Issues: Wildlands

Bristlecone pines -- among the Earth's oldest living creatures -- live on the windswept ridges of the White Mountains in the INYO NATIONAL FOREST, straddling the border of California and Nevada.

Growing at extremely high elevations where virtually no other trees can survive, many of these pines predate the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, the civilization of Troy, and even the Golden Age of China.

The tree rings of living and fallen trees in this forest have yielded a continuous 8,000 year record of history, telling us about the climatic conditions at the time of some of the earliest civilizations.

Photo: Chris J. Calwell