The White Pine can be found just about anywhere on the central East Coast all the way out to Minnesota.

Chances are there is one in your backyard, or at least somewhere in the neighborhood where you live and is is a major source of survival tools.

Self-Aid

Medicinal Properties include: antiseptic, astringent, inflammatory, antioxidant, expectorant, high in Vitamin C for colds – flu – coughs, congestion, and even scurvy. Shikimic acid, the main ingredient in Tamiflu, is harvested from pine needles in Asia.

1.) Pine Needle Tea: Drink a cup of pine needle tea to extract the useful stuff when you feel flu-like symptoms in your body.

2.) Pine Bark Band Aid: The inner bark can be fashioned as an antiseptic Band Aid for cuts and scraps. Apply to wound and secure with duct tape, bandana, or cordage.

3.) Pine Sap/Resin: This sticky sap can also be used to cover wounds, blisters, and burns. Collect hardened sap from a wounded tree and heat it to make it pliable.

Woodcraft Uses

1.) Bug Dope: “Nussmuk” (George Washington Sears) described his effective insect repellent in the North Woods with its main ingredient being pine resin. Once applied, a bronze protective film gave his skin weeks of protection from pesky biting insects.

2.) Firecraft: Fat lighter’d (fatwood, lighter wood, fat lighter, pine knot) is in every fire kit I own. It’s plentiful in Georgia and hard to beat as a natural fire starter/extender – especially in wet conditions.

3.) Pine Bark Bacon: Inner bark is edible .

4.) Core Temperature Control: Debris shelter roofing, pine bough bed for insulation against conductive heat lose, shelter construction,

5.) Pine Pitch Glue: Used for hafting arrowheads, fletching arrows, patching holes in tarps, seal containers, fire extender, waterproofing equipment – really, any stuff that needs adhesive.

6.) Illumination: Fat Lighter’d torches are simple to make and adds light to your camp or night-time trek.

7.) Signaling: To alert rescuers, a pre-made signal fire built with green pine boughs on top will generate enough white smoke to be seen for miles.

8.) Firewood: Burning pine on your campfire won’t produce BTU’s like hardwoods, but will keep you warm and cook your coffee. Plus, piney forests are littered with an abundance of dead limbs for fuel. The carpet of dead needles can be gathered for tinder material.

These are just some of the many uses for the Eastern White Pine; in fact, apart from being considered the “king of vitamin C,” the White Pine is considered one of the most useful natural resources for the survivalist out there.

That is why you must identify White Pine Trees in your area as well as how to tell them in any season; you never know when they will come in handy.

To learn more about the White Pine and other trees survival usefulness, please visit Survival Sherpa.