After college, I moved back to Maine. Friends I’d met at school started to come for visits. When I married Steve after he moved up from Utah, family from out-of-state began to arrive up north as well. Ever willing to play tour guide, I would make up a mental list on all the places we would visit, and off we’d go on a whirlwind of lighthouses, rocky coasts, hikes in the woods, and lobster pounds. I quickly realized, as I showed off the diverse beauty of Maine, that I knew about as much as a travel pamphlet on my home state.
This unfortunate happenstance was highlighted when my newly acquired Midwest family came up after my daughter was born. We were driving down Route 1, and they commented on the variety of trees in the woods beside the road. Steve’s mom, who, raised in Colorado, loved forests, asked what kinds of trees Maine had. I stumblingly came up with the obvious picks- pine, maple, oak, and birch. Even though eighty-three percent of my home state is forested (USDA Forest Service, 2022), I could only remember the names of four. On multiple occasions, visiting friends would ask me all sorts of questions about the Maine woods, off-shore islands, wildlife, or even something as simple as what is the best place to eat clam chowder. I would just shrug or hurriedly Google whatever questions were put to me, because my knowledge seemed rather limited to my day-to-day interactions and experiences. I felt rather downtrodden at this revelation and was determined to remedy my informational shortcomings.
I found out that Maine has over seventy types of tree species (The Maine Forest Service, 2008). I learned about the difference between softwoods and hardwoods, how many trees are used for commercial purposes, and which trees grow best in the mid-coast area. But as I researched and read more about Maine’s forests, I was the most fascinated with a tree I already knew existed in Maine – the pine tree. What I didn’t know is that 15 different kinds of pine trees found in Maine (MNHO, 2020). I also learned that almost eighty years ago the State of Maine specified which pine tree was to be made the official state tree- the Eastern White Pine, technically named Pinus Strobus (State of Maine, 2023). This tree has been tremendously impactful in New England’s lumber industry since the early 1600s and continues to be a strong resource in Maine’s economy today.
Historically, the Eastern White Pine first gained commercialized popularity in the 1600s when it was discovered as the perfect ship’s mast. Growing to around two hundred feet, this strong, yet lightweight wood was ideal for the masts of vessels that weighed up to four hundred tons (Easterling, 2013). The British Crown was in a rush to build up their Navy at that point in time, and the Eastern White Pine was seen as instrumental in created a strong, yet fast, fleet. This pine tree came to be known as the “King’s Arrow Pine” since the British Royal Navy claimed many of these trees for the booming “masting” industry along the New England Coast by making three hatchet marks on the side of qualifying trees. One writer writes persuasively on the idea that the Eastern White Pine played a pivotal role in motivating colonists to rebel against British rule in the American Revolution (Easterling, 2013). A hefty fine was put on violators of the “King’s Arrow” policy, yet many local settlers felled the pines down anyway. Some individuals even slashed the mark off the large trees and made a duplicate “King’s Arrow” on smaller trees. British authorities often tried to intervene, yet the rebellions continued, the most notable of which was the 1772 “Pine Tree Riot” in New Hampshire.
Along with being the tallest pine in North America, the Eastern White Pine is one of the longest-living trees in New England, with one noted as four-hundred and fifty years old (Pryor, 2022). This pine tree can easily be characterized since it is the only pine tree with five needles in each grouping, or fascicle. Needles are thin and can grow between three to five inches long. The Eastern White Pine also has the longest seed cones out of all other Maine pine trees, growing up to eight inches (MNHO, 2020). As one of the most resilient trees in the state, this pine tree can be found all over Maine, and one does not have to go far in the woods to find one of these iconic natural features of the New England landscape.
Resources
Easterling, J. (2013, March 11). The King’s Broad Arrow and Eastern White Pine. NELMA. https://www.nelma.org/the-kings-broad-arrow-and-eastern-white-pine/.
Maine TREE Foundation. (2020, December 17). Forest Facts & Resources. https://mainetree.org/forests-for-maines-future/forest-facts-resources/#:~:text=What%20trees%20grow%20in%20Maine,spruces%2C%20balsam%20fir%20and%20others.
MNHO. (2020). Pinaceae of Maine. https://mainenaturalhistory.org/Biodiversity_Project/checklistsME/Tracheophyta_gymnosperms/Pinaceae.html.
State of Maine (2023). Forest Trees of Maine. Forest Trees of Maine: Handbooks & Guides: Publications: Division of Forestry: Maine ACF. https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/handbooks_guides/forest_trees/index.html.
The Maine Forest Service. (2008). In Forest Trees of Maine (pp. 2–2). introduction.
Pryor, C. (2022, April 11). Meet the eastern white pine – new england forestry foundation. New England Forestry Foundation. https://newenglandforestry.org/2018/04/23/meet-the-eastern-white-pine/.
USDA Forest Service. 2022. Forests of Maine, 2021. Resource Update FS-366. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 2p. https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-366.
Between the Pines and the Sea 