CHAIRMAN'S CORNER (Cont'd) An asterisk by your name on the address sheet of this issue indicates that you are still not a current subscriber according to DPS records. A dollar sent to Eric Schumacher, Secretary-Treasurer, will rectify that situation.

- - - - - - - - - - - THE TRAIL BLISTER - FROM LAS VEGAS

Desert Peakers may be interested in subscribing to The Trail Blister, the bimonthly news publication of the Las Vegas group. If the last two issues are fairly representative, one can expect a substantial amount of conservation news along with news and activities of the group including past trip reports and future trips scheduled. Subscription cost is $l per year payable to "Las Vegas Group, Toiyabe Chapter to be sent to Richard Geertsema, Treasurer (also Editor)- 912 Bonita Avenue, Las Vegas, Nevada 89105. Be sure to include your zip code. The February-March isssue included a scheduled trip report to Havasu Creek via Beaver Canyon.

- - - - - - - - - - - ON PINUS EDULIS

When Spanish exp1orers entered the Southwest around 1500 A.D. they found a squat, round tree growing on the hills that bore an edible nut. The tree resembled a pine and they called it pinon, or pine. The early Spanish exp1orers didn't know it then, but the pinon pine covered thousands of square miles of open, arid lands throughout the West. Pinus edulis, as the botanist calls the pinon, has for centuries past furnished food and fuel to man, food and shelter to wi1d1ife. One fourth of New 'Mexico's area is occupied by this slow-growing dwarf pine with -- for a pine -- a gigantic seed. Other Western States also have large acreages of pinon forest. When young pinon trees begin~to bear nuts, they may be 5 to 10 feet high and about 25 years old. At 75 years, the trees are big enough to produce nuts in commercial quantities. They grow principa11y at elevations of 5,000 to 7,000 feet. Adapted to the dry climate, they are long-lived and may continue to bear for hundreds of years. Old trees in good surroundings may grow to 75 feet and have a trunk diameter of 18 inches. In September and October, usually after frost, the mature cones open and the nuts fall. The o1dest and simplest method of harvesting is to pick the nuts off the ground by hand. The cones are particularly gooey. Good nuts have a rusty brown color with shadings and mottlings

Page Index	Prev	Page 2	Next	Issue Index