Two Common Northeastern Trees

As I was out saving the savanna today, I was approached by a kindly woman who knew pretty much everything about flowers, insects, and birds, but was completely stumped as to what was what regarding trees.  I think everyone should be familiar with the trees in their neighborhood, mainly because it tends to help one notice the natural surroundings a bit better by knowing what one is mowing/driving/walking past all the time.  If you think about the names of trees, you might start paying attention to everything else that manages to get along without our intervention, which is a good thing.

There sure are a lot of trees around, though.  Where do we even begin?

Well, it depends on where you live.  Say you are from the upper Midwest, Nearwest, northeastern United States or eastern Canada; you have probably noticed that most of the trees shed their leaves come winter time.  Some don't, and I say those are an excellent place to start, because they tend to stand out a bit more.

Somewhere near Lake Ann, Michigan.

Here we have, in the right center, an Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus).  It is the tree that is taller than any of the other ones around it, and has sweeping, soft branches of foliage that each grow in a unique way and yet still manage to present a form of symmetry and balance.  Even outside of their range in our broadly defined "northeastern" region, they tend to get planted because they can easily grow in a variety of settings and are absolutely beautiful.  This means that if you live anywhere from even as far away as northern Georgia to Manitoba, you have seen at least one in your lifetime.  They used to dominate landscapes throughout the region, growing as tall as over 200 feet up into the sky, dwarfing the rest of the forest.  Fossil records and remnant populations of this tree can be found as far away as central Mexico and parts of Florida!  They were once thought in-exhaustible because there were so many around, and they thus became the first sacrificial lamb of the North American lumber onslaught.  They formed the backbone of the Canadian economy as it transitioned away from a partnership with Britain in lieu of closer ties with the United States, which was hungry for more lumber in the post-Civil War period.  They have rebounded somewhat, but nowhere near to the extent they once existed in.  They remain economically important in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, and Maine, where they are still harvested under new timber management plans to better sustain the forests.  They are the arboreal symbol of Michigan, Maine, and Ontario.

Off to the left in the open, and hidden in trees both to the right of the White Pine and further into the background, we have the Red Pine (Pinus Resinosa).  They do not grow as tall as the White Pines, topping out at about 120 feet under perfect growing conditions. They can be identified by more open clusters of foliage that form globe-like shapes on more tightly packed branches.  This one can be a bit more confusing, as they tend to look like other pines when small, and even when tall, can look like mature pines from other regions, especially in the southeast.  Fortunately, they only grow in the northeast, and are not cultivated as far outside their range as the White Pine is.  They can handle a ton of exposure though, and are often seen growing out of rocks, on dunes, and thus are commonly used in shelter belts and windbreaks.  They were also valuable timber trees, but owing to their sap being a bit more frustrating to deal with, had and continue to be harvested slightly less than their more graceful cousins.  They are the celebrated state tree of Minnesota, where they attain sizes only surpassed in grandeur by the populations in Ontario.

If you start to see them growing in the midst of forests, you can be pretty sure that you have traveled far enough north or to a high enough altitude to be getting into the beginnings of the boreal forest.  

Next up: Two Common Western Trees.