Pests and diseases graphic. Caging whitebark pine cones, Kootenay National Park.

A Parks Canada staff member is seen climbing high up near the top of a whitebark pine tree in Kootenay National Park. The tree’s branches are covered in light-green needles. Bunches of dark purple-brown pine cones are clustered near the ends of the tree’s upper limbs. The conservation specialist is working to protect the cones from birds by covering them with small cylindrical cages. The background shows towering rocky mountain peaks, lightly covered in patches of snow, with a green forested valley bottom in the distance far below.
Parks Canada staff identify trees that show natural resistance to white pine blister rust (a disease that threatens the trees), and cover their seed cones with the protective cages. Then, once the pine cones mature, their seeds are collected. Some of these seeds are saved for the future in a seed bank. Others are grown into seedlings at tree nurseries and then planted in the national parks, ensuring a new generation of disease-resistant trees.