The great pines are probably the most important trees

By Al Lowe
Contributor

The pines are probably the most important trees in North America. As you know, pine has for centuries, been made into furniture. In the past 25 years or so, there has been quite a popular revival of pine furniture. Pine is also used for flooring, for structural timbers, for pit-props, and in fact, for almost any situation in which wood can be used.
The largest Canadian pine is the White Pine (Pinus strobus). At one time this tree very common, often in immense almost pure stands, from Nova Scotia to Manitoba, and south to Georgia. But this tree was such a desirable one that the forests were cut down without mercy, and without a thought for the morrow. In the Great Lakes states, in 1890, over four million board feet of lumber was cut - a great deal of it being pine.
In the colonial days on this continent, the best trees were reserved for the Royal Navy, for masts for the sailing fleet. These trees had to be at least 100 feet high, perfectly straight and without blemish. They were usually lashed together and floated down river to the sea, often 150 miles or more.
The White Pine, like all pines, has male and female flowers on the same tree. Male, or staminate, flowers are on the very ends of the branches. They are very small, but they bear huge amounts of pollen. When the wind blows, there are sometimes clouds of pollen blowing around the lakes. Sometimes you can see a yellow film on a quiet bay.
The female cones are the big ones, familiar to us all. During their first year, they are small, green and stand upright. In the second year, they grow to 6 or 7 inches, become brown, and turn down to open and release the seeds. The seeds are like scales, and have a ‘wing’ to help them get blown over large distances.
In the original forest, the White Pine often grew to a height of 150 feet, and even over 200, with a diameter of four, five or even six feet. But those days, and those trees, are gone forever. Any of those original trees would be in remote and inaccessible places.
The White Pine has its needles in clusters of five, which gives a mature tree a rather soft outline. The other main lumber pine of Northwestern Ontario is the Red or Norway Pine, which has its needles in clusters of two.
Both White and Red pines are often planted in parks and along boulevards, although the Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris), a native of Europe, is also used extensively for this purpose. The other native pine in our area is the Jackpine (Pinus banksiana) which is quite different from the other three.
The White Pine, growing alone, is a magnificent, stately tree. Poets have referred to is as the ‘monarch of the forest’ - a well-deserved title. A thing of great beauty, and great usefulness, we need to be very careful with our reserves of this wonderful resource.