Author Barb Bentler Ullman lists ten native tree species inhabiting eastern Washington: the ponderosa, lodgepole, and western white pines; interior Douglas fir; western larch and quacking aspen; the netleaf hackberry, water birch, black cottonwood, and Oregon white oak. Ten species, and the three pines look uncommonly similar. Contrast that with Puerto Rico’s best-known rain forest, El Yunque, where 240 tree species crowd onto a scant 28,000 acres. To me, the forests of eastern Washington and northern Idaho take on a rather monotonous uniformity, and yet one species, the Ponderosa pine, has risen above the others to become Spokane’s official tree.
A bit of history:
In 1826, a Scottish botanist named David Douglas [yes, the namesake of the Douglas fir] was exploring near today’s Spokane in eastern Washington. Here he came upon a tree species he later identified as Pinus ponderosa, ‘ponderosa’ for the tree’s heavy wood. [Douglas’s short illustrious life ended in Hawaii when he fell into a pit trap, a bizarre death that may have been accident … or murder.] Widely distributed throughout British Columbia and the western U.S., the ponderosa pine has several other common names, including bull pine, blackjack pine, and western yellow pine. In 1949, it was named the official tree of Montana, and in 2014 the city council designated it Spokane’s official tree.
A few facts:
Spirit Lake
Ponderosa pine is an evergreen tree that produces cones. It is tall: specimens over 150 feet are not uncommon. It is distinguished by a straight trunk, long bright-green needles, and broad plates of bark that fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The thick bark makes the tree resistant to wildfires; it is also drought-resistant. However, if the root system isn’t deeply established (as in yards where a lot of watering is done and the tree gets lazy about setting its roots deep, a landscaper explained to me), it can topple under high winds. This has happened in several neighborhoods in Spokane since I moved here.
(U.S. Forest Service)
According to The Gymnosperm Database, the ponderosa pine is the most commercially important western pine, used for everything from furniture to log cabins to fuel. Indian tribes scraped the inner bark and wood for sustenance when food was scarce. In addition, seeds were roasted or ground into flour; the sap was used as a salve for a variety of ailments; and the wood could be hewn into dugout canoes.
Welcome home:
On the return trip of a car ride to central or western Washington, traveling along I-90, I view the gentle arid hills populated with a scattering of scrubs and grasses where the land hasn’t been irrigated for farming. To my right is long Sprague Lake, and I think about what it would be like to kayak there on a calm day. Suddenly, the landscape changes: gone are the farms and rolling hills, replaced by rocky scabs and towering, slightly scraggly evergreens. Ponderosa pine. I am getting close to home.
Along the Spokane River