Arbor Day Spotlight on Trees

By Rob Pudim

Arbor Day is April 24th 2026. What’s Your Favorite Tree? Can you guess mine?

My favorite tree in the Indian Peaks/James Peak Wildernesses is widely distributed in the U.S. but found only at the trailheads because its altitudinal limit is about 8,000 to 10,000 ft. 

The tree has a number of less common names like Western Yellow Pine, Bull Pine or Blackjack because younger trees have a black trunk. However, it has a common name you’ve probably heard.  My personal name for it is Ball Pine because the tree looks like a bunch of stacked balls. 

This pine is a food plant for squirrels, chipmunks, quail, grouse, ptarmigans, porcupines and, of course, Clark's Nutcracker and Gray Jay. Native Americans ate the seeds and inner bark and used its needles to make a tea for fevers/coughing and used it resin as a bactericide for open wounds. Are you getting warm yet?

If you haven't guessed it, my favorite tree is the Rocky Mountain Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa scopulorum).

Before fires were suppressed throughout the west there were Ponderosa savannahs in the mountains providing forage for elk and mountain bison (yes, Bison! They went extinct by the 1930's).  The cones of the pine were tightly compacted and did not open unless there was a fire.

I like Ponderosa pines because they look good and they smell nice. Lignan, the stuff that makes wood, breaks down into chemicals that make Ponderosas smell like vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, turpentine, tea, the bacteria Pseudomonas and flowers. 

The smell depends on the tree's genetics and one smell (which I have never sampled) drives Abert's squirrels bonkers like catnip does to a house cat. Trees with this smell end up stripped of needles and bark by Aberts squirrels that gather to sample the smelly pine. I myself have been caught hugging a Ponderosa with my nose stuck in a fissure, breathing deeply and sighing.

When invaded by the Pine Beetles (Dendrostonus ponderosae) the wood of the Ponderosa pine can take on a bright blue stain caused by a Grossmannia fungi staining.  This blue stain creates a beautiful finish and is sought after by woodworkers for furniture.

Whatever your favorite tree is, whether in the wilderness or your backyard, be sure to give it a closer look, a good sniff, perhaps a hug and enjoy its beauty.

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Naturalist column exploring high country flora, fauna and geography

IPWA volunteers are often asked by visitors not just about the trails, but about what they are seeing in the Indian Peaks and James Peak Wilderness Areas. This column will cover some of the plants, animals and geographic features that hikers, anglers and backpackers may come across in these areas.  

About Rob Pudim

A long time Boulder resident, Rob describes himself as “a coal-miner's son from Pennsylvania,  a "fallen" scientist (Chemistry, Rutgers University and Microbiology, Tulane University) an editorial cartoonist, an amateur lepidopterist, a Native Plant Master, and a long-time birder”.  His affiliation with IPWA goes back to its founding in the 1980s.