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February 20, 1991 -—-U Yf 



Dr. Kathleen Johnson 



Oregon Department of Agriculture 



635 Capitol Street NE 



Salem OR 97310-0110 



Dear Dr. Johnson: 



I am responding to your letter regarding the possible importation of wood chips 

 from Central America. I have examined some of the literature on Caribbean 

 pine (Pinus caribaea Morelet). It occurs on many of the Caribbean Islands 

 (Bahama, Cuba, Haiti/E>ominican Republic) and in Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, 

 and Nicaragua. The species belongs to the subsection Australes, Section Pinaster, 

 Loud, of the genus Pinus. This subsection contains a number of pine species 

 found in eastern and southeastern United States, including longleaf pine (P. 

 palusiris), loblolly pine (P. taeda), pitch pine (Pinus rigida), slash pine (P. 

 elliottii) besides P. caribaea (Critchfield & Little, 1966). Section Pinaster 

 contains a number of other subsections including Ponderosae (containing, among 

 other species, P. ponderosa and P. jeffreyi) and subsection Contortae (containing 

 P. coniorta and its subspecies and P. banksiana). The more recent treatment of 

 the genus Pinus by Farjon (1984), places the subsection Contortae closest to 

 subsection Australes. 



The nominate subspecies of Pinus contoria, P. contorta coniorta, is, of course, 

 shore pine, the pine that occurs along the Pacific Coast from Mendicino County, 

 California, north into British Columbia. It is the only pine found along the 

 entire Oregon Coast, including Coos Bay and Gardiner. The other subspecies of 

 P. coniorta occur in the Sierra-Cascade mountains, in the Ochoco Mountains - 

 east to the Rocky Mountains. The other subspecies is found in a very small, 

 isolated spot along the coast of California in Mendicino County, California (P. 

 contorta bolanderi). Pinus contorta extends northward into Canada and, in 

 western Alberta, hybridizes with Pinus banksiana (jack pine), a species that 

 extends all across southern Canada and much of northern United States. There, 

 the species approaches the northern limits of Pinus virginiana that extends 

 southward into southeastern United States where it approaches Pinus clausa (sand 

 pine) in Florida and Alabama. 



I mention these details because there is an almost unbroken connection between 

 closely related species of pine that occur on the north Pacific Coast, across the 

 northern region, to the Eastern Seaboard and south to Florida. There is a 

 similarity in the insect fauna found on these species of pines. Thus, the potential 

 exists for a pest species to be introduced into the west coast pine and spread 

 northward, and eastward, and possibly southward. The latter situation should be 

 particularly dangerous because of the pine species most closely related to P. 

 caribaea found there, not to mention the shore pine/lodgepole pine, jack pine, 

 Virginia pine and sand pine. The occurrence of ponderosa pine not too far away 

 from the proposed introduction site raises other questions, since it, too, is close 

 to the Caribbean pine. 



