Lodge pole pine

LODGEPOLE PINE - Pinus contorta

In the wild, this conifer grows in western North America from Alaska down to California along the Pacific seaboard and on the mountain ranges inland.

The native people selected its strong straight tree trunks for building their dwellings - hence its name.

In the past, this pine was tried as a commercial timber crop on poor, often peaty upland soils in western and northern Britain where other species did not thrive.

The timber resembles that from our native Scots pine and has similar uses.

In its native home, it is found from sea level up to 3,600m, grows under a vast array of soil and climatic conditions and has many distinct geographical types, each adapted to the local environment.

It gained a reputation for drying out peatlands.

Lodgepole pine here can suffer heavily from attacks by insects, deer and honey fungus and is prone to branch snapping by wet snow and windthrow in our windy uplands.

Extensive planting with Lodgepole pine, notably on upland areas, means it now occupies about 6% of the total UK forest cover.