VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Pinus sabiniana | Gray Pine 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Gray pine wood has minor commercial value.  It is used for making
railroad ties, box shook, pallet stock, and chips.  Poor form, high
resin content, and high proportions of compression wood result in low
stumpage prices.  The mechanical strength properties of the wood have
been detailed [49].  Gray pine is expensive to log due to low stand
density [40].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
The blue oak-gray pine community is preferred habitat for black-tailed
deer, California quail, and mourning dove [9].  Gray pine seeds are an
important diet item for various birds and rodents.  Scrub jay, acorn
woodpecker, and California gray squirrel are major seed consumers [40].
Livestock also eat the seeds.  High concentrations of resins and
terpines render gray pine browse unpalatable [42].


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
The percent composition of gray pine seeds is as follows [47]:

     protein        25.0
     fat            49.4
     carbohydrate   17.5
     Kcal/100 g    571

The concentrations of several essential minerals in gray pine seeds
are available [47].


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Gray pine has been planted on a limited basis for erosion control.
Commercial nursery stock is unavailable.  Seedlings have been
established on rehabilitation sites by planting 1- or 2-year-old
bareroot stock grown from locally collected seed [27,29].  Gray pine
is an appropriate choice for planting in soils with calcium imbalances.
It will grow well on both serpentine soil, where calcium is deficient,
and on limestone soil, where calcium is adundant.  In addition, it will
grow on xeric sites where establishment of other tree species is
difficult [40].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Gray pine seeds were important in the diet of California Indians [40].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Gray pine is considered an undesirable weed tree by many rangeland
managers.  Production and quality of forage growing under gray pine is
less than that growing under blue oak.  Additionally, gray pine provides
little shade for livestock during hot summer months [13,22,40].  It has
been extensively cut within the last century in order to clear rangeland
areas [40].

Diseases:  Prominent diseases of gray pine include western gall rust
(Periderium harknessii) and dwarf-mistletoe (Arceuthobium occidentale
and A. campylopodum forma campylopodum) [1,20,31,40].  Western gall rust
forms galls on gray pine throughout its range but rarely causes serious
damage.  Dwarf-mistletoe is a particularly damaging and widespread
disease [40].  It infects trees of all ages, causing reduced tree vigor
or death.  Left uncontrolled, infection can increase sixty-fold within
10 years [20].  Arceuthobium occidentale also infects Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziezii) and bigcone Douglas-fir, while A. campylopodum
forma campylopodum can infect Coulter, Jeffrey (Pinus jeffreyi),
Monterey (P. radiata), and ponderosa pines [20,31].  Dwarf-mistletoe is
controlled by cutting infected trees or removing infected branches [31].

Gray pine is the specific host for Ips spinifer.  This bark beetle
generally attacks fire- or drought-weakened trees.  Heavy resin
production by healthy trees provides a strong defense against most
species of bark beetles.  Gray pine is host to a variety of cone, twig,
and foliage insects, but the damage they cause is usually minor [40].

Gray pine growing in hardpan is susceptible to windthrow under
waterlogged soil conditions [40].

Related categories for Species: Pinus sabiniana | Gray Pine