Range and Habitat
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) is native to the eastern United States and Canada, widely distributed from Newfoundland west to the Great Lakes region, south to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and thence further south in the Appalachian highlands to northern Georgia. White Pine does best on well-drained sandy soils, where competition from hardwoods is less, but it is a generalist that is known to grow on nearly all soil types within its range, competing well with hardwoods on more fertile loamy soils, and at least tolerating poorly drained or clay soils. White Pine can act as both a pioneer species and as a component of mature forest. As a pioneer it colonizes abandoned fields, eventually forming pure stands, as is commonly seen in New England. Just as often it is a co-dominant forest tree, sharing habitat with hardwoods.
Description
White Pine is a large, fast-growing conifer that in 50 years may be 20 meters tall, and that typically lives 200 years or longer. The spreading, horizontal branches are whorled around the main trunk, growing in successive layers that provide a distinctive tiered appearance. In closed stands the straight bole may be free of branches for more than half the height. There are 3 to 5 large spreading roots that form the basis of the strong root system; a tap root is lacking.
The leaves are soft, bluish green needles in bundles of five, rather thin, and 8 – 12 cm long. Male cones are yellow, grow in clusters at the terminus of new shoots, and release profuse amounts of pollen in late May and June. Female cones are 10 – 15 cm long, cylindrical, often slightly curved, initially green, ripening to brown after two years, and finally opening to release the seeds in autumn. The winged seeds are dispersed by wind up to 200 meters from the parent tree.
Ecology
White Pine provides food and habitat for a host of animals, and some of those can act as seed dispersers. Squirrels, mice, and voles are all known to bury caches of the seeds, which if not retrieved, become seedlings the following spring. Pine Grosbeaks, Crossbills, Nuthatches, and other passerines consume the seeds. White-tailed Deer browse on the leaves, and Porcupines feed on the inner bark of young trees. Northern populations of the Pine Warbler nest and forage for insects in the canopy. Bald Eagles, Ospreys and Sharp-shinned Hawks also favor the tree for nesting. Black Bears and Raccoons, that den in tree cavities, benefit from the presence of large White Pines.
White Pine has its share of antagonists. White Pine Weevils (Pissodes strobi) are small native beetles whose larvae feed on the terminal shoot, arresting its growth. The tree typically recovers but with multiple leaders – look for mature trees with two or more trunks curving off from the shortened main trunk at heights of 2 to 10 meters as evidence of past weevil attack. This is more than an aesthetic problem in commercial stands, as the value of the timber is significantly reduced.
White Pine Blister Rust (Cronartium ribicola) is a non-native parasitic fungus accidentally introduced in the early 20th century, that spends half of its life cycle on Currants (Ribes spp.), and the other half on five-needled pines. Infections begin in the needles and rapidly spread along a branch to the main trunk. The cankerous lesions can ultimately girdle and kill the tree, young trees being especially susceptible. Because the fungus needs two hosts, a prohibition on Currant cultivation and eradication of wild plants near pine stands can have success in controlling the disease.
History
The economic importance of White Pine to the early English colonies, and later the United States, cannot be overstated. The first European explorers and settlers were amazed at the size of the trees they encountered in the primeval forest. White Pines 45 meters (150 ft.) tall were common, and some specimens surpassed 70 meters (240 ft.)! Huge trees were reported from every New England colony. Moreover, White Pine was dominant – more so than today – one estimate is that in Maine’s Penobscot River watershed, one of the first to be harvested, there was three times the volume of pine timber in pre-settlement times compared to the present day. A pioneer saying was that a squirrel could travel for a lifetime through the tops of the pines without ever touching the ground, probably only slight exaggeration.
Harvesting of this apparently limitless resource began in the early 17th century. The first sawmill began operation in the 1620s at York, Maine, and others were soon in operation along the major rivers that flowed from the vast northern forests to the sea. The wood was used for lumber, paper, furniture, and boatbuilding. White Pine built the growing cities and towns of the northern colonies and was exported to England and other countries, proving to be an economic bonanza. Other trees produced stronger, heavier wood, but none could compete with White Pine for lightness and workability combined with strength. Those qualities were especially valued for masting sailing ships. By 1691, royal decree had claimed the largest pines (> 24 inches diameter) for the British Navy. Timber surveyors marked the chosen trees with the King’s Broad Arrow, made with three downward slashes by axe. Many colonists were indignant at this affront, and some continued to clandestinely cut down the trees with the detested mark, making sure the milled boards measured 23 inches or less! Thus, just as the merchants abhorred the Stamp Act, and the general populace the tax on tea, outrage against logging restrictions, at least in Maine and New Hampshire, was one of the grievances that led to the American Revolution.
After the Revolution, the exploitation of White Pine continued unabated into the 19th century, the timber barons employing veritable armies of surveyors, swampers, lumberjacks, teamsters, river drivers, and sawyers on an industrial scale. If a large river was not available to float the logs down to mill, as was the case in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, narrow gauge railroads were built to haul the logs out of the wilderness. Inevitably, the ancient pines of New England were almost entirely gone by the late 19th century.
The two excerpts that follow are from The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau:
The woods hereabouts abounded in beech and yellow-birch, of which last there were some very large specimens; also spruce, cedar, fir, and hemlock; but we saw only the stumps of the white pine here, some of them of great size, these having been already culled out, being the only tree much sought after, … It was the pine alone, chiefly the white pine, that had tempted any but the hunter to precede us on this route.
Within a dozen miles of Bangor we passed through the villages of Stillwater and Oldtown, built at the falls of the Penobscot, which furnish the principal power by which the Maine woods are converted into lumber. The mills are built directly over and across the river. … Here your inch, your two and three inch stuff begin to be, and Mr. Sawyer marks off those spaces which decide the destiny of so many prostrate forests. … Think how stood the white-pine tree on the shore of Chesuncook, its branches soughing with the four winds, and every individual needle trembling in the sunlight – think how it stands with it now – sold, perchance to the New England Friction Match Company!
As the supply of giant trees dwindled in New England, the loggers moved west to New York and Pennsylvania, and later to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, essentially shadowing the westward expansion of the country, always working to supply the insatiable demand of a growing nation for timber. Eventually, by the turn of the 20th century, the old-growth pines of the Great Lakes region had also yielded to the axe and the saw. The remnants of old-growth forest that remain in the northeastern United States in the early 21st century is estimated to be less than 1% of the original acreage.
Conservation and the Future
George Perkins Marsh was a scholar and diplomat, whose seminal book Man and Nature (1864) warned of the dangers of deforestation, and argued for careful stewardship of natural resources. In application of Marsh’s theory, the Adirondack Park in upstate New York was created in 1892, becoming one of the first conservation successes. Public opinion for conservation strengthened in the late 19th and early 20th century, due in part to authors such as Marsh, John Muir, and other forward thinkers. President Theodore Roosevelt spearheaded efforts to expand the number of National Parks, and planted the seeds of the United States Forest Service.
Modern forestry practices, while still consumptive, attempt to preserve forest ecology while still producing wood on a consistent basis; and the knowledge that forests are useful for something other than producing timber (wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation), has changed the way we view and manage our forests, giving reason to be hopeful for their long-term fate. Given time, future generations of New Englanders may be able to stand under, and marvel at, the sturdy presence of old-growth White Pines.
References
Costanza K., et. al. 2018. A synthesis of emerging health issues of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) in eastern North America. Forest Ecology and Management, 423, 3-17.
Peattie, Donald Culross. 1950. A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
Thoreau, Henry David. 1972. The Maine Woods. Edited by Joseph J. Moldenhauer. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Wessels, Tom. 1997. Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England. The Countryman Press, Woodstock, Vermont.