Eastern white pine is Michigan’s State tree and can be found in almost every county of the Upper and Lower Peninsula. It typically grows in mixed forests and sandy plains.
White pine is a conifer; it keeps its needles all year long and produces cones. The easy way to identify a pine from any other conifer, such as spruce and hemlock, is by the needles. If they are in bundles or clumps called fascicles, it is a pine tree. If they have single needles, it is not. White pine trees have five long needles in a bundle, while red and jack pines have two needles in each bundle. Another way to identify white pine is by its pinecones. White pines have long hard pinecones that are often curved.
Before the logging era of 1840 to 1930, white pines dominated along Lake Michigan and through out the northern Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. From 1850 to 1900, Michigan delivered more board feet of pine to the lumber mills than did any other state.
One of the forest management goals within Barnes Park is to increase the white pine to cultivate a healthy, multi-aged forests of seedlings, saplings, mature and dead trees capable of attracting a variety of wildlife species. In walking the trails to and from White Pine Cache one will be able to observe a large number of white pine seedlings and saplings. Within 10 feet of the cache there are several nice saplings. Take a close look at them and confirm the number of needles in the cluster.
Finding this Geocache Follow the BLUE trail to within about 50 feet from the posted coordinates then walk in toward ground zero.
Please exercise good geocaching practices by carefully closing the Ziploc bag protecting the log book and covering the container so that non-geocachers will not discover it.
To see the BIG HINT please click HERE*
*This link will take you to a photograph posted on a geocache page of Stan&Ruth who certify that the document is safe.