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White pine has many positive wood and growth characters, many of which continue to draw attention to outdoors lovers who use it widely. It decorates holidays, supplies lumber, attracts mammals and birds – including those eating its seeds – is bedding to deer and mesmerizes us with its whistling songs created by the slightest breeze. It provides a plethora of hints of past events and present seasons. It forecasts future events with its long seed-cone reproductive cycle of two years. That cycle is true of all Wisconsin’s three pines – white, red and jack.

Being a temperate-zone tree, its xylem or wood is laid down in annual growth increments, suggesting we can use other trees and shrubs the same way. Those growth increments give us dates of the increments and show the width, which translates to good or poor growth. But be careful because some trees lag a year by holding reserves and using them for growth the following year.

Looking at the increments in a cross section shows that not all regions of the tree receive the same amount of nutrients. That occurs in the limbs’ reaction wood – wood on the top and bottom of limb center. Reaction wood in pine is deposited on the lower side of a limb; the increments are narrower on the top of center. The opposite is true in oak.

Lichens grow on the top of limbs, not the bottom. Pollen stain and actual pollen grains cling to the tops of limbs for many months after spring shedding.

The needles on that evergreen stay on the twigs for two to three years; most fall in autumn, but some also fall in spring and summer. Seed cones generally drop in late autumn, with some hanging longer.

Resin is produced in ducts or spaces. It’s in all parts of the tree, and flows out on cut surfaces and injuries.

Pine needles accumulate under a tree, making the soil acidic and determining what plants will grow there.

Pine has two types of cones – pollen and seed. The pollen cones form in early spring and drop after pollen is shed. Seed cones also develop in spring but hang on through the coming winter. They grow more the second year and drop seeds late that second year. After seeds are shed, the seed cones fall. The best time to pick seed cones for tinder is November.

Looking up in the tree one can determine if there are new seed cones developing for the next year. Some years there are crop failures. One can read that a year ahead, just as can be done with red-oak acorns – but not white oak.

Many more subtilities exist. The clues a tree provides can be used by a field warden, squirrel hunter, shed-antler collector, or even a county sheriff or FBI agent. Only a fool would consider being a log thief, as kidnapper-murderer Bruno Hauptmann did when he used a home-made wood ladder to abduct Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.

Most vegetation, crops, gardens and woodland plants – including white pine trees – have abundant foliage this year. In the case of soybeans, Doug Williams at DW Sports Center in Portage, Wisconsin, said beans along with most crops received the right types of weather at the right times. Deer have also taken notice. Plants are reacting to recent rain and heat. That will impact outdoors enthusiasts beginning in September.

Williams, a farmer, business owner and outdoorsman, said, “Most crops regulate themselves based on maturity days and first frosts.

“Right now, conditions look lush but things will begin to mature and die down. Some crops, like alfalfa, continue to be cut. Hunters and others can see what’s out there like deer and turkeys because the animals feed in freshly cut fields.�

Gary Howards, an avid outdoorsman in Oregon, Wisconsin, said it’s a jungle out there.

“The rain and lush vegetation have had more of an impact on immediate ventures than they might later in September,� he said. “I can tell you, however, that I’m not going to be excited to get out there that first chance because of the insects, the diseases they spread and that vegetation. This year I might be going out a few days later.�

Trimming trees and brush-cutting might be necessary to open trails, shooting lanes and tree-stand areas, as well as grooming of general lawn, garden and landscape vegetation. Take the opportunity to study this year’s plant growth to see if there are clues to suggest whether a plant or species did or didn’t react to the favorable growing conditions.

This is an original article written for Agri-View, a Lee Enterprises agricultural publication based in Madison, Wisconsin. Visit  for more information.