Early one morning this fall, three National Park Service researchers from the Klamath Inventory and Monitoring Network (KLMN) scrambled over minivan-sized boulders on a remote butte in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Their goal -- to reach plot three, the most difficult to access site in the National Park Service's Whitebark Pine Monitoring Network at Lassen. 

Since 2012, the KLMN has studied whitebark pine populations at Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic National Parks to assess species health and long-term trends, specifically threats from blister rust and mountain pine...