White Pines and Sugar Maples in October

     White pine and sugar maple trees are planted abundantly on lawns in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, for their stately beauties through the year.  These native trees are
attractive all year, including in early October. 
     Each evergreen white pine grows an upright, terminal twig each year that becomes the main trunk, and whorls of twigs around that terminal one, which become the limbs.  We can closely estimate the age of a white pine by counting the whorls of limbs, each one representing a year's growth, up the tree from its base. 
     And to make identification of white pines easy, count the number of needles in a bundle of them.  Only this pine species grows needles in bundles of five. 
     White pines are handsomely shaped and have long, curved cones, many of which are covered with sap.  And its a pleasure to hear the wind sighing through their long, soft needles and to smell their sticky sap.
     White pines look like they are dyeing early in October.  They are not, but the needles they grew in May the year before are.  Each white pine needle has a life expectancy of a year and a half.  For example, white pine needles that grew in May of 2013 will die, turn yellow and fall off their twig moorings in October of 2014.  They pile up under the pine trees they fell from, making soft, fragrant carpets that are a joy to lie on, but eventually decay into the soil.  But needles that developed during May of 2014 stay green until October of 2015.  Thus white pine trees stay forever green.
     White pines, and other kinds of coniferous trees, are havens for birds in winter and summer because of their many sheltering needles.  Hawks, owls, mourning doves and other species roost in taller ones through winter.  Great horned owls, red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, doves, crows and other kinds of birds raise young in nests in the larger ones.     
     Sugar maple trees are magnificent with their bright-orange foliage early in October.  All deciduous plants, including sugar maples, sense the approach of winter and prepare for it by shutting off water to their leaves, all of which they can't use in the cold of winter.  As the leaves die, their green chlorophyll fades, allowing the other colors, that were in the foliage all along, to be obvious to our sight.  And what a majestic sight autumn leaves are, including those on sugar maples.
     Sugar maple trees have other qualities that make them valuable to people and wildlife.  In February and March, people tap larger sugar maples to collect their sap in containers.  Sugar maple sap has two percent sugar in it and 98 percent water.  It takes up to 40 gallons of maple sap to be boiled down to one gallon of delicious, unique pure maple syrup.
     Many large sugar maple trees are riddled with holes where wind ripped limbs off the trees.  When the branches are torn away, it takes bark off the trunk, which exposes the wood to agents of decay.  The cavities formed in the wood are homes to a variety of creatures, including squirrels, owls, honey bees, black snakes, chickadees and other small, woodland birds, and other species.
     This October, or succeeding ones, look for white pines and sugar maples on peoples' lawns.  They are beautiful and interesting to experience at that time, and throughout the year.