The Christian Science Monitor

With South’s ecosystems at risk, a rally around the longleaf pine

A rare stand of longleaf pines surrounds Camp Whispering Pines in Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish. More than 90 million acres of the tree species once populated a region spanning from Virginia to East Texas before Europeans’ arrival.

Rosie Tran fondly remembers the comfort she felt when she spent time in the forest at Camp Whispering Pines as a child. She recalls the sharp sweetness of its piney smell, and how the forest carried her imagination to a place that felt far away from her native south Louisiana. 

“It feels more isolated, secluded – more natural,” Ms. Tran says. “In Louisiana, the cypress tree is associated with nature. ... When you’re in the longleaf pine forest, it doesn’t feel like southern Louisiana at all.” 

Today, Ms. Tran, who spent many summers at Whispering Pines as a camper and then a counselor, seeks to preserve this now-threatened forest and the trees that are very much

A rich habitatThe trees for the forests

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