Another jigsaw puzzle arrived –  Crater Lake National Park. 500 pieces, a reference poster inside, new smaller box. We printed this one a very long time ago and I’ve always liked it. So popular we’ve decided to bring it back.  Now, we’ve put it in a new smaller box (easy storage and shipping), added a reference poster and on the design I scanned a piece of my hiking bandana for the bottom border.

Originally, this painting was all about those beautiful yet stark pines around the Caldera Rim. Those are whitebark pines, a  high-altitude keystone species that is now about to be listed as a threatened tree. And so, we’re highlighting that event here with a new edition of the lake and whitebark pines are in peril!

These puzzles are available for $18.95 each in our web store here. Just click this link.   Shipping is only $5 per destination, no matter how many different puzzles you buy, and now we have six new ones in the past couple of months.

So what’s the deal about whitebark pines? Why are these iconic and painterly trees in trouble? It’s a tragic combination of events that have come together in a perfect storm. An introduced fungal disease called white pine blister rust, Climate Change that has stressed the trees and allowed bark beetles to access the inner bark. Put the three factors together and it trouble for these trees. Whitebark pine has the largest distribution of any five-needle white pine in North America, but the whitebark pine’s health is deteriorating rapidly across its range, particularly in the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, and northern Sierra Nevada. In short, the forests I’ve loved my entire life are changing beyond measure and will effect not just the trees, but an entire ecosystem.

Like to read more, go to my friends at the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation.

Thanks for reading this week. You can sign up for emails for these posts on my website at larryeifert.com.

Larry Eifert

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