[birdsong in background] This nature investigation video will demonstrate how
to identify a pinyon pine tree and look for symptoms of beetle infestation and decline.
When you hear the buzzing bee [buzzing bee sound] pay attention to the Buzzword
that pops up on screen. There will be four key characteristics of decline.
[Sam, behind the camera] Peyton, what are some of the defining characteristics of a pinyon pine?
[Peyton, on screen] Yeah, you can tell what a pinyon pine is based on its needles. So
they'll be in groups of two from the stem and they grow together, just like these.
They grow in couples, and then their pine cones are small and round.
Yeah so this isn't like the typical trees that you think of where they
grow triangular up out of the ground. The pinyon pines will grow in more of a round shape
and spread out. We found a pinyon pine cone, and inside of it we found some seeds, and this is what
the pinyon jays will eat and store underground or in different hiding spots for the winter.
[Sam] And those seeds are like full of calories right?
[Peyton] These have a ton of nutritional benefits for all sorts of birds, rodents alike.
[Sam] So we have the pinyon pine, but what's the J part of the P-J woodland?
[Peyton] The J stands for Juniper.
[Sam] Is this a juniper right here?
[Peyton] That's a juniper. That one has scaly leaves
and produces those bluish purple berries that you see.
[Sam] So Peyton, these trees look a lot alike. How do we tell the difference? Because,
I think one's a pinyon and one is a juniper.
[Peyton] Right, they're two different trees but they are growing very close together,
so it's hard to tell. When we tell, we have to get really close and look at the key characteristics.
So, these junipers have scaly needles, and they grow those purple blueberries. They're not the
smooth, like, needles that you would see on a pinyon pine. And over here is our pinyon pine,
and you can tell that it's the pinyon because it has those smooth needles, and they grow in
bunches of two, and they have a pine cone that's small and round. So we came across a pinyon tree
that appears to have been cut by something sharp, and if you look close you can see the sap,
and that sap heals the plant's wounds. We can also use sap for our own benefit on our own wounds,
and it protects from germs and helps heal our body faster.
[Sam] Is that kind of like those band-aids that are like, that you can paint on, like Nu-skin?
[Peyton] Just like that.
[Sam] What kind of people have used this traditional medicine?
[Peyton] Over hundreds of years, the Ute Tribes and other Native American tribes have used pine
sap for their own benefits, like waterproofing baskets or for health benefits and wound care.
[Sam] Cool. Peyton, it looks like we found
a tree that doesn't appear to be doing so well. [buzzing bee]
[Peyton] This tree is no longer alive, and we can tell because its needles
are brown and crumbly. They just fall apart right off the tree. We can see
there's holes in the trunk and in the bark, and like we talked about earlier there's sap.
[buzzing bee]
[Peyton]
And, so the tree was trying to heal itself, but, it did not.
[Sam] Yeah it looks like the tree's just pouring out sap in it's trunk,
and those holes are pretty big. What made those holes?
[Peyton] Those holes are big, and they're caused by what we call bark borer beetles.
So those beetles will come in, and they'll carve out little holes for their
babies, and to eat, throughout the tree. So the holes that you see are from a bug.
[Sam] Okay.
[Peyton] And now that the tree is dead, the beetles have populated the entire tree,
and are now sending smelly little signals out for woodpeckers to come eat them.
[Sam] Are those called pheromones?
[Peyton] Pheromones. [both laugh] So just like we can smell good food that we want to eat,
these woodpeckers can smell the beetles that they want to eat, and this tree is filled with them.
[woodpecker knocking on wood]
[Sam] Why is this tree better food and habitat for a woodpecker over a pinyon jay?
[Peyton] So, woodpecker's beaks are able to penetrate the bark and access the beetles,
but pinyon jays eat pinyon pine seeds, and their beaks are only meant to eat those seeds.
They're not hard enough to penetrate the bark like the woodpecker beaks can.
[Sam] How does that happen? How does one bird have a beak entirely different
from another one? It seems like they're so specially designed for the food they eat.
[Peyton] They are, and that's just simple competition. When birds feel like they're
outcompeted by others, slowly over time they adapt to specialize in other things
that will keep them living, while they can still inhabit the same places that other birds live.
[Sam] So Peyton, there's these interesting, like,
line designs in the bark. What are those? [buzzing bee in background]
[Peyton] Those are from the bark beetles. Those are their paths that they create to get to and
from their food source, or to the eggs that they've laid within the tree, and you can tell
that the bark is gone, and this is what is exposed underneath and where the beetles have been living.
These are those ips beetle entrance and exit holes.
[Sam] And how do you know that those are entryways and exit-ways?
[Peyton] These are very small holes that we can only detect by these red-coloring sap-like
structures, and the red is from the interior of the bark, so, what the beetle has pushed out
to get into the tree, and what remains is the sap healing it and discoloring with the wood.
[Sam] So you're saying that red, rusty-colored stuff is like munched-up
sawdust from the interior of the tree.
[Peyton] Correct.
[buzzing bee]
[Sam] And then when the tree tries to heal itself from that tube-like wound from the beetle,
it pushes that rusty stuff out, and it forms these little...these little bubbles of rust.
[Peyton] Yes.
[Sam] And how is this tree doing overall?
[Peyton] This tree is now dead, and again, we can tell because
the needles are brown, and they crumble and fall off the tree.
[Sam] So what are we looking at right here? I see two different colors in this sap.
[Peyton] Yeah so the clearer sap that you see
is just the normal sap that the tree puts out when it has a wound-
[Sam] -Okay-
[Peyton] -and that darker red color is that sawdust material that the beetles have
created to get inside and make their holes and that
is mixing with the sap. So that's what creates a different color.
[birdsong]