🤔 Take a moment to reflect: Can you remember what you were doing at this time five years ago? 🌲For many pine needles falling from trees throughout the park, life was only just beginning. Despite their popular name, "evergreen" trees don't remain green forever. And though they don't erupt in colorful displays like the leaves of quaking aspen or Rocky Mountain maples, up to a quarter or third of a pine tree's needles (which are also leaves) will yellow and shed each autumn. New pine needles grow at the tips of branches, and the oldest needles are found closer to the trunk. So while yellow needles at the ends of branches might indicate tree stress or disease, the shedding of old and shaded needles at the base of the branch is a natural part of their growth cycles. For our abundant ponderosa pines (Photo 1), needles live 3 - 4 years. Needles of limber pines (Photo 2) typically live 5 - 6 years. 🤔 Now reflect again: What were you doing at this time forty years ago? 🌲 The grand champion of needle lifespan are the park's Great Basin bristlecone pines (Photo 3). These needles can remain on the branch 30 - 40 years! This makes sense as you consider their branches look like long pipe cleaners. While we're used to thinking of tree leaves as ephemeral, annual visitors, it's a bit humbling to realize you might even be younger than one. And if you're older than a bristlecone pine needle, don't worry: you too can be humbled by these trees' ability to live for thousands of years. NPS Photos/Peter Densmore (pd)