Published on March 31, 2014
Someone recently asked us why we plant Lodgepole Pine at the site instead of Ponderosa Pine. Here is the exact question:
“Why would you plant Lodgepole Pine instead of Ponderosa Pine? Lodgepole Pine require fire to regenerate as their cones only open at 120°, and Ponderosa cones open when they dry out at room temperature.”
In this case, we plant Lodgepole Pine because the area around Stibnite naturally supports a habitat of predominately Lodgepole and Douglas-fir– this is due to the elevation of the area. In Yellow Pine, the town’s elevation is 4,800 feet. This creates the perfect environment for Ponderosa Pine, which is clear the moment you drive into the area and see all the beautiful tall trees. As the crow flies, Stibnite is only eight miles from Yellow Pine but we are almost 2,000 feet higher. Technically, Ponderosa Pine could grow at that elevation but the climate naturally supports other varieties of trees.
Midas Gold is committed to keeping the area around the site as natural as possible. In fact, all of the trees we plant are started from seeds collected from the Stibnite Gold Project site.
We love when the community asks us questions about our project. It gives us the opportunity to enhance our reclamation efforts. After receiving this question, we spoke with our nursery and asked them to collect Lodgepole Pine and Douglas-fire seeds so we could use both trees during our next cycle of planting.
