FILE: The Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana) is a rare, critically endangered species of pine tree, growing only in a few coastal areas of California.

Santa Rosa Island’s grove of rare Torrey pines appears to have been mostly spared from the massive wildfire tearing through the second-largest island in Channel Islands National Park, according to initial assessments on Wednesday. 

The Torrey pine is “the rarest native pine in the United States and, possibly, the rarest pine in the world,” according to the National Park Service. The tree only grows naturally in two very specific areas: Santa Rosa Island and Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in San Diego. 

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The fate of one of the tree’s only two habitats has hung in the air this week while the Santa Rosa Island Fire burned through more than one-third of the island, including the Torrey pine habitat a few miles away from the island’s pier. But Torrey pine lovers and Channel Islands aficionados received tentative good news on Wednesday, even as the fate of the rest of the island’s unique ecology remains uncertain. 

Firefighters conducted initial assessments of the grove on Wednesday, and an uncrewed aircraft module also produced flight imagery of the trees. Based on those assessments, “the Torrey Pines on Santa Rosa Island still exist and remain largely intact,” according to the National Park Service. 

The fire “appears to have lost energy after burning through the non-native grasses downslope of the trees” and had a lower intensity by the time it reached the Torrey pines, according to the Park Service’s Wednesday evening incident report. 

FILE: Torrey pines hike, near Becher’s Bay Pier on a sunny spring day, Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, Ventura, Calif.

But former Channel Islands National Park Superintendent Russell Galipeau told SFGATE he’s waiting until ecologists and tree experts can take a close look at the site before breathing a sigh of relief. 

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