Hundreds of pine trees lie on the ground in Napeague State Park after forestry crews felled them in an effort to slow the destructive spread of a ravenous beetle. Great swathes of the interior black pine forest are gone. In one that is perhaps four or five acres, only a single spindly oak remains standing. Near Promised Land, new vistas into the dunes and upper marsh have been opened.
Along the Sag Harbor Road, it is the same. Since 2017 at least, town and county crews have been cutting pines. In most places, they left the slashed trunks and treetops when they fell. But all is not death and doom in the new forest clearings. Here and there, new plant communities are taking hold.
With the black, or pitch, pines gone in the sandy-soil woods, new stands of white pines have been filling in the landscape. Deer seem less interested in these than, say, oak seedlings, so they appear to have a chance. If left alone, the white pines will grow tall enough in 15 to 20 years to begin to exclude other kinds of trees and shrubs underneath. You can get an idea of what it might look like along some of the trails in Northwest Woods. There, tall trunks rise into a dense canopy of green. The forest floor is a cushion of sweet-scented fallen needles.
White pines have a lifespan of 80 to 120 years. While they are at their full strength little else can grow beneath them, but in time, shade-tolerant hardwoods do find their toeholds and set the stage for the next in the sequence of growth.
Look for the white pines coming in along Route 114 near Daniel’s Hole Road or off Swamp Road. They’re there and an intriguing hint at a new forest to come.