Hunting for Big Trees – The Table Mountain Pine

Inspecting pines in the Indian Springs Wildlife Management Area

Standing next to a newly measured Table Mountain Pine in Washington County, Md

by Doug Inkley, MD Big Tree Coordinator for Washington County Forestry Board

“The what?” was my reply to being told that Table Mountain Pine (Pinus pungens) had been found in the Indian Springs Wildlife Management Area of Washington County, Maryland. Previously unknown to me, it turns out that Table Mountain pine is widespread in the southern and central Appalachian Mountains, although populations aren’t high due to its preference for dry rocky and shallow soils, often along mountain ridges.

 As the Washington County Coordinator for the Maryland Big Tree Program (MBTP), the rumor of large Table Mountain pines atop Sword Mountain was enough to send me into the field to have a look. The MBTP (mdbigtrees.org) is a program run by volunteers that keeps track, by species, of the largest trees in Maryland counties. Only one Table Mountain pine was previously registered for the entire state, and it was also the largest reported in the United States.

 The story began with a small forest fire on the Swift mountain. The Maryland Forest Service crew fighting the fire noticed that a few of the pitch pines atop the ridge line seemed a bit odd…the needles were in bundles of two instead of three, and the cones were larger than the others in the predominantly pitch pine forest. Their discovery led to a Maryland State Forester, myself, and another volunteer (Tree Farmer of the Year 2023) measuring the trees. A simple field trip turned into a rather arduous steep climb and descent during a four-hour round-trip hike.  

The ridge top was very rocky to the point of being treacherous to get to the Table Mountain pines among the rocks.  They were in a parched barren landscape blackened by the forest fire only a month earlier. The young pines and bear oak in the area were dog hair thick and difficult to move through, especially with the rocky footing.  A narrow band of pitch pine was just below the ridge top. What a box turtle was doing up there on soil burned barren of all vegetation, I don’t know. Below the band of pitch pine the forest was predominated by chestnut oak.

 It was a challenging day but our four new Table Mountain pines were added to the record books. All were the required 70% or larger of the biggest specimen already in the record books.  It was worth the effort, but I'm not ready to repeat that hike any day soon.