Dr. Diana Tomback Interviewed for Jackson Hole News & Guide: Lifeline dangled for Y’stone whitebark pine and WIRED: A Bold Plan to Save the Last Whitebark Pines
Lifeline dangled for Y’stone whitebark pine
By Mike Koshmrl -Jackson Hole News & Guide
Seedlings that are rust-resistant are source of hope for struggling conifer.
University of Colorado-Denver professor Diana Tomback, a former longtime director of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation, has been engaged in creating a U.S. Forest Service-led national restoration plan that crosses jurisdictions and identifies strategies to help whitebark perpetuate within “core” habitat areas currently being mapped.
“It’s probably the most ambitious restoration plan ever attempted for a forest species,” Tomback said. “We’re addressing 20 to 30% of its range.”
To read the entire article, please click here.
A Bold Plan to Save the Last Whitebark Pines
By Jim Morrison - WIRED
The high-altitude tree is vital to its ecosystem, but it’s being decimated by a fungus. Its admirers are fusing old and new methods to bring it back.
In recent years, they have been felled mainly by a fatal fungus introduced to North America more than a century ago by pines imported from Europe. "White pine blister rust is the existential threat," says Diana Tomback, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Colorado, Denver, and a founder of the Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation who has studied the trees for four decades. "It is spread by wind and it cannot be contained. The foundation of restoration is finding these resistant individuals."
To read the entire article, please click here
Dr. Tomback's Whitebark Pine research and support of the reintroduction of wolves to Colorado get positive recognition
The many years of Dr. Diana Tomback’s whitebark pine research got some recognition on December 2nd, when the whitebark pine was selected for possible protection under the Endangered Species Act. If the proposal is approved, whitebark pine would become listed as a “threatened” species under the ESA. Interest ran high for the whitebark pine proposed listing. There were several newspapers, online, and media interviews that Dr. Tomback did after the proposed listing announcement. Most reporters wanted to know about the importance of the pine and the threats to its survival. One interview Dr. Tomback did was with the Jefferson Public Radio (a service of Sothern Oregon University) you can read the full article here. Other media were the Missoula Current interviews, and print or online media with the Washington Post and Wired Magazine.
The Denver Post also interviewed Dr. Tomback for the article, “Colorado looks to logging to help re-balance forests in an era of climate triggered megafires” By Bruce Finley | bfinley@denverpost.com | The Denver Post, PUBLISHED: December 7, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: December 7, 2020 at 9:17 p.m.
Dr. Tomback was also an ardent supporter and advocate in getting Proposition 114, Restore Grey Wolves.CO.Ballot Issue, passed in last November’s elections. She is on the Colorado Sierra Club Wolf Team and a science advisor to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. You can read her comments in the Huffpost article, “Colorado Throws Itself to the Wolves”.