Griz searching for Whitebark Pine cones "They identify trees
impacted by looking for red-needled trees, which indicate the
tree is dying or dead," said Joe Harper, wildlife biologist for
Shoshone National Forest.Separate, smaller surveys of whitebark
pine cones are conducted on the ground every summer at 22
transect lines in the six divisions of the national forest of
the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and the findings reported to
the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. The surveys help the
team and forest managers understand the extent of beetle-caused
whitebark mortality in the ecosystem, Harper said.Shoshone has
two transect sites of 10 trees each in Sunlight Basin and near
Cooke City, Mont. Shoshone personnel have been surveying
whitebark at those sites — Sunlight and Republic Creek — since
1980. Grizzlies will do fine without whitebark, said Mark
Bruscino, statewide supervisor of the large carnivore management
section of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. "The whitebark
issue that we are going to res