The White Pine is a very nobel tree

By Al Lowe
Contributor

Pinus stbous. This is certainly one of the most important and valuable trees of the forests of eastern North America. The wood is quite soft, easy to handle, and has been a favourite for building materials for several hundred years. The trees will normally be about 80 to 110 feet high, 2 1/2 to 3 feet in diameter. The early settlers, however, found pines up to 200 feet high and with diameters of 6 feet or better. These were very old trees, and a pine of this size is very rare today.
Pines and other conifers (cone-bearing plants) have survived on earth for something like 300 million years, placing them among the most successful living things in the world. Their success is based almost entirely on the way in which they reproduce. They bear seeds and depend on the wind for both pollination and seed distribution. The White Pine has two kinds of flowers, male and female. Male flowers are on the branch tips, and produce tremendous amounts of pollen. This pollen may appear as a cloud of dust when the wind blows, or it may even cover the surface of a lake with a yellowish film of tiny pollen grains. You have probably seen this on quiet bays in area lakes.
The female cones are usually near the top of the tree. They take two years to mature. The first year finds them standing upright, and somewhat less than an inch long. The following year they grow rapidly to between 5 and 8 inches, and by now they hang down. When finally mature, the scales spread open and the seeds are released. Each seed has a 'wing' which can carry it in the wind for a considerable distance. Seeds form a staple food for squirrels and for quite a few birds. Birds often carry the seeds away and drop them, helping to spread the species.
The White Pine has its share of problems. It is attacked by at least 20 species of insects, which can variously eat the needles, the wood, the twigs, and even the roots. The major disease is the White Pine Blister Rust which, like many of our biological diseases, came to us from Europe.
The White Pine was found originally all the way from the east coast to Manitoba and the Mississippi valley. In colonial days the best trees were marked with the King's broad arrow, which reserved them as masts for the Royal Navy. In some areas, these great trees, none less than 100 feet long, were lashed together with vines to make a sort of raft. Such rafts were floated down river, sometimes 200 miles, to the shipyards of Pennsylvania and New York.
In our District, there is only one other pine which is likely to be confused with the White Pine. That is the Red or Norway Pine. Telling them apart is fairly simple. However, the White Pine has needles in clusters of 5, the Red Pine in clusters of 2, Jack Pine, the only other pine of any consequences here, has a totally different shape and growth habit from the other two.
If you know of any giant White Pines still standing in our District, then do your best to protect them. They are truly 'heritage' trees.