Austrian pine

Botanical name

Pinus nigra

Type

Introduced evergreen pine, two needles per bundle

Height

66 to 165 feet at about 80 years in its native range (USFS)

Lifespan

Long lived; European forests were managed on up to 360-year cycles

Drought tolerance

Intermediate (USFS)

Where it is found here

Planted windbreaks and yards on valley and foothill lots

These are the dark evergreens along property lines, ranch roads and subdivision edges. Many were planted as a row, which means one failure often turns into several.

How do you identify an Austrian pine?

Needles are in bundles of two, stiff, dark green and long. The crown is dense and pyramidal when young, and flattens and spreads with age. Bark on older trees is gray-brown to nearly black with deep plates, and the buds at the shoot tips are pale and resinous. A row of dark, dense pines with two-needle bundles in Reno, Carson City or the Carson Valley is most likely this species.

• Two stiff needles per bundle
• Dense, dark crown, flat-topped with age
• Thick, furrowed, dark bark
• Often planted in straight rows

Where does Austrian pine grow here?

It is a planted tree, not a native. It does well in the valleys of Reno (4,500 feet), Sparks (4,400 feet), Carson City (4,700 feet) and Minden (4,700 feet), and in foothill neighborhoods up to Washoe Valley (about 5,100 feet). Those towns sit in zones 6b to 7b on the USDA map. Nearest NOAA stations record about 7 to 9 inches of precipitation a year, so any Austrian pine that is not watered deeply is working with very little.

What goes wrong with it in Northern Nevada?

The Forest Service rates Austrian pine drought tolerance as intermediate. In a dry year, rows with shared roots show it first: inner needles turn yellow and fall, and branch tips die back. Needle diseases are a known problem for the species too; the Forest Service names Dothistroma needle blight as the most damaging foliage disease of mature trees. Browning needles can have several causes, which is why an arborist should identify the cause before anyone decides to cut. See drought stress and dieback.

Stressed pines are easy targets for bark beetles, see bark beetles in pines. A tall windbreak row also holds snow load and catches wind, and individual trees in a row can lean once a neighbor is removed.

Pruning timing and fire behavior

Dead wood can come off at any time. Otherwise, early spring and summer is the usual window for conifers. Austrian pine does not need heavy shaping; remove dead branches, lift low limbs and thin where trees crowd a house. Do not cut a pine back to bare wood, because it will not regrow from old branches.

Like other evergreens, pines are among the most combustible plants in a yard. University of Nevada Extension advises keeping evergreen woody plants at least 30 feet from the house. A row of dense pines along a fence line is a fuel line; see defensible space and fire mitigation.

When is removal the answer, and what do we do?

Removal is usual when a tree is dead, when the crown has gone mostly brown, when the trunk has decay or a lean, or when a row has thinned so much that the remaining trees are unstable. We assess the trees in person on a free estimate, and the estimate covers tree removal, stump grinding and hauling the debris. Two ISA Certified Arborists are on staff; credential WE-11728A belongs to one of them.