Two things I had never seen before: a turpentine catface burning, and a guide metal for a McCoy turpentine cup.

Catface burning, Turpentine guide, Nail that held the cup, the loblolly pine tree

This was during and the day after our prescribed burn of December 21, 2023.

Also, this catface was on a loblolly, not a longleaf pine.

And since it was hacked into the tree during the Great Depression, in the turpentining that paid off the mortgage on the farm, in the 85 or so years since the tree had grown out around it, yet left the actual catface exposed.

Loblolly on fire –Gretchen Quarterman

Those who do not live in a fire forest like ours, and who do not understand prescibed burns, please read this, Prescribed Fire, Longleaf Alliance:

Frequent, low intensity, and often large scale, surface fires were the dominant factor in shaping the longleaf pine ecosystems across the historical range. This frequent fire regime, over generations, selected for longleaf pine’s fire-resistant attributes.

Prescribed fire may be the best management tool that we have for attaining range-wide restoration and management of longleaf pine ecosystems. Increased frequency of fire leads to more diversity and abundance of grasses and forbs; seasonality of burn also plays a role but is secondary to frequency.

Burned catface

Remains of turpentine guide inside the tree

-jsq

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