I stopped when I saw longleaf pine trees for the first time. This species is notable because of its distinctive characteristics and importance to the region, but its numbers have severely declined. Longleaf pines live longer than other pines in the south. Some have lived more than 150 years. Their needles will grow from eight to 17 inches long, and their cones are usually five to 12 inches in length.
For all of the years before European settlers moved into the southeast, the longleaf pine was a dominant tree species of the region. That changed as demand for construction and ship-building materials increased in the U.S. during the 1880s and 1890s. These pines became some of the most sought-after timber trees. Additionally, the sap of longleafs was tapped for the production of tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin.
The demand for the timber drove a frenzy of clear-cutting, but the lumbermen were careless, leaving behind large piles of highly flammable branches and debris. That resulted in large wildfires that also destroyed large swaths of the forests.
Before white settlers arrived, there were an estimated 90 million acres of longleaf pines. Only about two million acres of the trees can be found today, and most of them are scattered in second-growth patches.