Featured A Couple of Tables

Are they 200 years old or older? The longleaf tree needs to be a minimum of 200 years old to be considered "old growth". 300 years would be better & 400 better still!

 

The oldest living thing east of the Mississippi is, a live oak in Charleston SC, reportedly 500-1000 years old, fabulous tree. Anyone visiting the area, this tree is worth a short stop.
The Angel Oak

 

some logs will sink, when being moved by river......going after them was never an option...till lately.

 

that tree is amazing Imagine if it could speak the stories it could tell

 

I always wondered about that, normally wood floats in water. I just assumed some got stuck on an underwater obstruction and just stayed there. til lately is RIGHT! there's big money in those "lost" logs!

 

Yeah is, the photo does not do it justice, much more impressive in person

 

No idea. We had to remove a stump from one when we moved to higher ground after Katrina, it was about 3' in diameter. I have no idea how old the ones on my own land were, but the larger ones on the raw land next door to mine were about a hundred feet tall, huge around. I can understand if the govt protected ones must be 200+ yrs old.

When I worked construction for a living, the town my biz was in - had a "Tree City" award annually. I worked on the "Tree Commission" there for a few years to identify and map the tiny town's trees. Despite the age and beauty of the older trees, they are often cut down to make way for new construction. The town attempted to stop this, but after Katrina hit, so much destruction and disaster around, it turned out to be wasted effort. I learned about southern trees!

Tinytown has about a 200yo live oak, gorgeous, although no longer in the shape it was in back when I took care of it. It stands along the highway in the center of town, in front of my ex-business building. At a trip to the state highway dept, I asked about the "ownership" of the tree, and was told, didn't matter who owned it, what "antique" status it could hold, if the highway department wants to remove it - it's a goner.

 

If they were 3' diameter longleaf trees, those were very VERY valuable trees, old growth! There is still 200+ year old longleaf trees/forest, you just can't cut them as most are protected on govt land.
They have many thousands of acres of longleaf trees here in the southeast but, they are in the 50-75 year old range, still valuable as pine, just not "old growth".
The plan is as i understand it, get longleaf "old growth" back as commercially available again & sustainable, it is a rather famous tree, naturally, this is gonna take time.
The US Forest Service classifies longleaf this way
200 years old and older "old growth"
Under 200 years old "new growth"

 

That's to bad, many don't realize the value (more than money) of old trees until they are gone, then it's TO LATE! like with the longleaf.
The coastal live oaks here, like the Angel oak above, in the carolinas & georgia have that twisty, gnarled appearance they say because of the coast winds. They certainly are "different", have a medieval look about them, like in the movies.

 

Yes, they get caught beneath anything and the mud is fearsome stuff.

I'm sure very valuable indeed! Oh, and I should clarify, the stump I removed from my own lot after former owners had the tree removed, would have been less than 36" at breast height! (sry I didn't think of that!) My recollection was from the stump diameter itself, so likely less than a hundred year old tree. Historically, my neighborhood has been classified as a 'scenic neighborhood' and on a 'scenic river' lol. Some new movie, "Manor (something)" is currently being shot a few blocks away, the directional signs are out, along with portalets in a nearby field. Lots of movies are filmed here.

Please don't worry @James Conrad , the Longleaf isn't gone. It grows abundantly 50miles due north of New Orleans! By the time they emerge from the soil, the root is, likely, 2-3' down!! I've never even thought to try to dig up a sapling! Doubt it would take. As emerging saplings, they come out with a beautiful burst of long pine needles, unmistakeable! Gorgeous presentation! If I were ever so fortunate as to have one grow on my land, I'd leave it, as I did when I had the acres!

The houses below were built after I'd sold, but see the "scraped" spot 5-acres (top right)? Those WERE the larger of the LLPs on the adjacent land of which I spoke, but I see now they have been harvested. No telling how much money was pulled out of there.. However, rest assured, the LLPs grow naturally, everywhere in there. The woods you see are native hardwoods, LLPs (and other pines), I see all looks to be coming back beautifully, nearly twenty years after the storms' devastations. There is a fishing pond in the middle of the track, used to have catfish!

 

Gorgeous!