VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Pinus banksiana | Jack Pine 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
Jack pine is an important commercial timber species in the United States
and Canada.  The moderately hard and heavy wood is used for pulpwood,
lumber, telephone poles, fence posts, mine timbers, and railroad ties
[17,41].


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Jack pine provides food and cover for numerous wildlife species.  Jack
pine seeds are eaten by rodents and birds.  The stomach contents of red
squirrels, chipmunks, and white-footed mice showed that they had eaten
on average 392 seeds, 31 seeds, and 19 seeds apiece, respectively.
Red-backed voles also consume jack pine seeds [72].  White-tailed deer,
caribou, and snowshoe hares browse jack pine [12,68,80].  Woodland and
barren-ground caribou eat lichens growing on the ground and on tree bark
in jack pine stands [3,68].

The federally endangered Kirtland's warbler is endemic to jack pine
barrens.  Nests are located on the ground near or at the edge of fairly
dense young jack pine stands.  For further information on this bird and
its relationship to jack pine, see FEIS writeup on Kirtland's warbler.


PALATABILITY : 
Jack pine browse is of intermediate preference to white-tailed deer [36]
and highly preferred by snowshoe hares in the winter [12].  Moose do not
prefer this browse, and it constitutes less than 1 percent of their diet
[8,30].  Caribou only browse jack pine occasionally; it constituted 1.7
to 3.9 percent air-dry weight of barren-ground caribou rumens in one
study [68].


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Jack pine browse is on average, by wet weight, 3.8 percent crude
protein, 4.2 percent fat, 15.1 percent crude fiber, and 22.2 percent
nitrogen-free-extract.  It is more digestible than northern white-cedar
(Thuja occidentalis) browse, although much less preferred [80].


COVER VALUE : 
Jack pine stands provide cover to mammals such as moose [8] and snowshoe
hares [12].  Debris and seedlings in burned stands provide cover for
smaller mammals such as red-backed voles [44].


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Jack pine is adapted to acidic, dry, and sandy disturbed sites with a
lower pH limit of 4.0 [82].  In Ohio, jack pine is recommended for
planting on drier upper slopes, on moister and better drained lower
slopes, on all sandy and loamy mine spoils, and on clay spoils that have
a high proportion of coarse material [49].  This species has performed
well on anthracite spoils in Pennsylvania, with 48 percent survival at
age 10.  Srvival was low (13 percent after 30 years), however, on coal
mine spoils in Missouri and Kansas.  In mixed plantings with hardwoods
in Illinois and Indiana, jack pine showed only 8 percent survival after
30 years [82].

Jack pine is recommended for planting on mined oil sands in northeastern
Alberta [16,39].  A planting density of 182 jack pine stems per acre
(450/ha) for tailing sands and 112 stems per acre (278/ha) for
overburden sites is recommended to provide 61 surviving stems per acre
(150/ha), a density considered sufficient for the natural perpetuation
of either a fully stocked jack pine stand or a mixed pine/deciduous
stand [39].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Jack pine is planted for Christmas trees [17].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Jack pine is intensively managed for lumber in the Lake States.  Stands
are regenerated by planting, direct seeding, scattering cone-bearing
slash on mechanically scarified ground, or using the seed tree
silviculture method combined with prescribed fire.  Jack pine is also
managed to provide habitat for the federally endangered Kirtland's
Warbler.

Root borers, root feeders, shoot and stem borers, leaf feeders, needle
miners, and sucking insects affect the survival and growth of seedlings.
Many other insects feed on jack pine cones [67].  Young stands of jack
pine are susceptible to defoliation by the redheaded pine sawfly
(Neodiprion lecontei) [84].

The jack pine budworm (Choristoneura pinus) defoliates mature jack pine.
There is often a 20- to 30-year lag after major fire before the jack
pine budworm invades.  The regenerated stand does not produce abundant
cones on average for about 20 years and the jack pine budworm
population thrives in years of abundant cone production.  A model has
been developed to forecast the area to be infested with this pest [83].
In one study, all trees that died from jack pine budworm infestation had
roots infected with Armillaria root rot (Armillaria ostoyae) [52]. 

Jack pine is susceptible to many diseases including rust fungi [67].
Pine gall rust (Endocronartium harknessii) accounted for more than 99
percent of all stem rusts in a survey of 71 young jack pine plantations
in northwestern Ontario [43].

Related categories for Species: Pinus banksiana | Jack Pine