Native Longleaf Pine Restoration at the Poquoson Museum

Native Longleaf Pine Restoration at the Poquoson Museum. . , As part of the State's effort to restore Virginia's native longleaf pine, the Poquoson Museum in partnership with the York/Poquoson Master Gardeners and the Virginia Department of Forestry have planted this plot of native longleaf pines., History of the Longleaf Pine in Virginia , Five centuries ago, the longleaf pine was perhaps the most common forest tree species on the uplands of southeast Virginia. When the English explorers first arrived, the park-like forests of longleaf greeted them in much of Tidewater Virginia. To their delight, the tall trees made excellent masts for sailing ships. Pitch and tar were derived from the sap of the tree, producing material so essential in the maritime industry. In 1608 when the first "tryalls of pitch and tarre" were exported to England, the naval stores industry was born in America., The rise of the naval stores industry marked the beginning of the demise for longleaf forests. Extraction of pitch across vast acreages, followed by logging, led to the first wave of decline. Conversion of forests to agricultural use was swift across the productive, level lands of southeast Virginia throughout the 1600s and 1700s. The suppression of wildfire , critical to the health of longleaf forests , was another cause for longleaf decline and caused widespread failure of the species to regenerate., From about 1500 to 1850, more than one million acres of longleaf pine forest disappeared from Virginia. In 1893, longleaf pine in Virginia was pronounced by forester B.E. Fernow to be "…for all practical purposes, extinct.", Why Conserve and Restore Virginia's Longleaf Pine Forests , Botanist Roland Harper once said longleaf pine has "probably more uses than any other tree in North America if not in the whole world"., Longleaf pine is highly resistant to numerous insect pests, such as pine beetles, pine weevils and pine tip moths, and to diseases, such as fusiform rust. In addition, it is tolerant of salt spray, wildfire and ice, and is generally wind-firm., The Virginia Department of Forestry is working to preserve the remains of the native longleaf pine gene pool in Virginia. The native longleaf pine is "extremely rare and critically imperiled." Seeds collected from them established a longleaf pine seed orchard at the New Kent Forestry Center enabling us to preserve the genetics of longleaf trees that are adapted to Virignia's climate and soils., There are longleaf plantings in Charles City, New Kent and James City counties, but the Poquoson Museum has the only significant planting of longleaf pines on the lower portion of the Virginia Peninsula., "Given its role in the region's early economy and its use in building construction, longleaf has been aptly dubbed the "tree that built Tidewater."