From Bark To Barn
When you come across a large old tree it’s hard not to just stop and stare at its magnificence and contemplate what all it’s gone though. To the typical eye you may see a large tree but if you stop and really think about what a tree that size and age has gone through you will know it has seen the forest in which it resides be logged, mined, heavily grazed with livestock for over 100 years, eroded by agricultural practices, and burned by forest fires. In Pike, CA a non-profit organization called Sonoma Mountain Institute owns 190 acres of forest that has been managed by the dedicated Dan Guyer. In this year of 2025, Dan celebrates his 50th year working on this Pike property. S.M.I. was lucky to find this property to add for its mission of conservation and restoration. Due to Dan previously managing that property it was an easy decision to want to help facilitate the care of that land. To say that Dan has a love for the environment in which he manages is an understatement. To get a personal tour of the land, work with, or read a written piece from Dan about the property will quickly give you the feeling that Dan has a deep connection with nature and particularly the forest in which he lives and manages. Despite all of Dan’s hard work in restoring the forest to a thriving state, you can’t help but feel his sadness through his written words about the current attack the forest is having from the Western Pine Beetle also known as dendroctonus brevicomis.
While a natural part of the forest ecosystem, the western pine beetle is a native bark beetle that infests and kills ponderosa pine trees. The beetle: typically females, attacks mid-way up a tree by breaking into the bark and releases a pheromone to signal to other beetles to join her at that tree. When this happens, it is called “group kill” where multiple trees in an area are under such an attack. The tree fights back by releasing a resin to detour their presence. This resin deprives the tree of its stored water thus killing the tree by depriving it of required water and nutrients. According to the USDA Forest Service, “the first sign of western pine beetle attack is the production of pitch tubes on ponderosa pines. The egg gallery that is constructed by western pine beetles is described as… a gallery that can even cross itself at times. The beetle’s mate, and eggs are deposited along the margins of the central gallery. Dendroctonus beetles pack these galleries with frass (boring dust and beetle excrement) once the eggs have been deposited. These eggs hatch out, and the tiny larvae feed briefly within the inner bark on the phloem layer.” The USDA also reported that one of the “…confusing aspects of the western pine beetle is the occurrence of mixed broods in a single tree under attack. This term refers to the presence of several different species of bark beetles attacking the same host simultaneously or within the same season.”
Factors that contribute to the infestations of these western pine beetles are drought, overpopulated forests, fire suppression, and climate change. The beetles seem to prefer larger pine trees over the smaller trees to attack but in the case of a drought they seem to be less picky and just seem to attack larger groupings of trees at the same time. Since the beetles do not attack during the cold winter months, climate change is a factor as having warmer temperatures more months of the year allow for longer periods in which the Western Pine beetle can attack. There is no doubt about it, the western pine beetle is a significant factor influencing the health and dynamics of California’s pine forests. According to a publication of the California Forest Pest Council, the USDA conducts annual aerial surveys throughout California. The survey showed, “Pine mortality attributed to western pine beetle decreased from 950,000 dead trees across 166,000 acres in 2018 to an estimated 793,000 dread trees across 124,000 acres in 2019.” The largest factor to lead to these results was the drought of 2018 being so much worse than in 2019.
In the focus area of Sonoma Mountain institute’s Pike property, Dan Guyer started to report about having small groupings of pine trees dying around his house in as early as 2002. In 2003/2004 Dan had small groupings of pine trees die that he was able to take to a local mill and turn the trees for a profit in making lumber. As the years progressed larger groups of trees were dying. Instead of 3-4 trees dying in a small group, it was more like 7-10 trees. In 2012, much larger groupings of trees were dying in numbers as high as 25 trees and there were many more groupings across the forest floor as well. In the 50 years of Dan managing the forest to his best abilities he would be seen cutting the brush, thinning out small trees, burning chipping, masticating with machinery, and spraying herbicides to clean the forest up.
With the increase in tree mortality and the complete collapse of the pine tree market, selling logs was no longer an option for many property owners. Another factor to effect the milling industry was the largest milling company; Sierra Pacific, owning so much land that had also been affected by both forest fires or the presence of the Western pine beetle that they had enough of their own supply to mill.
In 2016 Sonoma Mountain Institute went in with Dan to purchase a Woodmizer Wood Mill where other S.M.I. employees, Mark and Sage, would come to mill up downed trees to help Dan utilize as much of the beetle kill pine as time allowed. Unfortunately, the lumber from a tree that has been a target of the western beetle outbreak’s wood is only salvageable for a few months after the tree has died, giving the SMI crew a short time frame to mill the wood for lumber. It should be noted that the milled lumber from these trees is beautiful and a pleasure to work with. This raised the next question, “What should we be doing with all of this lumber?” Coincidentally, S.M.I. was just embarking on a large construction project on the Triangle G Ranch in Petaluma. A beautiful 1900 acre parcel full of critical habitat that we are very lucky to manage. The project was to create worker housing and a compound for the S.M.I. grazing team and their families. So some of this lumber went into aiding the reconstruction of some vintage farmhouses and the nearly total reconstruction of the giant horse barn and tractor barn. This lumber has come in so handy for so many purposes that it has been a blessing from Pike.
As the western pine beetle outbreak has continued to only get worse the forest at Pike has changed drastically losing hundreds of trees. Since 2016 the milling of dead trees has only increased and there is still an unbelievable number of downed trees left. Sonoma Mountain Institute has called in Sindt Tree Service for 4 days at a time several times to help assist Dan in the removal of dead trees both standing and from the forest floor. To start, SMI’s Pike property was faring better than the Sierras in the early stage of the outbreak but it seems that our property has caught up with the devastation of losing a part of our forest.
The loss of these trees does more than hurt Dan’s soul, their absence is a big change on our beloved forest. As with many unfortunate events, it gives hope to look at the positives wherever they may be. On the positive side our forest has been thinned out to hopefully allow ample space, sun exposure, and nutrients to thrive. Another positive is the SMI team has come in and ground out all of the stumps, hauled the logs into piles for hopeful small critter habitats, and created some hopefully useful for songbird openings in the forest.
In conclusion, the pine beetle invasion has left a scar upon our property as they have on many of the forested areas in the western United states. We are hopeful that through sharing our pine beetle journey from bark to barn, that others will see how we have tried to do as much as we can to make the most of our unfortunate circumstances. There is no doubt that this beetle creates an enormous expense and amount of work to property owners in which it affects, but if there is any amount of silver linings that have come from it it’s important to share them with others. S.M.I. is so appreciative to Dan Guyer and the life long dedication he has given to this beautiful piece of property. With thanks to Dan, his hard work and effort will be remembered for many years to come in the restoration on the Triangle G property’s restoration.
