Wood from "official" State Trees

[Royce Meritt]

Our local woodturning club is beginning a "group project" this year. We would like to get a sample of wood from each of the 50 "official" state trees. We will then distribute this wood to various members and he or she will turn a small item from this wood.

At the present time we have wood from the following "official" state trees:

Alaska
California
Colorado
Delaware
Georgia
Iowa
Massachusetts
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
New Hampshire
New York
North Dakota
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin

If there are any of you who would have a fairly small sample of wood from any of the other state trees, particularly from the state where you live we would be interested in having you send us a sample. Size does not really matter. Some of our items will be very small. Others may be larger but we will work with any size piece of wood from your state tree that you are willing to send us.

If necessary, we would be willing to reimburse you for your shipping cost. If you can help us out please reply with a private message and we will make the shipping arrangements.

Thanks. We look forward to hearing from you.

Royce Meritt
Siouxland Woodturners
Harrisburg, SD

[Tim Rinehart]

Royce...are you sure you want some wood from my state, NC...happens to be Pine!

[Royce Meritt]

Royce...are you sure you want some wood from my state, NC...happens to be Pine!

Not sure how to handle some of these species. NC lists PINE (species "pinus") as the state tree. There are other states with various sub-species of pine as their state tree. We don't know exactly how to deal with this.

Would "Western White Pine" (Idaho), "Eastern White Pine" (Maine & Michigan) or "Piñon Pine" (New Mexico) also work for NC since their's is only listed as "Pine"?

What do you think?

[Tim Rinehart]

"The pine was officially designated as the State Tree by the General Assembly of 1963. (Session Laws, 1963, c. 41).
Contrary to popular belief, no specific type of pine tree was specified in the Session Law. Eight types are considered indigenous to the state, including the eastern white, loblolly, longleaf, pitch, pond, shortleaf, table mountain, and virginia."

Given this reference from ncpedia, I'd say the Eastern White would be fair game!

[John Keeton]

Actually, with Tennessee (tulip poplar) you have also covered Kentucky and Indiana.

[Royce Meritt]

"The pine was officially designated as the State Tree by the General Assembly of 1963. (Session Laws, 1963, c. 41).
Contrary to popular belief, no specific type of pine tree was specified in the Session Law. Eight types are considered indigenous to the state, including the eastern white, loblolly, longleaf, pitch, pond, shortleaf, table mountain, and virginia."

Given this reference from ncpedia, I'd say the Eastern White would be fair game!

That's great! We had a gentleman from Maine send us several pieces of Eastern White Pine so we have some extra. I would say we have NC covered.

Thanks for the info.

[Scott Lux]

How big is small? I have some small pieces of buckeye for Ohio.

[Michael Mills]

"The pine was officially designated as the State Tree by the General Assembly of 1963. (Session Laws, 1963, c. 41).


Tim,
But some say it is the Long Leaf pine as here, at the North Carolina Pine Needle Producers Association
http://www.ncagr.gov/markets/kidstuff/backporch/pineedle.pdf
How can you expect a government agency (especially NC) to make a decision? Think of the law suites when they offend someone.
I think I will apply for a $537,000 grant to study just which is most appropriate to the citizenry of NC.

[Royce Meritt]

How big is small? I have some small pieces of buckeye for Ohio.

Hi Scott. I will send you a PM as well. We can use anything you might be willing to send. Can range in size from a pen blank to a medium size bowl or anything in between. We don't need anything too big as we will be looking to permanently display this work and space may become an issue.

Thanks.

[Justin Stephen]

"The pine was officially designated as the State Tree by the General Assembly of 1963. (Session Laws, 1963, c. 41).
Contrary to popular belief, no specific type of pine tree was specified in the Session Law. Eight types are considered indigenous to the state, including the eastern white, loblolly, longleaf, pitch, pond, shortleaf, table mountain, and virginia."

Given this reference from ncpedia, I'd say the Eastern White would be fair game!

Another option is counting the longleaf pine (Alabama state tree) as North Carolina also.

Re: South Carolina, how many folks have turned a Cabbage Palmetto? I did a quick search and only found one reference to someone turning palmetto and that was to complain about how bad it smelled. :)

This project is going to require people turning a lot of different pine trees. Just clicking through about 15 states randomly and it seems like more than half are some sort of conifer.