COUNTING MORE TREE RINGS

A CRISP, CLEAR MORNING

WHITE PINE LOG 4' IN DIAMETER...

,,,WITH APPROXIMATELY 125 ANNUAL GROWTH RINGS

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  29 degrees F at the ferry dock, 25 on the back porch.  Wind NW, blustery at times.  The sky is crystal clear, the humidity 43% (very low).  The barometer reads 30.43" and has begun to trend downward.  The maple sap will run freely this morning,
   More large pine trees have been felled along Hwy. 13 near the Sioux River Beach.  I have assumed they were dead or dying from road salt, but many appear to have been healthy.  I stopped and talked with a man yesterday who was measuring fallen trunks and inspecting them for suitability as sawn lumber.  He was not sure whether he would have to contact the County Highway Department or the State Department of Natural Resources to see whether they were available.  I assume it is the former and I now feel compelled to call them myself and find out what the reason for cutting down the trees was.  If they truly were dying or were a safety hazard I would not object to it, but I am somewhat taken aback by what I am seeing, now that most of the snow has melted and the extent of the felling is more evident.  White pines (Pinus strobus) are a significant component of the northern mixed coniferous-deciduous forest, best described as, "A long lived successional tree," which often pioneers burns, blowdowns and cutover areas.  White pines in a good growth environment can live for hundreds of years, with individuals in Wisconsin and Michigan having been recorded as reaching 500 years in age.
   But in any case, I stopped to count the rings and measure the diameter of another large, old white pine tree.  The tree pictured was just shy of four feet in diameter at ground level where it was sawn, and as close as I could tell by counting the rings was approximately 125 years old.  It had some dry rot at the very center, but certainly not enough to make the tree dangerous in any way or affect its health.  Some of the growth rings in the earlier years of its life were almost a half inch in width, meaning that the tree increased in diameter almost an inch in each of those years.  Once the tree neared 100 years in age the rings became very small, the tree growing hardly at all, and certainly the last years of its life it simply did not grow. Whether that was due to intolerance to road salt or other environmental conditions or simply to age I cannot say.
  I think a good guess of the age of a 4' diameter white pine, measured at breast height, would be between 100 to 125 years.