Last Stand of Longleaf Pines In Wake County ?

Longleaf Pines at Harris Lake

Tuesday I planted 100 longleafs and gave Jordan lake State Park 50 seedlings which they are going to plant in a field.
I then stopped by to see what I believe to be the last stand of Mature trees in Wake County.

The Longleaf pine forest used stretch as far west as Cary and Raleigh on the beltline in Wake County. You can still see a few old trees(usually alone and surrounded by Lobllies) along the Beltline between US1 and Gorman St, and a few trees On US1 south of Apex. There is one old flat topped Longleaf  on Gorman St. within site of the Beltline.  There also used to be a nice stand on Hwy 64 Bus, just west of the Neuse River but last time through there it looked like they had been cut.
Several sites in Wake county are being planted in Longleaf but it will take awhile before they are  producing Longleaf seedlings.   This video below is probably the last stand of Mature Longleaf in Wake County. That said I use the term "stand" loosely.  This stand does have Longleafs planted around the mature ones but the mature ones number probably less than 50 trees.

Added: February 26, 2012  ....I ended up planting a total of 300 longleaf pines this winter....I also donated an additional 50 to Jordan Lake State park which they planted in a field. The 300 Longleafs I planted were mostly in  Chatham , Wake and Halifax Counties where each spot got right at 100 planted. ....I did put a few in Lee as well.... Hopefully next year I can add some to these locations and start a few others as well.

Added February 2023

The Planted Longleafs around the Native older ones are now ~25 years old and producing cones.

I visited this area last month and it has turned into a very nice forest, I even found some Fox Squirrel sign!!     I will post some pictures this spring.   Here is a recent google maps photo of the area in Orange and the red areas are where the few mature ones are located . 

Expanded area showing the resoration site. 

Mack

#longleafpine