Coeur d’Alene Parks Department employees teamed up with volunteers last weekend to plant 400 White Pine seedlings in the Fernan Lake Natural Area.

 White Pine is our state tree and was very prevalent in Idaho until a disease called White Pine Blister Rust wiped out the vast majority of the nation’s White Pines. The disease was brought over from Europe around 1900 and proceeded across the country killing off the native species that had no resistance to the disease.

 The US Forest Service created a Blister Rust resistant species and has been working to re-establish the tree for quite some time. Replanting these trees in our natural areas is helping to re-establish these trees in Cd’A.

 The group plans on planting 200 more in other city natural areas soon.