Pine trees in NE LA, SE AR

Haha. I hear ya. Augusta National would be pretty ugly with you in charge. That’s the type of trees I’m talking about here. But your general sentiment isn’t totally off base. I’m still curious.

Eta. For the record, I’d be curious about this regardless of the species of tree. I don’t get the downvote.

I have noticed this around monetary. It’s south of ferriday. We have a camp on black river lake and all the pine trees in peoples yards are dead. I figured it had something to do with crop dusters.

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Pine bark beetle. They are nearly impossible to control once one tree gets them in it

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Not true. Delete the tree from your property at first sight and you’ll be good.

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Don’t know of a single healthy pine in Tensas parish.

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it’s a shame all the old growth Tensas pine were cut out in the 1800s.

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Haha. I hear ya. Augusta National would be pretty ugly with you in charge. That’s the type of trees I’m talking about here.

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There's a big difference between loblolly pine in a yard or more natural setting and an unnatural monoculture like a plantation.

Frick a loblolly pine plantation. But I'll take a longleaf pine savannah over hardwoods any day.

But as to the question, as others have said, it's probably the beetle. Those things are destructive.

Not hard to imagine pine’s struggling where they don’t belong.

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Where was the old growth pine in Tensas?

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I’m being as arse, there were none, other than human transplants they do not grow in Tensas Parish naturally except possibly for a few wind blown. My family property had a few, I think by what were likely old homesites. I’d reckon the early settler types possibly wanted to diversify from red oak and red gum.

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But as to the question, as others have said, it's probably the beetle. Those things are destructive

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I don’t know how far pine beetles travel, but why would they seek out isolated pine trees?

I’d chalk it up to herbicide. Y’all noticed cypress around field edges lately- look like they’ve been nuked. Possible cause: Dicamba or Valor herbicide?

It’s the trendy thing on the OB these days.

While they can be managed to provide good deer and turkey habitat fairly easily due their tolerance of fire and many herbicides, that’s done in spite of the fact that the tree itself provides very little deer and turkey value. This is also true of the en vogue longleaf pine. Some more hot takes… Truth be told, the heralded cherrybark oak isn’t all that valuable to a deer or turkey compared to quality early successional plants. Trees help hunters more than the game. Forests are a relatively new thing in many parts of the South, where pine and oak savannahs dominated.