In response to the story “Catawba College students help restore Piedmont longleaf pine”: It was reported that the official state tree of North Carolina is the longleaf pine, while the official state tree has actually been listed as the pine tree since 1963, giving no specific species of pine.

This misconception most likely arises from our moniker as “the land of the longleaf pine” from the first verse of the Tarheel Toast. The over-summarized longleaf pine ecology was somewhat accurate, but the official state tree had to be corrected.

Forestry and forest history have enough of a lack of representation in the public eye; let’s not perpetuate that any more than we have to.

— Evan Gobble

Landis