Jack pine (Pinus banksiana): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Pinus banksiana Lamb., pine family
Other names	Scrub pine, Banksian pine and Hudson Bay pine (Silvics); scrub, gray and black pine (Wood Handbook)
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Size, Silvics	A small- to medium-sized coniferous tree; the most widely distributed pine in Canada and the American pine that grows farthest north
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	50 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, volume 1, 1990) puts the major part of the jack pine range in Canada, with the northern boundary running east from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. From there the range extends southwest through Maine, New Hampshire, northern New York, central Quebec and northern Ontario, Michigan, extreme northwest Indiana and northeast Illinois, then northwest through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and central Alberta to extreme northeast British Columbia. It says jack pine is widely but not continuously distributed, most abundant in Ontario in Canada, with the largest United States acreages in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The only significant artificial extensions of the range named are strip-mined areas in the central and northeastern states and the sand hills of Nebraska.

The handbook calls jack pine a pioneer species that invades areas where mineral soil has been exposed by major disturbances such as fires, usually growing in even-aged pure or mixed stands on drier and less fertile soils than other native species in its range need.

Cones and growth

Silvics describes jack pine as monoecious, with the ovulate cones borne on branches in the upper crown and the male cones on branches lower in the crown. In northeastern Wisconsin, it says, bud initiation for the following year's shoots begins in late June or early July, and pollen is shed in the middle of May and early June, with the timing varying from year to year with the weather. It records that in its native range only tamarack outgrows jack pine among conifers over the first 20 years, with seedlings reaching 1.4 m (4.5 ft) after 5 to 8 years depending on site.

Special uses

The handbook names as the most notable special use jack pine stands as breeding habitat for the rare and endangered Kirtland's warbler, which it says requires uniform stands between 1.5 and 6 m (5 to 20 ft) tall, preferably larger than 32 ha (80 acres). It also lists recreation areas, watershed stabilisation, blueberry picking, and food and shelter for snowshoe hares and white-tailed deer.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) says the sapwood of jack pine is nearly white and the heartwood light brown to orange, with sapwood sometimes making up half or more of the volume of a tree. It describes the wood as rather coarse in texture, somewhat resinous, moderately lightweight, moderately low in bending strength, compressive strength and shock resistance, low in stiffness, and moderately low in shrinkage, with lumber generally knotty. It names pulpwood, box lumber and pallets as the uses, and railroad crossties, mine timber, slack cooperage, poles, posts and fuel as less important ones.

Wood Handbook Table 5-3b	Specific gravity	Modulus of rupture (lbf per square inch)	Side hardness (lbf)
Green	0.40	6,000	400
At 12% moisture content	0.43	9,900	570

The Wood Handbook states that specific gravity is based on oven-dry weight and the volume when green or at 12% moisture content. The green weight of the wood without bark is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) says jack pine is subject to many agents that cause damage or death, and names these by the names it used.

Jack pine budworm. Called the most important defoliator of jack pine in the northeastern United States. The handbook also names the pine tussock moth, which commonly defoliates large areas of sapling and pole-size stands, and says several sawflies (Neodiprion species) can kill trees because they feed on both old and new needles.
Root, shoot and tip insects. Root weevils including the pales weevil and pine root collar weevil, the white pine weevil and northern pine weevil on shoots and stems, the jack pine tip beetle, which causes extensive shoot-tip death in sapling-size trees, and the lodgepole terminal weevil, which destroys the new terminal bud in Saskatchewan. White grubs, scale insects, spittlebugs and a woolly aphid are also listed.
Gall and blister rusts. Pine-oak (eastern) gall rust, sweetfern blister rust, stalactiform rust and pine-to-pine (western) gall rust. The handbook says the western gall rust matters because it can spread directly from pine to pine without an alternate host.
Scleroderris canker. Gremmeniella abietina, which it says causes serious losses in nursery stock and young plantations, and for which the European strain was killing many jack pine in northern New York when it was written.
Other diseases. Diplodia blight, which it describes as stress related and possibly epidemic after drought, Sirococcus shoot blight, a needle rust, and a needlecast (Davisomycella ampla) that often causes loss of all but the current year's needles.
Fire, flooding and animals. Young jack pines are especially susceptible to early spring fires, 123 days of flooding in northern Minnesota killed all trees under 1.5 m (5 ft), and white-tailed deer, snowshoe hares, elk, meadow voles and porcupines are named as sources of damage.

The guide on reporting a pest in the United States and the Canada reporting page give the offices that take sightings of regulated pests. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.