A team with the Sawtooth National Forest in August and September collected 75 bushels of pinecones to restore its seed bank at Lucky Peak Nursery. (Courtesy of Elexis Bernstein, U.S. Forest Service)
One organization is aiming to help forest managers recover the trees lost in one of Idaho’s most devastating fires this summer.
On Nov. 3, the nonprofit Daughters of the American Revolution launched a fundraising campaign to raise money to help restore scorched south and central Idaho forests.
The Wapiti Fire, which began on July 24 by a lightning strike two miles southwest of Grandjean, spanned about 130,000 acres across the Boise National Forest, Sawtooth National Forest and the Salmon-Challis National Forest.
Coined Project Pinecone, the funds raised will be used to hire professional tree climbers for the Sawtooth National Forest who will pick pinecones off trees to harvest mature seeds that will be used to grow and eventually replant trees back into the Sawtooth National Forest.
As of Monday, the Project Pinecone had raised a total of $11,500, including cash and check donations outside of the PayPal fundraiser, lead organizer Janice Beller said.
Beller is the Idaho state leader of the nonprofit. Like others in the organization, she is a descendant of someone who participated in the American Revolution. Conservation is important to the organization and important to her as a fifth generation Idahoan, she told the Idaho Capital Sun.
“Stanley is one of my favorite places in the world, and it has been in my family for years — literally generations,” she said. “When Stanley burned this summer, it just broke my heart and really had a kind of a profound impact on many members within Daughters of the American Revolution.”
‘We have a lot of need for seed’: Sawtooth forester says
Beller said a member of her leadership team reached out to a Stanley forest ranger to ask how they could help restore the forest. That’s when she learned about the shortage in seeds at Lucky Peak Nursery, located off Highway 21 outside of Boise.
Nelson Mills, the timber and silviculture program manager for the Sawtooth National Forest, said his biggest challenge is that forest staff hasn’t collected enough its seeds to replenish its seed bank at Lucky Peak Nursery.
Forest service staff right now have enough seeds to cover 50 to 80 acres of trees suitable for the Stanley area at its nursery, Mills said. However, that is not nearly enough to recover the forest from the Wapiti Fire.
Mills said that wildfires are a natural part of the ecosystem, but catastrophic wildfires like the Wapiti Fire will require artificial tree restoration. Of the 130,000 acres that were burned in the Wapiti Fire, 485 acres have been identified as requiring immediate reforestation need because the seed bed was completely burnt, Mills said. When a more formal assessment is done this winter, forest staff will likely find more acres in need of seedling planting, he said.
In addition to the seed shortage, harvesting pinecones is a complicated, risky and expensive process, Mills said.
The main way to collect pinecone seeds is by hiring professional tree climbers for $2,500 a day. Equipped with harnesses and spurred boots, they climb trees between 75 and 120 feet tall to collect pinecones at the perfect ripeness.
Timing is crucial, as ripeness varies by species and elevation, typically occurring between mid-August to mid-September, Mills said. An unripe pinecone won’t have a viable embryo, an overripe pinecone opens and releases its seeds, and pinecones that have fallen on the ground have been exposed to mold — making the seeds unsuitable for use, he said.
The pinecones are then transferred to Lucky Peak Nursery where they are tested, processed, cleaned and sown to make baby lodgepole pines, ponderosa pines and Douglas firs.
Mills said Project Pinecone creates flexibility for foresters because it is not congressionally appropriated. If it’s not a good pinecone producing year, he said foresters can wait until the next year, or look at other species in a different area.
“Everybody is stepping up through all phases of this reforestation issue to make a solution and grow forests back specifically in the Stanley basin that was affected by the Wapiti Fire,” Mills said. “It is an amazing collaborative effort, and I am just so thankful that people want to get together and grow a forest ecosystem.”
Fundraiser to last until spring 2025
Beller said the fundraiser will last until May, when she plans to hold a ceremony to present the funds to the Stanley community and forest officials. She said she is encouraging individuals to donate, as it is tax deductible, and people who donate more than $10 will receive a wooden magnet with the project’s logo.
The total goal of the project is to raise $15,000, which would pay for six days of pinecone picking.
The fundraiser is partnering with Boise Cascade, which committed to a day’s worth of pinecone picking to the project.
“Boise Cascade’s roots run deep in the state of Idaho, and we are honored to contribute to this incredible project to help restore some of Idaho’s most cherished forest lands that were burned during the brutal fire season of summer 2024,” Boise Cascade Vice President of Human Resources and contributions committee chair Angella Broesch, told the Sun. “As one of the largest producers of wood products in North America and a leading wholesale distributor of building products in the U.S., our company is committed to contributing to responsible forestry practices and protecting our environment.”
Having surpassed the halfway point of its goal, Beller said the successful donations show how much people from Idaho and outside of Idaho care about the Stanley area.
“We’ve heard so many people say that it’s truly the heart of Idaho, and it means a great deal to them and their families,” Beller said. “So to see everybody come together and contribute even just a little to bring it back is very humbling.”
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.