T 



LODGEPOLE PINE 



(Pinus Contorta) 



IHE common name of this tree was given it because its tall, slender, 

 very light poles were used by Indians of the region in the con- 

 struction of their lodges. They selected poles fifteen feet long and 

 two inches in diameter, set them in a circle, bent the tops together, tied 

 them, and covered the frame with skins or bark. The poles were 

 peeled in early summer, when the Indians set out upon their summer 

 hunt, and were left to season until fall, when they were carried to the 

 winter's camping place, probably fifty miles distant. Tamarack is a 

 common name for this pine in much of its range ; it is likewise known as 

 black pine, spruce pine, and prickly pine. Its leaves are from one to two 

 inches long, in clusters of two. The small cones adhere to the branches 

 many years sometimes as long as twenty without releasing the seeds, 

 which are sealed within the cone by accumulated resin. The vitality of 

 the seeds is remarkable. They don't lose their power of germination 

 during their long imprisonment. 



The lodgepole pine has been called a fire tree, and the name is 

 not inappropriate. It profits by severe burning, as some other trees 

 of the United States do, such as paper birch and bird cherry. The 

 sealed cones are opened by fire, which softens the resin, and the seeds 

 are liberated after the fire has passed, and wing their flight wherever 

 the wind carries them. The passing fire may be severe enough to kill 

 the parent tree without destroying or bringing down the cones. The 

 seeds soon fall on the bared mineral soil, where they germinate by 

 thousands. More than one hundred thousand small seedling trees may 

 occupy a single acre. Most of them are ultimately crowded to death, but 

 a thick stand results. Most lodgepole pine forests occupy old burns. 

 The tree is one of the slowest of growers. It never reaches large size 

 possibly three feet is the limit. It is very tall and slender. A hundred 

 years will scarcely produce a sawlog of the smallest size. 



The range of this tree covers a million square miles from Alaska 

 to New Mexico, and to the Pacific coast. Its characters vary in different 

 parts of its range. A scrub form was once thought to be a different 

 species, and was called shore pine. 



The wood is of about the same weight as eastern white pine. It is 

 light in color, rather weak, and brittle, annual rings very narrow, 

 summerwood small in amount, resin passages few and small ; medullary 

 rays numerous, broad, and prominent. The wood is characterized by 

 numerous small knots. It is not durable in contact with the ground, 



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