The large, wingless seeds of limber pine have high energy content. Other small mammals and birds benefit from these caches.
Bighorn sheep use open stands on ridges.
Although limber pine browse is unpalatable to large mammals, it provides some food for birds and small mammals. Vegetation recovery is slow on the exposed, hot, dry, rocky sites where it is found, and soil erosion can prevent complete restoration. The site was a molybdenum tailing pond buried in deep mine waste rock. Some of the seedlings were also treated in the field with fertilizer or sewage sludge combined with wood chips. All seedlings were protected from wind and sun with cedar shingles.