p>Williams and Baker’s new study found that open and park-like conditions were not common historically and that high-severity fire used to be much more common in these forests than it is today. Finally, Williams and Baker conclude that current efforts to reduce trees and understory vegetation in these forests under the label of “restoration” would actually move the forests outside of their historical range of variability and harm biodiversity.

New study challenges forest restoration and fire management in western dry forests

February 16, 2012. Laramie, Wyoming. New research shows that western dry forests were not uniform, open forests, as commonly thought, before widespread logging and grazing, but included both dense and open forests, as well as large high-intensity fires previously considered rare in these forests. The study used detailed analysis of records from land surveys, conducted in the late-1800s, to reconstruct forest structure over very large dry-forest landscapes, often dominated by ponderosa pine forests. The area analyzed included about 4.1 million acres on the Mogollon Plateau and Black Mesa in northern Arizona, in the Blue Mountains in northeastern Oregon, and in the Colorado Front Range.

 http://ncfp.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/12williamsbaker_preprint.pdf

The reconstructions, which are based on about 13,000 first-hand descriptions of forests from early land surveyors along section-lines, supplemented by data for about 28,000 trees, do not support the common idea that dry forests historically consisted of uniform park-like stands of large, old trees. Previous studies that found this were hampered by the limitations inherent in tree-ring reconstructions from small, isolated field plots that may be unrepresentative of larger landscapes.

 “The land surveys provide us with an unprecedented spatially extensive and detailed view of these dry-forest landscapes before widespread alteration” said Dr. William Baker, a co-author of the study and a professor in the Program in Ecology at the University of Wyoming. “And, what we see from this is that these forests were highly variable, with dense areas, open areas, recently burned areas, young forests, and areas of old-growth forests, often in a complex mosaic.”

Link: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/ark_product_detail/nevada_single_leaf_pinyon/

a tree with much historical significance, the Single Leaf Pinyon is the appropriate choice for the official state tree of Nevada. Bearing nuts with extremely large shells, the edible component of this US native is about the size of an olive pit. The nuts have a rich fruity flavor, which is bolder than most pine nuts found in stores. Single Leaf Pinyons grow on the dry mountain slopes of Nevada, eastern California, and Utah, and are characteristic of mid-elevation habitats in the Great Basin Desert.

The Pinyon pine nut is of great cultural and gastronomic importance to the American Indians of the Great Basin region. Originally, the harvest of the Pinyon began in late summer or early fall. An elongated harvesting pole was used to knock the green pine cones off of the trees; the cones were then tapped upon a small flat anvil stone to release the seeds. The nuts are edible in their raw form, but for easier storage were mostly ground into a mush or gruel and eaten like oatmeal. When mixed with cold water, the meal would turn into a cold soup. During extremely cold times of the year, the pinyon mixture was frozen outside an eaten like ice cream. Pinyon nuts played a very important role in the Southwest American Indian diet, as the nuts are both high in fats and carbohydrates (a rarity among most seeds and fruits).

Unfortunately, today the preparation and harvesting traditions of the Pinyon pine nut are narrow.

Sources

Goods from the Woods
14125 Hwy C
Licking, MO 65542
573-674-4567
http://www.pinenut.com

Find Producers on LocalHarvest

http://www.localharvest.org/ark-product.jsp?id=191

Link: http://pinenutsyndrome.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/updated-pine-nut-species-page/

I have the greatest respect for Ms. Grace Tan's research and her intellectual honest, not to mention blog and research skill set and vision.  Highly recommendthis blog for pine nut research, pine nut species information, pine nut mouth, entitled: The Great Pine Nut Mystery  She is the only resource on pine nut mouth which has done the research and had a clue about the problem.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933392894/ref=cm_rdp_product/190-6814301-0929540#reader_1933392894

A few years back, one of our good friends, Dr. Eric Jones, asked me to attend a conference in Tuscon about sustainabile Agriculture in the Southwest. I got done with the meeting and did not give it a great deal of thought. I have talked about the land use policy in the southwest for more than a dozen years. From Washington D.C. to Portland Oregon, I have attended conferences and given presentation. Most of the time, I am exhausted and left wondering, why I left home. At that conference, I met Dr. Gary Nabahm, and he followed up with me, helping to get the Jumbo Soft shell pine nut listed in the Slow Food Ark. It is a process and there are several stages to being awarded the "Slow Food Ark" status. I was grateful for that work. Today, I happened to see that he did more than that.He wrote about Great Basin Pine Nut and Goods From The Wood's efforts in his book,   The book is entitled:

Renewing America's Food Traditions: Saving and

 Savoring the Continent's Most Endangered Foods

 By Gary Paul Nabhan, Deborah Madison, Ashley Rood

Link: http://forums.b2evolution.net/