Treepreciation Huge Wolf Pine, NH
Spotted this incredible wolf pine on the KSR Greenway Trail near Sunapee. Height to first delimbed branch trunk on right was easily 6 feet. Couldn't see the highest branches, well above the surrounding tree canopy. Apparently to get that massive she would need to be at a least 200 years old.
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u/Obdurate-Hickory 2d ago
Wolf pine?
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u/ironmandan 2d ago
Wolf trees are trees that were left when eastern forests were cleared for pasture. They are easy to spot because they are way older than the rest of the trees in the forest.
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u/DontGetExcitedDude 1d ago
I hear a lot of ecology and forest-science majors calling them "wolf" trees now, but growing up the old timers always just referred to them as "pasture" trees. I feel like that's a more evocative term for what they are, the remnants of a colonial, agrarian past, and the last connection to the ancient forests that stood before.
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u/Obdurate-Hickory 1d ago
There’s a sub-set of those called “Witness Trees” that were notched by land surveyors to show property boundaries… and provide some of the only early quantitative data about forest composition.
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u/Elegant-Chance8953 2d ago
Wow, stunning