ALMO, Idaho — The superintendent of the City of Rocks National Reserve in southern Idaho says more and more of the few pinyon pines that live in the reserve are dying, spurring investigations to try to find out why.
Wallace Keck says groups of the green pinyon pines have been dying more quickly than in the past, and that could threaten the pinyon jays and pinyon mice that rely on the trees.
U.S. Forest Service plant pathologist Angel Saavedra says native black fungus is attacking the trees at the roots and then native Ips beetles are burrowing under the bark of weakened trees.
