Eastern White Pine- the Tree Rooted in American History

[Music] the eastern white pine more than any other tree species had a profound effect on the course of events in the new world beginning four centuries ago at one time the most sought-after and valuable tree in the world it's wood built the fledgling United States it was the driving engine of the early American economy and the foundation of its trade relationships it helped to launch the new nation that was to become a beacon of hope for all like a tall lanky waiting bird that rises head and shoulders above the surrounding forest the white pine is the tallest growing conifer in the eastern United States its place in American history is a tale not often told the story begins in another land the 17th century the world was fueled by wood there was no petroleum the island nation of England had already long ago exploited and eliminated most of its accessible forests even firewood was scarce and costly for city dwellers who often spent cold winters in misery English merchants had to sail the seas to trade with foreign countries their ships fell prey to pirates forcing the need of protection by a Royal Navy building and maintaining all these ships required a steady supply of timbers especially ship masts which England had to purchase from the Baltic region Spain France and the Dutch competed with England for these resources a century earlier Portuguese explorer Gaspard Court REO had witnessed great coastal forests in Newfoundland and Labrador in the 1520's Giovanni da Verrazzano admired the pristine wilderness of the New England area and named it Arcadia as early as 1583 merchant Christopher Carlisle had argued that England should colonize America to secure its resources and become independent of the Baltic countries the king took no action but in 1605 captain George Weymouth was sent to New England to locate sites for new colonies he saw Maine forests with huge oaks of an excellent grain and Pines that could provide masts for ships of 400 tons perfect for naval stores which were sorely needed to compete with a Dutch French and Spanish King James needed ship masts so he granted charters to two companies to establish colonies the London company started one at Jamestown in 1607 headed by Captain John Smith the Plymouth company's first attempts failed but in 1620 they launched a second attempt destined for the Hudson River the Mayflower was loaded with supplies and 101 colonists some of whom were seeking a new start where they could practice their religion as they saw fit others were motivated more by economics however a storm forced the ship hundreds of miles off course to Cape Cod Bay they landed at Plymouth thankful to have made it to the new world but this land was outside the bounds of their charter so the Puritans decided they could do as they pleased here but these people were from the city streets and open countryside of England what they saw here they considered a hideous and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men there were impenetrable thickets and vast unfamiliar forests that seemed to hold little promise for these terribly unprepared newcomers large numbers of natives who had no natural immunity had already fallen to diseases unwittingly brought by earlier explorers their spirits have now left this land they're cleared fallow fields enabled settlers to quickly plant crops though fearful of the forest colonists immediately began to use it for fuel and construction New England has several forest types spruce and hardwoods to the north oak chestnut and pitch pine to the south and a sizeable central region of white pine hemlock and hardwoods the eastern white pine ranges from Newfoundland south to Georgia and West to Minnesota the forests were exactly the reason the King had sent these people to the New England for here grew the timbers he so needed tall straight white pines shipped masts on the stump free of significant branches for 60 70 80 feet or more surely the colonists could quickly settle in and get to work supplying valuable resources to the kingdom with sawmills producing timbers glaber's barrel staves shingles and all manner of wooden products that England needed 3,000 miles away but these people had never experienced wilderness forests the limitless expanses of valuable timber were to them an overwhelming obstacle and daunting challenge they were utterly reliant on supplies brought on occasional ships from England mired in labors just to survive they had little time to work with a king imagine being in their shoes in a strange world an ocean away from your homeland facing perils unknown and being ill-prepared to survive until trees were cut by men wielding only axes these hapless transplants could do virtually nothing until trees were cut homes could not be built until trees were cut and cleared food crops couldn't be grown there could be no flax for linen clothing rivers couldn't be crossed tools could not be made no coopered barrels for storage no fencing of livestock structures could not be heated no fueling of Industry no protection from enemies in a lifestyle entirely dependent on wood nothing could happen until trees were chopped down and processed the great Pines were abundant they were the first to be tackled their wood was light strong and durable white pine was the easiest of woods to work with the limited hand tools available austere homes were quickly built when wide boards are heavy timbers were needed one simply found a suitably sized tree cut it down and then cut it up [Music] adventurer and writer Thomas Morton who was living among natives on Quincy Bay wrote in 1637 there is an infinite store of pine I have traveled ten miles together where there is little or no other wood growing [Music] by 1630 the first sawmill was already operating somewhere in near Portsmouth New Hampshire [Music] numbers of Puritans were now coming to the Massachusetts Bay Colony whose Charter featured pine trees on its icon several shipwrights were sent to the colony to build boats five years later the first white pine ship masts reached England this was why the king had established these colonies England was purchasing Scots pine also known as Riga fir from the Baltic region but there were few scots pines left large enough to make a one-piece mast a main mast from these trees had to be pieced together with skilful joinery a time-consuming task pines are preferred for ship masts because of their comparatively light weight and the strength of their long fibers that give them flexibility to sway in the wind the white pine of New England was of such large stature that tall masts could be fashioned from one single trunk without the need to join pieces soon boats of many kinds were being built on the New England coast it was cheaper to build a ship here and sail it to be sold in England than it was to ship raw timber there in the 1640s masts were being sent to England but were four times more costly to ship than the Baltic Pines so England continued buying mostly Scots pine the bay colony had no money no industry but boat building and nothing but timber products and some furs to trade but they were resourceful and found they could sell white oak barrel staves to a number of wine producing regions across the sea timber products were also traded for rum and sugar in the British colony of Barbados which was stripping its forests to create plantations Puritans at first helpless in the dark wilderness were learning to not only survive in it but to convert it to cash to bolster the English economy and control its colonies Parliament passed a series of navigation acts preventing colonies from directly trading with foreign nations to facilitate its economy the colony minted its own shillings with the symbol of its only fortune the white pine regular annual exports of masts to England had begun farming men take to the woods to go Mastan but the gold paid for the best massed logs in the world can't buy food in new england and come winter many a logger who hadn't grown crops found little to eat on the table and starved [Music] England was at war with the Dutch and that made maths very precious the Dutch and Danes were blocking access to Baltic Pines so England began buying more New England masts despite the high cost of shipping New England was thriving on the timber trade but now King Charles was angered that his colony was acting like an independent nation they ignored navigation acts by trading with England's enemies Boston Puritans rejected his church they were minting money and were even passing their own laws to rein them in charles ii revoked the bay colony charter in 1684 and asserted his ownership of the entire northeast he appointed a surveyor of pines and timber to search the new england woods for all suitable mast pines within 10 miles of a navigable waterway the surveyor was directed to blaze them with the Kings arrow mark beginning the era of the so called broad arrow policy which would hang over the colonies until the American Revolution Boston Puritans were furious 1691 the crown relents and King George reinstates the Bay Colony Charter but he reserves all trees not on private property that our 24-inches are more diameter at 12 inches above the ground and suitable for masts no one was allowed to cut these trees without a license from the crown by the turn of the 18th century England's access to Baltic timber was threatened by war New England spines were being delivered to Royal Naval Dockyard in the Caribbean their colonial merchants encountered French buyers and began illicitly selling the Kings Pines to them despite the cutting ban [Music] Pines began coming down fast and we're making merchants rich Puritans now controlled one of the world's strongest shipping trades throughout the great swath of New England pine stands violations of the 24 inch cutting ban were rampant to avoid being caught for illegally taking 24-inch Pines violators sod their boards to no more than twenty three inches wide Allen has felt that the forests belong to them and the king 3,000 miles away had no rightful claim [Music] mass ting was extremely demanding only axes were available to chop down huge Pines first men known as swampers had to clear a proper road from the nearest waterway rocks trees brush and all debris had to be removed to accommodate the ox teams that would later be brought in work was done in all kinds of weather mainly in winter and miserable wet conditions to reach those big pines bellies had to be filled and sturdy bridges over stream and swamp built to make the road as smooth and easy to traverse as possible in these old-growth forests there were plenty of obstacles that had to be cleared away the road had to be as straight and level as they could make it right up to the tree a multi trunked pine like this could never be a mast but tall arrow-straight trees like these could they could occasionally reach to 200 feet possibly a bit more such trees were not always easy to find the next ones could be miles away once a road to the stand was built the next chore was to build a Hubbell to house the dozens of oxen that would be required smaller trees and brush were piled up as bedding for the great tree to fall on they could take no chances at damaging or breaking these highly valuable pines as they crash down [Music] once down the limbs are removed next the huge log weighing 20,000 pounds or more was levered or twitched on two sleds known as go Devils a skilled teamster had to coordinate the dozens of oxen to pull as one unit this was highly dangerous for both man and beast spare animals were kept on the sidelines to instantly replace any that faltered or were injured if this work was done in the summer great wheels up to 18 feet in diameter would be used to haul the logs on a downslope the 10 to 12 ton load had to be held back with snub ropes coiled around trees to prevent the log from crushing the teams if the crest in the road was too acute then as the log went over the hump oxen chain toward the rear end of the log might be lifted right off the ground and their spines broken at village intersections great sweeping turns had to be accommodated resulting in some town squares becoming triangular some of these can still be seen in New England as well as a number of mast roads at a river landing site the log was twitched into the water to be floated to a Depot for delivery to a mast agent who prepared them for shipment to the Royal Navy the logs were hand hewn to 16 sides a small mast was eight to twelve inches in diameter middling was 12 to 18 inches at most New England mast logs were in the great category 18 to 40 inches in diameter a top-of-the-line 100 gun warship was fitted with a lower main mast 36 to 40 inches in diameter at the base and up to 120 feet long a mast had to be replaced about every 12 years so when the resins in the wood dried out transport ships were loaded with 30 to 100 masts weighing 350 to a thousand tons the hold was filled with logs through a special Stern door that was then sealed shut occasionally some passengers were squeezed in there to the loaded ships riding low in the water and hard to sail were bound for England possibly to be lost at sea or seized by the Dutch French or Spanish in 1719 Portsmouth New Hampshire had become the hub of pine logging it shipped 199 mast that year a 36 inch mast was valued at about 25,000 of today's dollars nearly a million feet of boards and timbers were also shipped that year the world wanted pine up to this point mast Pines had been plentiful and easily accessed the King's timber surveyors were quite tolerant of illegal logging then Parliament passed the naval stores Act forbidding cutting of any white pines outside of a Township even on private property and lumber could be traded only with England jurisdiction was extended into Nova Scotia within six years the Portsmouth area Pines came down so quickly that logging was shifting 60 miles to the northeast around Falmouth Maine 1729 saw the passage of the Broad Arrow or mast Act which restated the cutting prohibitions on pine by this time lumbering was the economic powerhouse supplying housing and business needs to the colonists the mast act was almost a declaration of war though illegal cutting had been tolerated it no longer would be surveyor-general david Dunbar declared that a vast region of Maine prime white pine territory was no longer part of Massachusetts but to be a new crown colony and part of British owns Nova Scotia from the Kennebec River to the st. Croix Dunbar was a hated man he had spies reporting cutting violations to him and burned down the homes of some Sawyer's in Maine who were cutting Pines without a license 17:34 7 Exeter New Hampshire sawmills among them Gilman's had stockpiles of pine lumber informed of this Dunbar tries to seize the pine boards mill owners are fed up Dunbar's men are assaulted and beaten at a Tavern in what would be called the masked tree riot one of the first incidents of violence against the Kings agents it demonstrated the growing anger resentment and frustration of colonists over just who owned New England's white pine trees a dozen years later the pines were now heavily cut along southern coastal named by the 1760s pines were coming down faster than ever to build developing towns England was deeply in debt from Wars and imposed taxes on the colonies the reviled Stamp Act taxed almost every piece of paper used in the colonies the Townsend Act taxed essentials such as paint lead paper glass and tea it wasn't only the tea that was boiling by 1772 Falmouth Maine is now the largest New England supplier of masts to the Royal Navy logging is still heading north as the thud of axes in pine is heard along the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers and Bangor's first sawmill has been built evany zur Mudgett and others in Goffstown and where new hampshire were cutting the king's pines and were arrested by sheriff benjamin whiting most paid their fines but Mudge it would have none of that at the aptly named hanging tree tavern budgets men with blackened faces beat sheriff waiting in his room in what would be called the pine tree riot the dark clouds of rage were gathering December 1773 although other taxes had been repealed tea is still being taxed colonists are stewing about being taxed by a distant government and having no say taxation without representation anger comes to a boil black faced men disguised as Indians board a merchant ship in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of British tea into the deep 90,000 pounds of tea worth about 1 million of today's dollars would steep in the brine the Boston Tea Party sixteen months later April of 1775 Massachusetts colonists are cashing munitions in anticipation of things to come the British learn of it and March to Concord planning to seize the weapons saying some troublemakers passing through Lexington they discovered just how upset the Americans are the British always fly the Kings flag in battle but the Americans have been preparing for this day and are now defiantly carrying a new American flag of their own appropriately enough the Pinetree flag [Music] that summer Maine militiamen prevented a British agent from loading 200 masts and temporarily held a British officer the British Admiralty decided it was time to punish the rebels and in October fire bombed Falmouth Maine from warships in the harbor the town was burned and totally destroyed white pines had drawn England to establish New England and supplied her Navy with Timbers needed to successfully oppose her enemies elevating the pines to be some of the most valued trees in the world at that time ironically those same trees promoted self-reliance among the colonists inspiring them to resist British control England would ultimately fall short in its plan to exploit the pines and in 1775 lost access to the one tree it's so needed the Yanks had started to fight in 1776 the American colonies declared their independence from Britain then in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed the Americans had won and a new independent nation was born this tree the white pine was the basis of colonial economy the contention over its ownership was the major factor that gave rise to the American Revolution the war had ended the Broad Arrow era during which more than 45-hundred masts had been sent to England they continued to be supplied to the French who helped the colonies win a war against a Britain in want of masts the war's end opened the doors to a powerful new American timber industry by 1816 Bangor was processing more than 1 million feet of white pine annually in the 1830s Bangor was the world's lumber capital by 1832 it had shipped more than 200 million board feet mostly pine the Penobscot River was so loaded with logs that one could walk across its 800 foot width by the end of the decade more than 90 million board feet per year were shipped to destinations from Britain to the Bahamas while New England was also rapidly developing by the close of the 19th century Maine would ship more than eight point seven billion board feet white pines had fallen throughout New England the utility and value of this great conifer were now well established the next century would see the scale of logging dramatically increase as America's building boom got underway central New England's forests were cleared for agriculture but soon farmers were heading west for better land pine logging followed the westward wave sawmills were thumping and whining across the northeastern United States as white pines were clear-cut from Maine to Minnesota following the revolution and into the 1900s most of means large pine trees were gone by the Civil War boards up to 30 inches wide of an erotic pumpkin pine renowned for the deep color of its heartwood were not uncommon in the early years New York's Adirondack forests were being devastated so quickly that the water supply was threatened so the Adirondack Park was created in the 1890s to preserve what was left of it to be forever wild Pennsylvania had impressive white pines they were heavily cut and mostly gone by the first third of the 20th century it didn't take long for New England timber barons to reach the pines western frontier Michigan was the first of the lake states to be logged in the 1840s it's four million acres of pines were gone in less than one man's lifetime the bulk of it cut in 20 years in 1888 alone Mills and Saginaw produced more than four billion board feet enough to build a sidewalk two inches thick and four feet wide around the earth four times the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin alone had six million acres of prime white pine in 38 years eleven point three billion feet of its logs were floated down to hungry sawmills on the Mississippi in less than 11 decades Minnesota's st. Croix River Valley supplied more than 60 7.5 billion board feet of pine lumber that built st. Louis Omaha Des Moines Kansas City and other Prairie towns in 1852 it was said that 70 sawmills in 70 years couldn't exhaust the pines just on the rum river they'd be gone in less than a generation [Music] as soon as the usefulness of the white pine was realized there was no stopping people from exploiting it there simply was no equal substitute material to be had [Music] the advent of railroads not only boosted the pace of logging that created a huge demand for timber of its own for ties and fuel one trestle might need 2 million feet of pine lumber in 1889 one railroad used 40 million feet of ties in its westward push Boston had come a long way since its first settlement many other cities and towns had been built across America to a great extent with the wood of eastern white pine 19:10 the primeval pine stands of New England New York Pennsylvania Wisconsin Minnesota and Michigan's Lower Peninsula were no more [Music] the first Puritan settlers had vivid memories of England's cold winters without firewood and had vowed to conserve God's wild woodlands in America that conviction faded quickly and our primeval pine arees were clear-cut with abandon across their entire range [Music] you in the early 1600s white pines had been brought by captain Weymouth from America back to England more were sent in 1705 widely planted and known as the Weymouth pine ironically after the original American pioneers were depleted millions of seedlings were purchased from European nurseries to replant our forests unfortunately a devastating plant disease known as the white pine blister rust came with them threatening America's white pines the fungal disease alternates host's between pines and plants of the gooseberry family the government spent decades and millions of dollars removing gooseberry plants to eradicate the disease the Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC played a large role in carrying out that work in the 1930s when the promise of better land drew farmers from central New England to the Ohio Valley in the mid 19th century a second growth of white pines took root in many of the abandoned fields but then the great New England hurricane of 1938 known as the Long Island Express roared through the region and blew down or damaged an estimated one-third of the pines including some old-growth remnants nearly 700 people also perished in the storm a massive effort was launched to salvage much of the fallen timber some 2.6 billion board feet of timber had been blown down roughly half of that was salvaged today the scars of that storm are still very clearly visible in a remote recovering old-growth stand Pines that were toppled like dominoes more than 80 years ago are scattered about the forest floor though they're covered with moss these old-growth logs are still amazingly sound like compass needles they point Northwest marking the storms wind direction some pulled up masses of roots and earth as they went over and the exposed mineral soil became ideal seed beds for black birches to germinate this is the way old-growth forests naturally regenerate storms or other disturbances open holes in the canopy allowing new or suppressed growth to flourish some of the old pines were snapped off rather than uprooted hulks of standing dead snags are still present slowly crumbling away they're an important part of the ecosystem here providing shelter and feeding opportunities there are a few survivors like these centuries-old examples the vast supply of eastern white pine was recognized as valuable some 500 years ago the pine became the life supporting resource the settlers needed to survive and thrive in this new world its Timbers have been in demand ever since it would not be an overstatement to say that the white pine was the tree that built the United States of America little wonder then that Maine in Michigan chose eastern white pine as their state tree a white pine cone caps the gilded Massachusetts Statehouse dome all in recognition of the historical importance of this exclusively American tree for 300 years America's white pine forests were thought to be inexhaustible and they were treated that way not until the 20th century when virtually all the primeval pine had been clear-cut was the idea of sustainable forestry even conceived what is the status of the white pine today Pines have recolonized much of New England's formerly cleared lands but are harvested well before old age in a few protected places they are slowly regaining their primeval stature they're not without challenges however some of the most impressive stands are suffering from a condition known as needle drop caused by a combination of native fungi that thrive in warm damp spring weather the foliage of affected trees is sparse and off-color and the trees growth slows down it remains to be seen whether these Pines will survive much longer but Massachusetts whose eastern white pines were the first to be felled can now boast that having confirmed 163 white pines in the 150 foot tall class 28 in the 160 foot class and two Pines towering to over 170 feet one of them the tallest living thing in the Northeast is over 176 feet tall they are giving us a glimpse of what this once-magnificent species can attain when allowed to live out its natural lifespan and we recognize that white pines both alive and dead have always been important to wildlife this black bear mother reassuringly grunts to her Cubs who have been safely waiting for her in a fine tree dr. Lynne Rogers of Minnesota is a renowned wildlife biologist researchers observed that mother bear seemed to know every old white pine in their territories and the mothers arranged their activities around those trees they slept next to them with their cubs at night passing up thousands of other trees just leave next to a big white pine they left their cubs at the basis of them when they went off to forage because the cubs could safely climb to escape danger the strong ruff bark on hold White Pines was the safest for Cubs to climb they often fall from trees with flaky bark like red Pines Jack Pines and spruce when Cubs have to stay up trees for hours to escape danger it's important in spring in northern Minnesota that the tree be a white pine that can give shade instead of a deciduous tree that doesn't have any leaves yet because even on cool days the Sun can make Cubs black fur so hot that they can die if they can't find Jane no other tree can replace the values that white pines have - a variety of wildlife we often become hollows in winter dens and hollow trees are warmer drier and safer than ground dens their preferred by many large animals like bears red Coons and porcupines but big hollow trees are rare in northern for us because we almost always cut them before they get this big even dead or dying white pines are important to wildlife a healthy forest is a functioning ecosystem that includes dead and dying trees for wildlife homes and food for example dying white pines are the favorites of pileated woodpeckers the woodpeckers make holes that later become halls for other wildlife including owls flying squirrels kestrels and wood ducks a special value of the bark on deadweight Pines is that what it begins to separate from the trunk it creates a space that's an ideal place for bats to give birth and raise their young u.s. Forest Service studies showed that white pines hold 80 percent of the eagle nests and 77% of the osprey nest in the Superior National Forest these birds eat all white pines that strongly probably because white pines grow taller now sturdier branches for heavy nests and have bigger gaps between branches for birds with six foot wingspans smaller birds also use wait times over half to 141 woodland bird species in the northeastern United States live in habitats and include white pines and it's not just wildlife species that can appreciate pine woodlands Susan Massino professor of neuroscience explains we're discovering that forests have important benefits for humans particularly health benefits when you're in a pine forest you can enjoy that wonderful piney fragrance and that's due to a class of molecules called terpenes and terpenoids they're very small and fat soluble so they actually get into your body and cross your cell membranes and can even get into your brain and there are a number of health benefits that are attributed to terpenes that are under active investigation both in the laboratory and in the field anti-cancer benefits benefits for your immune system and benefits for neurological conditions so these are very difficult conditions to treat if we can understand better what molecules the forest is providing and what health benefits they may have we could potentially have incredible new medicines the Japanese are known for shinrin yoku or forest bathing which isn't bathing in water in a forest it's just bathing in the environment of the forest a multi-sensory experience we were kind of taking in the sights the smells just the whole experience of being in a forest and although they've been doing this for many decades recent science has shown that forest bathing has a significant health benefit and that it can lower your blood pressure and lowered blood pressure is associated with a lot of other health benefits reduced risk of stroke better cardiovascular health other brain it's and physical benefits so lowered blood pressure is something that many many people are taking medication for daily but it's something that you could get just from being in a forest regularly and taking in that experience so just by being here these big beautiful pines are providing health benefits to anyone who comes in the forest here in Belden forest there's many beautiful pines and other trees and Belden Forest is the first forest in Connecticut to be entered into the old-growth forest network so the intention for Belden in perpetuity is to leave this as a natural forest for people to enjoy and it's wonderful because it's right in the center of town and even though it's only 40 acres it really provides just an oasis that you feel like you're a million miles away and it's cool so when it's hot outside you can come take a walk in the forest smell the terpenes improve your well-being improve your brain health lower your blood pressure and have so many benefits just right here literally at the doorsteps of downtown Leverett has been searching out measuring and documenting large white pines for decades most anytime of year you can find him among the tall trees with a laser pointed skyward he's often accompanied by Jared Lockwood so far we've covered the economic role or importance of the white pine in colonial America and it's part the part that it played in the lead-up to the Revolutionary War a very important story and it's one that everybody every American I think can relate to and find interesting we also have covered some of the ecological niches filled by the white pine particularly its role as wildlife habitat that plays out in the life of a pine over maybe three hundred and fifty years or more it's not just about habitat for a single species but it has a lot of species that come to develop an association with it so we have that role then we're sort of left wondering well where do we go from there are there any other roles that the white pine plays that we would want to talk about to sort of complete the circle and to come to mind one of them is sport we certainly like some of us anyway to see the white pine is in competition with itself and with other species because of its great stature big tree hunters are going to go out and they're going to try to find the biggest tree the tallest tree etc and that has become a rather unexpectedly sophisticated pastime we use lasers to measure tree Heights we do all of that as part of a sport and mature white pines do that great species really rises to the occasion magnificently and we really have to see the white pine in all of its glory it's full stature for that to come out it's rather like well let's say you're a baseball fan and you certainly support the Little League's is that as far as you would ever want to go as in the equivalent being a young white pine forest no you want to go to the major leagues you want to see the sport and its fullest and that's what you get when you get the mature white pines so we've got the sporting end of it beyond the sporting appeal there's the Jenner side the aesthetic here I'm sitting underneath a white pine that I recently measured after its annual growth and it's just made it to one hundred and forty feet and I wouldn't have expected the white pine to achieve such status when I first started looking at them I assume that any tree in this size class would have been a very old one and yet this is a remarkably well young one maybe a hundred and twenty years old and yet at 120 years it's developed this presence I can look up the trunk and I can see far up into the crown and I can see its needles waive all of the qualities or characteristics that I might expect at a greater age I'm finding that are coming to white pines in their maturity so I think I would like to leave everybody with the thought that it isn't just about the oldest Pines it's about mature white pine forests there's an aesthetic there that develops it develops slowly and it isn't there when the pines are young but it develops slowly and in their age they are the most graceful beings that you can imagine if you've ever walked into an old-growth white pine forest engaged 150 feet of lost into the Crown's the blue green foliage you know a gentle breeze and somewhere in that matrix of needles sky the sun rays come down and shafts of light come down all the way and highlight part of the forest floor and it makes you think of a cathedral so this becomes the forest cathedral and we're drawn into it suddenly we're in the abode of hobbits and elves we're in a timeless world world that evolved over hundreds of thousands of years and yet has a magic to it that is never lost and when we see the forest in that context youth is not a virtue a young white pine forest is not particularly aesthetic in fact it's very cluttered and it's as though it were young Korean teenagers trying to find their their place grass in the older forest you walk among the elders I think oftentimes of Tolkien intz wise beings that have seen the passage of 200 300 even maybe 400 years baking Sun winters with snow and yet they still persevere that has to be a powerful environment to be in and that's the aesthetic I think everybody feels it to one degree or another when they go in these places so we've got these iconic spots like well cooked for a state park in Pennsylvania hearts contained in Pennsylvania Hartley Pines State Park in Michigan Laurel Trail State Forest in Massachusetts Tamworth pines in New Hampshire and the Adirondacks the list goes on but when you walk in those places time is suspended you're in a different place and time and you can connect with the ancestors of these great trees this is an aesthetic that you cannot have unless you have the mature forests the white pines as they evolved over thousands of years I hope we never lose that I hope we can always relate among the many other values that we might place on white pines if we see them as habitat to wildlife and focus on that but I would hate that we would ever lose the capacity to just walk in these forests and drink it all in the Japanese learn that through a practice of forest bathing shinrin yoku and that has physical benefits that has psychological benefits well I'd like to add to that mix and I think they know that very well is the spiritual benefit of the old-growth forest it's this legacy that they give us that I think make them such a special species so whether you call it aesthetics whether you think of it is spiritual whether you think of it is a connection to the past and a projection into the future maybe this is really the power of the white pine over the imagination [Music] [Music]

Channel: New England Forests

Views: 97,772

Rating: 4.8868136 out of 5

Keywords: white pine, eastern white pine, pinus strobus, pilgrims, new england forests, ray asselin, bob leverett, susan masino, lynn rogers, jared lockwood, puritans, shipmasts, logging, plymouth, 1938 hurricane, old growth forest, virgin forest, pine logging, american revolution, boston tea party, colonial america, pine tree flag, pinus sylvestris, kings pine, broad arrow, pine tree riot, mayflower

Id: bQs7novlvtA

Length: 56min 40sec (3400 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020