North Carolina Botanical Garden explores Southern history through longleaf pines

On Friday morning, Jesse Wimberley sat at his front porch on a pre-Civil War deacon’s bench — a seat for ministers and preachers that was originally made in Charleston, S.C. — listening to birds chirp and flit through shafts of light filtering through dense tree canopies. 

Built by his great-grandfather 150 years ago, Wimberley’s home is made of heart pine, derived from the same robust longleaf pines that surround his home and the same wood the deacon’s bench is made from — offering shade and encompassing time that has passed, and time to come. 

Wimberley is the founder of the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association and is a fourth-generation burner, following his family legacy to protect N.C. forests and restore native plant growth. 

Longleaf pines are an abundant native species in the state and are part of an ongoing discussion among biologists, researchers and natives alike — including Wimberley — that has burgeoned into the “Saving Our Savannas: Stories of the Longleaf Pine” series. These educational seminars intersect science, history and cultural sociology. 

The NC. Botanical Garden organizes the series, which has been ongoing for the past five months, ending in June. This educational program was designed to incorporate conservation efforts, spread awareness of the trees’ cultural significance to Indigenous and African American communities as well as encourage action and education — both scientific and historic.

The events have ranged from teaching the history of using fire and controlled burns in N.C forests, to species that rely on the longleaf pine ecosystem — like venus flytraps and red-cockaded woodpeckers. 

Sarah Crate, who gave a lecture for the series in January, is the communications coordinator for The Longleaf Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve longleaf pines. Crate said that the original pre-colonialism longleaf pine forests covered about 90 million acres, spanning nine southeastern states. 

But in the early eighteenth century, the British started using the N.C. longleaf pines to build ships. They used the trees’ sap to make tar, which was used to paint the ships’ bottom. This tar acted as a sealant and was highly coveted by the British.

“I would suggest the reason English is spoken all over the world is the longleaf pine,” Wimberley said. “It was a longleaf pine which allowed the British to really overwhelm the seafaring world.”

He said that North Carolina is known as “The Tar Heel State” because of the longleaf pine’s tar. Tar heels became a nickname for North Carolinians because of this tar, since it would stick to the bottom of their shoes if they happened to step on it. 

“Every day, we are immersed in a lot of what we would call cultural history that has its origins in the longleaf pine forest, so I'd say it has a huge effect on who we are in the South and particularly in North Carolina,” Wimberley said. 

After the British started using these pines, other industries learned of their usefulness and over the next few centuries, longleaf pine trees became severely deforested. Before the start of the Alliance’s conservation efforts, just three million acres of longleaf pines remained in the southeastern United States. 

Still, through their regional conservation and restoration efforts, Crate said, the pines have been restored to approximately 5.2 million acres.

“We have more opportunity to keep moving that goal forward,” she said. “And to promote a forest that will be sustainable for both the people as well as the plants and animals that live there.”

In its last month, the Botanical Garden’s program has focused on the hidden treasures of the longleaf pine forests, including some once-forgotten N.C. folklore and oral history as well as the many unseen creatures that benefit from the pines.

Abigail Dowd, a North Carolina native and musician, performed some of her longleaf pine-inspired songs at the “Gone with the Wind: Sherman's March Through the Longleaf Pine Forests of North Carolina” event. She said that a lot of North Carolina's history exists because of the pine’s ecosystems, and because of this history, there are countless stories to tell.

After living in Maine for a few years, Dowd said that she moved back home to Southern Pines, N.C., which is home to the oldest known public longleaf pine tree. She said that it almost felt like the pines spoke to her in conversation, opening up ways she could channel them through her songs.

“There's a real power to music,” Dowd said. “That's why we use it in rituals across cultures — because it's a portal, music is a portal, transporting us to a place and back in time.”

The program will wrap up its final seminar with Julie Moore, an endangered species biologist with professional and personal ties to the longleaf pine ecosystem. Her event is on June 27 at 6:30 p.m. with virtual and in-person attendance options, which people can register for on the N.C. Botanical Garden’s website.

Moore said that this final seminar will show her personal journey with the longleaf pine forest, having been raised on an Air Force base surrounded by the pines and her academic pursuits in graduate school at UNC.

“I want to acknowledge how many people are contributing and continuing to contribute to longleaf,” she said. “And all the different ways that you can work on it.”

Joanna Massey Lelekacs, the director of learning and community engagement at the garden, said the “Saving Our Savannas” program will become a learning exhibit that community members can visit in-person through December. 

“I think there's a lot of value in education for stories, and helping people to remember different things about the longleaf pine ecosystem,” Lelekacs said.

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