North Dakota's only ponderosa pine forest - which was part of the United States' national forest system for several years in the early 1900s and is the nation's easternmost ponderosa pine forest - was being eaten up by a man-made blaze Thursday about 10 miles northwest of Amidon.

"A significant portion of the ponderosa pines is going to burn," said Darla Lenz, a U.S. Forest Service botanist, on Thursday.

Thursday afternoon estimates were that a human-caused wildfire started Wednesday west of Amidon had burned about 25 percent of the forest - ponderosa pines scattered across about 22 square miles of land.

However, depending on how hot the fire was and other factors, many of the trees could come back. Lenz said that if a ponderosa pine's roots and crown are undamaged the tree probably will come back.

"Fire is part of the ecosystem and the trees will come back," she said.

One thing that creates some uncertainty about the tree loss in this fire is that, for a period of time here, fire suppression was practiced, said Gary Cummisk, a Dickinson State University geography professor.

That has resulted in a build-up of debris on the forest floor, which provides fuel to create a hotter and potentially more harmful fire - too much fire even for the Ponderosa pine, which is considered a fire-tolerant species.

Although fire suppression was practiced for years in the area, Cummisk said that in recent years private property owners in the forest have been conducting a series of controlled burns to lessen the fire danger after a freak 1997 wind-shear episode in the area downed large numbers of trees.

The U.S. Forest Service had been planning a prescribed burn in the forest for the last couple of years but had delayed it because of drought, Lenz said.

Lenz said there aren't rare plants in the area associated with the ponderosa pine, but the vegetation and wildflowers that are being burned should come back rather quickly.

"There are some animals, birds in particular, that use that (ponderosa pine) habitat," she said. "With the loss of that habitat, they'll have to leave."

Birds who use the pine habitat include the common poorwill, the Audobon's warbler and a butterfly that uses ponderosa pines, the western pine elfin butterly.

Part of the forest is privately owned, part is federally owned, the National Grasslands segment and the rest is North Dakota School Trust Lands.

Theodore Roosevelt, who visited the area during the 1880s, was inspired to push for the area to become part of the national forest system. It happened under his presidency in 1908, according to an article by Cummisk. But in 1917, the forest, called the Dakota Forest, was returned to private ownership under the Woodrow Wilson adminstration when it was determined to be too small to be maintained in a cost-effective way. In the 1930s, part of it returned to public stewardship as National Grasslands.

Cummisk, a former Washington State resident who moved here about a year ago, said he thinks it's one of the most scenic areas in North Dakota.

What's left of it.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at vgrantier@ndonline.com.)