent). Figure 4 illustrates how the lipid content of pinyon nuts differs from butter and beefsteak. Although pinyon nuts have a much higher percent of fat ounce per ounce than lean beefsteak, a much smaller percent of that fat (16 percent versus 45 percent) consists of saturated fats. Pinyon nuts are considerably lower in fat content than butter (61 percent versus 100 percent), and a large percent of the fats in pinyon nuts consists of the unsaturated fats that are associated with a lower risk of heart attacks.

Both Colorado and singleleaf pinyon nuts are rich in vitamins including thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, and folate; they also are a good source of minerals, notably manganese, magnesium, copper, zinc, potassium, and iron (USDA Agricultural Research Service 2006). Colorado pinyon nuts have more protein, fat, and calories than singleleaf pinyon, but fewer carbohydrates (Lopez- Mata 2001). The higher fat to carbohydrate ratio of Coloradon pinyon nut gives it a more buttery texture and a less starchy taste (Zouhar 2001). Humans have eaten pine nuts since the Paleolithic and very likely since the emergence of Homo sapiens as a species. Archeologists have found fragments of Italian stone pine (P. pinea ) cones in human settlements in Spain that date back 50,000 years (Fady et al. 2004). Peoples of the Mediterranean region have cultivated the stone pine, which is native to that region, for at least 6000 years (Wikipedia 2007). Cultures in northern China, Mongolia, Korea, eastern Russia, the central Himalayas, the Near East, southern Europe, and North America have used pine nuts for food for millennia (Bakels and Jacomet 2003, Ciesla 1998, Haldane 1993).

In the American Southwest, archeologists have documented human use of limber pine (Pinus flexilis) and singleleaf pinyon nuts for food at least as far back as 7500 years ago (Rhode and Madsen 1998) (see Table 3 for a timeline of pinyon use and management in the Southwest from 7500 BC to present). Over the next seven millennia, dozens of Native American societies thrived for long periods in this environment of scarce and erratic precipitation by incorporating the nutritious and often abundant pinyon nut into their diet (Lanner 1981). The highly nutritious, portable, and long-lasting pinyon nuts were an especially important plant food among the hunting and gathering cultures of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin (Bettinger 1991, Steward 1937, Murphy and Murphy 1979, Plog 1979). Pinyon nuts provided calories and protein to these foragers on an everyday basis, but more importantly, caches of nuts-often stored for several years at a time-enabled them to make it through the inevitable lean seasons and years (Fowler 1979).

Around 1700 years ago, the Washoe and Owens Valley Paiute, whose territories included the pinyon-rich zone in the Sierras along what is now the California-Nevada border, developed the social organization and technology needed to harvest and process green pinyon cones in large quantities (Bettinger 1991). Harvesting pinyon nuts from green cones and roasting them in large numbers to preserve them for long periods provided a reliable long-term food supply that made a more sedentarized life possible for the Washoe and Owens Valley Paiute (Bettinger 1991). The Anasazi, who occupied what is now the Four-Corners region between roughly 1200 BC to 1200 and who were the ancestors of present-day Pueblo farmers in New Mexico and Arizona, also consumed pinyon nuts for food (Nabhan et al. 2004).

The pinyon nut’s complete protein content may have provided the Anasazi with amino acids otherwise lacking in a diet based primarily on corn, beans, and squash. The Ute, proto-Navajo, and proto-Apache peoples who moved into the Colorado Plateau several hundred years after the collapse of the Anasazi culture in the 1300s incorporated pinyon nuts as a major component of their food-gathering strategies (Nabhan et al. 2004). Although less dependent on pinyon than the Ute, Navaho, and Apache for food, the Pueblo peoples who now occupy territory in northern New Mexico and Arizona have long supplemented their diet of cultivated corn, beans, and squash with pinyon nuts, as did their Anasazi ancestors (Bodine 1979).

For Native American societies in the Southwest and Great Basin, the pinyon nut was, and still is, an important food. It was also a cultural symbol representing life, health, and social unity (Lanner 1981). The pine nut harvest was a time when the various bands of the Great Basin cultures, such as the Utes, Paiutes, Shoshone, and Washoe came together in the pinyon groves to gather the annual crop before winter (Fowler 1979). It was also an important seasonal event among the Navajo, the Pueblos, Jicarilla Apache, and other cultures south of the Great Basin (Lanner 1981). For many of these groups, the fall pinyon harvest continues to be a way to reaffirm and solidify kinship ties.

Besides pinyon nuts, Native Americans in the Southwest and Great Basin used many products derived from pinyon trees, including wood for fuel and resin for medicines and glue, (Lanner 1981). In situations of intense population pressure, the demand for wood among the Pueblo farming cultures exceeded the pinyon’s capacity to regenerate (Nabhan et al. 2004). Farmers were much less dependent on pinyon nuts for food than their hunter-gatherer neighbors to the north, east, and west, and it is likely that it was easier for them to overlook the impact of wood harvesting on nut production until it was too late. For many years, archeologists believed that the collapse of the Anasazi was linked to widespread deforestation of pinyon-juniper woodlands, caused in part by climate change and in part by extensive tree cutting.

However, recent evidence suggests that the decline in the availability of wild foods high in protein and essential amino acids-wild birds, game, and pinyon nuts-linked to the dwindling of Colorado pinyon populations, may have been an equally important factor in the Anasazi’s withdrawal from the Colorado Plateau. (Ciesla 1998) The Hispanos who moved into northern New Mexico and southern Colorado following the Spanish Conquest in the 1600s quickly learned to value the pinyon tree, which resembled the Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea) of their homeland. Hispanos’ preferred firewood was the hot- burning, aromatic pinyon, and as a result they intensively harvested pinyon trees near their settlements for fuel (Raish 2004). Additionally, they used pinyon extensively as supports for homes and stores constructed out of adobe, as well as for fencing (Raish 2004). However, Hispanos also incorporated pinyon nuts into their New World cultural traditions.

The rapid and extensive integration of pinyon nuts into Hispano culture is quite likely due to the important role of the stone pine in Spanish culture. By the 1600s, Spaniards had for centuries been tending domesticated stone pines in their native land, and pine nuts were an important supplement in most Spaniards’ diets. Although less reliant on pinyon nuts than the indigenous peoples they pushed out, Hispanos still considered pinyon nuts an important food. Additionally, pinyon nuts were imbued with cultural meaning for Hispanos. The widespread practice of gathering and shelling pinyon nuts communally, as well as gifting nuts at important social occasions, served to maintain and strengthen social ties within Hispano families and communities. This practice continues to this day.

From the 1850s, a new and much larger wave of immigrants, mostly of northern European descent, moved into the Southwest. For most of these newcomers, pinyon nuts were neither an important source of food nor a symbol of cultural unity. Although a welcome snack, pinyon nuts were not a key dietary component for most Anglo inhabitants, whose fast transportation networks and intensive ranching and farming operations provided them with ready and year-round access to other foods. Instead, they viewed pinyon pines as important primarily for their wood, which they used in vast quantities to build houses and stores, fuel steam engines, and make railroad ties and mine supports (Lanner 1981). By the 1880s, the Southwest’s new residents had denuded many areas that once had supported extensive pinyon groves, opening up those spaces to colonization by grasses and other understory species (Lanner 1981). However, as described in the next section, the arrival of large numbers of immigrants from southern Europe into the nation’s cities at the beginning of the 20th century sparked the development of a nation- wide pinyon nut market.

In the early 1900s, the demand for pinyon wood for fuel and building materials decreased significantly with the introduction of the diesel engine and the decline in the construction of new mines and railroad lines (Lanner 1981). Over the next several decades, pinyon trees and juniper shrubs slowly re-colonized areas cleared in the preceding decades. By the 1950s, pinyon-juniper woodlands had re-established themselves in many areas that had been denuded of trees during the late 1800 and early 1900s (Lanner 1981). Using photos taken during the 1880s as a baseline for normal range conditions, range ecologists and foresters during the immediate post-World War II era concluded that pinyon and juniper were invasive species jeopardizing the grasslands that provided critical forage for the Southwest’s cattle industry (Lanner 1981).

Beginning in the 1950s, federal and state public land management agencies embarked on a massive campaign to eliminate pinyon trees and juniper shrubs on millions of acres in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah (Lanner 1981). The BLM cleared more than 700,000 acres of pinyon-juniper woodland in the Colorado Plateau (see Table 4), including at least 161,327 acres in Colorado (P-J Woodlands 2006). Although the percentage of converted land relative to the total acreage of pinyon-juniper is small, efforts to remove pinyon targeted trees growing on flatter ground with deep soils and relatively high soil moisture (Little 1993). Pinyon trees in such sites tend to be the most prolific nut-bearers, and it is thus likely that efforts to convert woodlands to grasslands destroyed a disproportionately high percentage of the most productive seed-bearers.

In the mid-1970s, under threat of lawsuits from environmental groups and Native Americans concerned about the negative environmental and cultural impacts of the federal conversion program, the BLM and the Forest Service scaled back their efforts to transform pinyon-juniper woodlands into grasslands (Lanner 1981). At the same time, the use of wood to heat homes increased suddenly with the 1973 oil crisis and the subsequent rise in oil and natural gas prices (Kline 1993). As the number of people seeking firewood from public lands increased, BLM and Forest Service interest in maintaining a sustainable supply of pinyon trees grew (Kline 1993).

Large amounts of federal and state funding became available in the 1980s to study pinyon-juniper ecosystems (Gottfried and Severson 1994), whose variability defies efforts to apply conventional equilibrium models of rangeland and timber management. These studies indicate that the question of pinyon-juniper expansion is complex. In some areas that were grasslands a hundred years ago, pinyons are merely recolonizing areas cleared of trees in the 1800s and 1900s (West 1999). In other areas the numbers and density of pinyons are considerably higher than they would have been without the prolonged intensive grazing that eliminated the grass layer and reduced fire frequency (Lanner and van Devener 1998). Recent ecological studies show that pinyon trees are valuable ecosystem components and highlight the need for management strategies that lower the risk of high intensity fires, while retaining healthy tree and shrub components (Gottfried 2004, Zouhar 2001). Ecologists anticipate that if the current global warming trend continues, Colorado pinyon and singleleaf pinyon populations are likely to shift northward as well as upward in elevation (Saunders et al. 2006).

Harvesting, Processing, and Storage:

Light and small but dense in calories and essential proteins, pine nuts were an ideal trade item in the days before motorized transportation. Remains of pine nuts in a Late Bronze Age shipwreck discovered off the coast of south Turkey in 1982 (Haldane 1993), indicate that pine nuts have been traded in the Mediterranean region since at least the 14th century BC. Roman soldiers and administrators occupying Western Europe from before 50 AD until 250 AD imported pine nuts from their native land for use in burial rites (Bakels and Jacomet 2003). In North America, pinyon nuts were also a trade item. The Zuni, for example, obtained pinyon nuts through trading with the Navajo, and Hispano communities traded pinyon to the Tewa in the Rio Grande (Ackerly 1993).

A brief history of commercial harvest in the U.S. :

pinyon harvest. The Western Shoshone, Washoe, and Paiute continue to participate in the harvest of singleleaf pinyon seeds, both for home consumption and for commercial exchange. However, crews of Latino pickers now harvest the bulk of the commercial singleleaf pinyon harvest. Prior to the 1990s, many pinyon nut buyers concentrated on either the Colorado pinyon harvest or the singleleaf pinyon harvest, and relatively few participated in both. However, with the recent drought and the shortfall in Colorado pinyon supplies over an 11-year period, many buyers and brokers who formerly specialized in Colorado pinyon nuts now include singleleaf pinyon in their operations. Many also distribute imported pine nuts.

Large-scale commercial harvesting of pinyon nuts in the United States dates back to the early 20th century, when traders on Indian reservations in the Southwest began shipping large quantities of pinyon nuts to eastern seaboard cities to satisfy the demand for pine nuts among recent southern European and Near Eastern immigrants (Little 1977). Eventually the domestic market for pinyon nuts expanded to include other cities, such as Chicago and Los Angeles. Seeds from both singleleaf pinyon and Colorado pinyon entered the national market at this time. Despite the extra effort needed to crack the harder-shelled Colorado pinyon seeds, the southern European immigrants, who were the primary consumers during the early 1900s, preferred them over the softer-shelled but starchier singleleaf pinyon seeds (Little 1993).

This preference is likely linked to the Colorado pinyon seed’s close resemblance in texture and flavor to Italian stone pine seeds. By the 1930s, dealers in the Southwest were shipping out 1 to 2 million pounds of pinyon nuts every year (Little 1977). In a bumper crop year, the harvest could be several times higher than in an average year. In 1936, when an extraordinarily large pinyon crop occurred, traders shipped out roughly 8 million pounds (Little 1977). Pickers, most of whom were Navajos or Hispanos, received 10 cents a pound during the late 1930s (Little 1977). A skilled picker can pick between 10 to 20 pounds a day, and an income of $1.00 to $2.00 per day would have been good pay for the time. Pine nuts sold for 25 cents a pound on the retail market.

Following World War II, the supply of pinyon nuts entering national markets declined abruptly. Buyers experienced difficulties in obtaining an adequate supply of pinyon nuts because of a labor shortage as many Navajo pickers shifted into other occupations and also because a prolonged drought during the 1950s caused crops to be very poor in a series of years. (Betancourt et al. 1993). By the 1960s, the supply of pinyon nuts was further reduced as a consequence of federal pinyon-juniper removal programs that cleared many nut-bearing trees (Little 1993). Despite the multiple factors negatively affecting the supply of pinyon nuts during the 1950s, substantial harvests continued to take place into the early 1960s. The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimated that 2.5 million pounds were harvested in New Mexico and Arizona in 1960 (Woodruff 1967). Most of the Colorado pinyon at that time was shipped to New York distributors (Woodruff 1967).

In the 1970s and 1980s, growing consumer interest in health foods and wild-harvested foods led to increased demand for pinyon nuts. Many new buyers entered the pinyon market during this period. In the mid-1970s, the U.S. re-opened trade relations with China, and with pinyon prices high because of chronic labor shortages, U.S. pinyon dealers and brokers soon began importing pine nuts from China (Little 1993). However, the demand for pinyon continues to remain strong, and buyers have little difficulty getting a good price for their product.

Harvesting areas:

The commercial pinyon nut harvest takes place primarily in two regions of the Southwest, one corresponding with the geographic distribution of Colorado pinyon and the other with the distribution of singleleaf pinyon. The Colorado pinyon nut harvest takes place primarily in northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, southern Utah, and southern Colorado. For much of the 20th century, commercially viable seed crops were relatively frequent in southwestern Colorado and a sufficient number of skilled Navajo pickers was available to gather pinyon nuts in that area. In the pinyon harvesting grounds located along the front range of the Rockies in northern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado, Hispanos and Jicarilla Apache were the main commercial harvesters. However, they were (and are) much fewer in number than Navajo harvesters, and they tend to bring in smaller quantities than Navajo pickers. Most of the nuts picked by Hispano and Jicarilla were sold in the local roadside stands that were, and continue to be, a regular feature of northern New Mexican and southeastern Colorado villages and towns.

Navajo pickers tended to sell their pinyon nuts to large-scale brokers, often based at local trading posts, who then shipped them to local and distant wholesalers and retailers. Ethnic differentiation in the quantities of pinyon picked and points of first sale continues to this day. Navajo pickers still pick pinyon nuts in southern Colorado, primarily in the Four Corners area. Likewise, the Jicarilla and Hispanos still harvest pinyon nuts along the southern portion of Colorado’s Front Range. During the recent drought from 1993 to 2004, no bumper crops of Colorado pinyon occurred across its range. Colorado was particularly hard hit by the drought, and even localized crops were quite small. As a result, for the past 15 years only a very small portion of the Southwest’s commercial Colorado pinyon crop has originated in Colorado.

According to key informants, the pinyon nut harvest in Colorado has always been less important than that in New Mexico and Arizona. However, the most recent drought resulted in an unusually prolonged period during which no large crops at all occurred in Colorado, and over time most pickers and buyers ceased to include Colorado in their picking or purchasing circuits. In 2005, Colorado experienced a bumper pinyon crop for the first time since 1992, attracting many recreational and commercial pickers into the woods. Although the number of seeds produced per tree was very high, pickers found that an unusually high percent of the shells was empty (Sluis 2005).

The pinyon-juniper woodlands in eastern Nevada and western Utah are the center of the singleleaf pinyon seed harvest. Commercial picking is concentrated in the mountains along the border of the two states but also extends into the pinyon-juniper woodlands of southwestern Utah and eastern California. As discussed in the previous section, the foraging economies of the Paiute, Shoshone, Washoe, and other Great Basin societies depended upon the annual singleleaf pinyon harvest. The Western Shoshone, Washoe, and Paiute continue to participate in the harvest of singleleaf pinyon seeds, both for home consumption and for commercial exchange. However, crews of Latino pickers now harvest the bulk of the commercial singleleaf pinyon harvest.

Prior to the 1990s, many pinyon nut buyers concentrated on either the Colorado pinyon harvest or the singleleaf pinyon harvest, and relatively few participated in both. However, with the recent drought and the shortfall in Colorado pinyon supplies over an 11-year period, many buyers and brokers who formerly specialized in Colorado pinyon nuts now include singleleaf pinyon in their operations. Many also distribute imported pine nuts.

Authors:

Rebecca McLain

Penny Frazier