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Ponderosa pines will always surprise me somehow. 20+ years of tree work and I've seen some truly astounding growth that is completely out of the norm.
These trees are fighters, when damaged they just get back to growing. Lightning strike blow out an inch thick strip of bark down the length of the tree? It is gonna reconnect that bark. Got a porcupine population killing your tops? Multi top time. It wants you to climb it to trim and beautify its limbs. Meant to handle ground fires once a decade or so. Self pruning of non productive limbs combined with a very thick bark, means a ground fire is just fertilizing and cleaning out competition for nutrients. Stupid high sap response to wounds. A healthy example can bleed and push out bark beetles before an infestation can occur.
Love working a ponderosa forest, I can say with confidence that I do 75% of what a fire does for the woods. And that is because ponderosa pines are just survivors.
>Also at 7000+ feet above sea level in a high desert with very regular winds and heavy snow fall.
