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Facts and figures about the four Utah trees that are the longest-lived of their species

(Photo courtesy of Doug Page, Bureau of Land Management) Botanist Stan Kitchen discovered the oldest known ponderosa pine, pictured here to the right of Kitchen a year after its death. During a 2017 visit to the site at 8,400 feet in Utah's Wah Wah Mountains, Kitchen scans hillside for other beetle-killed trees.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Bekker, Brigham Young University) Limber pine in American Fork Canyon.

Limber pine

Age • About 1,700 years old.

Location • It stands at about 10,000 feet in elevation at the head of American Fork Canyon near the divide with the Heber Valley.

Discoverer • Brigham Young University geographer Matt Bekker.

(Photo courtesy of Doug Page, Bureau of Land Management, photographed Sept. 4, 2005) Botanists Stan Kitchen and Clint Reese inspect the world's oldest known ponderosa pine, which stands in the Wah Wah Mountains of southwest Utah.

Ponderosa Pine

Age • 941 years old.

Location • Southern Utah’s Wah Wah Mountains west of Milford until it died in a bark beetle attack in 2016.

Discoverer • U.S. Forest Service botanist Stan Kitchen.

(Photo courtesy of Chris Baisan, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.) Groves of ancient pinyon pine live in Utah's Nine Mile Canyon.

Pinyon pine

Age • 1,101 years old.

Location • Wells Draw in east-central Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, where it died in the late 16th century.

Discoverer • Chris Baisan and Troy Knight, scientists with the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Bekker, Brigham Young University). Utah juniper is a notoriously difficult tree to date because its growth rings may not reflect a year's worth of growth. But BYU researchers have developed a technique for reading this species' rings and located the world's oldest know Utah juniper, pictured here in Diamond Fork Canyon. It date backs 1,020 years.

Juniper

Age • 1,020 years old.

Location • Diamond Fork Canyon.

Discoverer • BYU geographer Matt Bekker and his students.

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