I Feel the Need, the Need for Seed
Paul Wade, Pacific Southwest Region
November 29th, 2023
Think you’re good at word games? Then I’m sure you’d easily unscramble megagametophytes. How about peduncle? Or germinability — that’s the ability to speak German, right? Yep. All real words — and you can get 32 points in Scrabble for the mega-thingy by the way.
Well, it so happens that hundreds of people use these words and many other sesquipedalian words, most recently at the four Cone Camps offered in California — the Top Guns of seed learning, if you will.
Between May and August 2023, cone hunters flocked to:
- Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest (near Porterville and Sequoia National Forest),
- Blodgett Forest Research Station (near Georgetown and Eldorado National Forest),
- Yreka and Sierra Pacific Industries Orchard (in Gazelle near Shasta-Trinity National Forest), and
- California Conservation Corps Greenwood Center (in Greenwood).
The camps are built around a day in the classroom and a day in the field. Participants network and learn from industry experts from American Forests, USDA Forest Service, CAL FIRE, and the California Cone Corps. On the agenda — cone phenology, monitoring and collection techniques, seed needs, cone collection planning, contracting and coordinating with agencies, reporting crop sightings (although not the alien ones), field logistics, safety and more.
Students were given a demonstration by American Forests on how to operate the giant slingshot. A few brave souls tried their luck at hitting paper targets. (USDA Forest Service photo by Paul Wade)
Shelley Villalobos, the manager of the California Reforestation Pipeline Partnership for American Forests, shared the purpose of Cone Camp.
“This is the first year that Cone Camp has its new name. It was piloted in 2022, as a cone survey training planned and delivered by CAL FIRE, Forest Service and American Forests in the early stages of the reforestation pipeline partnership being formalized. This year is really the stepping into that partnership more fully, being able to expand our outreach and communications, our delivery of resources and readings, and really have it be organized,” said Villalobos.
“And to grow the number of cone surveyors out there — getting their eyes on the trees, reporting what they’re seeing so we can be tracking, ideally, more and more viable cone crops to collect.”
The camp was built from a grant between the Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region and CAL FIRE through a recommendation by the governor’s task force on wildfire and forest resilience. The goal? To tackle an all-lands reforestation opportunity around the devasting wildfires from 2019 to 2021.
About 1.5 million acres of land were discovered to be at high risk of forest loss or conversion to non-forest vegetation. All these agencies needed a platform to continue experimenting, researching and collaborating with private, tribal, state and federal forest managers. In turn, the Reforestation Pipeline Cooperative was created, the first real anchor program of the partnership.
“14 Days to Save the Forest”
Cone campers were shown crops of cones like this one and practiced reporting methods and how to get cone samples down. (USDA Forest Service photo by Paul Wade)
Halfway through the class, it’d be no shock to hear a team-building exercise involving Wordle. But the shock comes when cone collection took a menacing and then grim turn, with talk of cone missiles and “14 days to save the forest.”
Turns out sugar pine cones (Pinus lambertiana) are shaped like a tank round and just as heavy. Okay, slight exaggeration, but watch your surroundings. If you’re under these trees collecting, best to wear a hard hat. As for the “14 days” remark, Villalobos provided some clarity.
“Well, we’re here at a time when the green trees are disappearing, they’re going up in smoke and the seed is going with them. We’re losing the genetic diversity along with those big fires. There is a lot of geographic specificity around when a tree will produce viable seed through its cones, how often it does that, and when that seed gets ripe. So, the ‘14 days to save the forest’ comment is really about that.
“It’s when the seed is ripe but before it naturally falls and disperses. That is when we need to collect it and store it in the seed bank. So oftentimes there’s just a few days in which you can climb up the trees and collect those cones.”
Most residents of California, who either live or drive through the areas damaged by wildfires, see the burn scars and the need to replant trees. Villalobos explained the demand for reforestation and the struggle.
“There was an act in the 2021 Infrastructure Bill called the REPLANT Act, which charges the Forest Service with addressing its backlog of plantable acres and to do so in a timely manner. About 1.1 million of those acres roughly belong to the federal government in California, which is a tall task for the 18 national forests in California to collectively plant one million acres roughly in the next decade.
“And the current average in the past 20 years has been planting closer to 10,000 acres a year across all those forests, so that’s a lot of work to do.”
It quickly becomes apparent that this isn’t just taking a tree sapling or seed, burying it in a hole, and in a decade or more, you have a brand new forest. Just look up “cone collection on forests” and you’ll see there is more science involved.
Job of a Cone Hunter
Day 2 training offered practice stations throughout the SPI orchard. Groups experienced crop survey and reporting, cone collecting with special devices, and in-depth identification. (USDA Forest Service photo by Paul Wade)
First, what are cone collectors hunting for? The list of usual seed suspects includes the Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, coastal redwood, incense cedar, sugar pine, white and red firs.
Then it’s all about timing. A tree will produce viable cones approximately every two to 10 years. And there’s various climate and geography influences that determine that timing. So, the job of a cone hunter is to identify stands of trees that are starting to develop enough viable cones that’s going to be worthwhile for collection. Then the seed needs to be collected when it’s ripe and the embryo of the seed is fully developed.
“At Cone Camp we talk about surveying — riding long days in the truck, along the ridge lines, looking for stands of trees with potentially heavy crops of cones developing. Then narrowing that down into candidate cone collections, getting down sample cones, cutting them open, and monitoring the development of the embryo in that seed,” said Villalobos.
“There’s lots of factors that could prevent the seed from being good. It could be bugs. The tree could abort the cones because it’s stressed out from drought or other factors. There could be a fire that destroyed it.”
But if the crop of cones are good, then someone like Villalobos calls in a climber to get up in the trees, collect those cones, then get them quickly to the nurseries for processing and storage.
Calling All Bird Watchers — Consider Cone Collecting
Cone collecting requires traveling long distances, height concerns, spikey materials that comes with safety practices, equipment and apparel. (USDA Forest Service photo by Paul Wade)
At the Cone Camp in June, the classroom portion in Yreka and field day at the Sierra Pacific Industries seed orchard in Gazelle, had more than 60 participants from various state, private, federal, tribal and county organizations. Some had previous experience collecting cones, others never had to worry about cone missiles until now.
“Citizen scientists and foresters alike can make a valuable contribution of data while they’re out working and playing in the woods. If they see a crop that looks good, they can tip off the seed bank managers who will then be able to deploy trained cone surveyors.
“So, with some basic reference visuals anyone, like bird watchers, can submit this data. I mean, bird watchers might find that they really enjoy cone watching,” said Villalobos.
Wade Bell, the seed bank manager for the Forest Service’s Placerville Nursery, suggested if you’re interested in this field of study and already have a mind for natural resources, then go to one of the Reforestation Pipeline Partnership Cooperatives that happen in Williams, California. Get on their mailing list and watch for next year’s Cone Camp.
“We’re all trying to speak the same language and it takes years of practice to learn cone collecting. You will make mistakes. This camp provides mentorship. This provides that avenue in and helps build connections and resources, finding out where to get the help you need and learn that language,” said Bell.
Speaking of language, what is maladaptation? Propagule? Morphology — is that how a tree becomes the beloved Marvel character Groot? No worries. These are all words you’ll learn in Cone Camp.
Tools of the Pinecone Trade
These are the tools of the trade for cone collection. With some practice and a little luck, these tools can help get cone samples down and see if the crop is ready. (USDA Forest Service photo by Paul Wade)
During the classroom and field days, strange contraptions and medieval weaponry were on display — a meat cleaver, machete cutting board, giant slingshot, and bazooka. You’d think some binoculars, a broom stick, and a bucket would be all you need.
“Oh, it’s not just binoculars. You've got to have a whole tool bag. It’s a great job for an active scientist, and by that, I mean physically active. You must want to be outside in the elements. You need applied science at the ready,” shared Villalobos. “You’re going to have your seed cutting tools to get that surgical precision, to cut open the face of the cone along the longitudinal axis and see if there is a developing, viable seed inside.”
So, what about that slingshot?
“And you’re going to need the slingshot to be able to get samples down. This isn’t your ordinary camping toy. It’s seven feet tall and has a lot of torque. It takes practice to use it effectively. Shotguns were used at one point, but now the closest tool is a glorified potato gun that uses pressurized air to shoot a beanbag attached to a string. Used properly, these will get those cone samples down,” said Villalobos.
The field day is certainly the best opportunity to apply what you learn in class, to see examples in person, and try your hand at the art of surveying, collecting and studying the crops of cones.
Scott Kolpak, a geneticist with the Pacific Southwest Region, sums up the importance of having Sierra Pacific Industries and the other forests, research stations and centers as a resource to teach these cone hunter skills.
“The beauty of this is we are here at a working, very successful seed orchard. Coming here brings exposure to the broader audience of where we should be going and using a seed orchard as our best bet to have diverse genetic materials.
“[SPI] has taken all these tree species out of the forests in terms of protecting them from wildfires, which fires cut us out from accessing that resource, and has grown them here. So, you can use SPI and get big reliable seed crops safely, cheaply, quickly and can just keep coming back every two or three years to resupply and get that crop out. So, it’s a really good alternative to doing wildland collections and should be done more in our public agencies.”
Check out American Forests video, Reforesting California after Wildfire, or listen to USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region’s Forest Focus Podcast, Episode 37: Cone Camp, or click through photos from the camp to learn more.