You will notice that the forest floor here does not have as many plants growing as other parts of the forest. This is because coniferous trees like Eastern White Pine do not allow a lot of sunlight to reach the forest floor and when they shed their needles, they create a thick layer of acidic litter that prevents some more sensitive plants from growing there.

During the age where square rig sailboats were used, tall white pines with high quality wood were used to create masts. These “mast pines” were reserved for the British Royal Navy and when the wood was squared, ranged from 30m (100 ft) to 37 m (120 ft) long!

Notice how the needles of the White Pine look like fluffy clouds? The needles of the Pine family are often quite soft compared to the Spruce and Cedar families. White Pine is native to this area and the needles grow in groups of 5. One way to remember this is there are as many needles in a group as there are letters in the word “white” – hence, W-H-I-T-E pine has 5 needles.