The World's Largest Bishop Pine Forest Is in Point Reyes

Everyone’s heard about the wonders of California’s coastal redwood trees. They can live for hundreds, even one or two thousand years, all while enduring West Coast fires, storms and pests. But there’s an equally fascinating native California tree: the bishop pine.

While it’s not a household name, the drought-tolerant, rocky, soil-loving plant has fashioned its own way of surviving the ages. Bishop pines are everything that redwoods are not. They get canker infections and snap like pencils.

When their root balls are soggy, a strong breeze tips them over. In a wildfire? Woosh, they’re gone. But the fragility of the bishop pine is arguably its strength.

The largest natural bishop pine forest in the world is in Tomales Bay State Park in Point Reyes. Just like the groves of their majestic cousins, the coastal redwoods, bishop pine forests can last for thousands of years. However, it’s because each individual bishop pine can quickly make space for the next generation.

Bishop pines were once widespread throughout western North America. That was during the Tertiary period, over 2.5 million years ago.

Now, their range is mostly limited to a sliver along California’s coast. And it’s shrinking still! One culprit is a fungal infection that causes bishop pines to grow cankers, which appear as large bulges in a tree’s branches and trunk. Cankers girdle a tree’s branches and trunk, causing them to bulge and leak resin.

The girdle reduces the flow of nutrients, weakening .