Home / Guides / How to read a record / What Plymouth-area yards should know about pitch pine
What Plymouth-area yards should know about pitch pine
The barrens need the fire. The five feet need the needles off the wall. DCR and DFS (11 June 2025) report a historic 2024 season of 1,300 wildfires. The Immediate Zone is the home plus five feet. Move mulch, flammable plants, dried leaves, pine needles, and firewood away from exterior walls. FEIS (Gucker 2007): Pinus rigida is fire-dependent, thick-barked, sprouts after fire, and dominates Cape Cod pitch pine-oak. This directory’s Pinus rigida currently computes as avoid, consensus, and includes MA.
You are in a Plymouth sand-plain yard looking at pitch pine to the lot line, hearing that the barrens “need fire,” and concluding the tree is Firewise. DCR’s Immediate Zone is needles off the shingles. Those are not the same job.
This is not a Massachusetts doorway.
Why it matters
“Low-risk New England” is easy to hear after a wet June. The opened 2025 release is 1,300 fires, 1,200% October–November, seven homes. Connecticut is the 500-acre-average version of the same split. Maine 1947 is spruce-fir. This page is pitch pine on Cape Cod and Plymouth.
This site’s Massachusetts plant evidence currently holds 598 occurrence records and 37 exact owners from Dibble, White, and Lebow’s 2007 cone-calorimeter study. The authors collected foliage and twigs across Massachusetts and four other states, then dried and conditioned the samples before testing. That is useful regional laboratory context—not proof that every taxon was collected in Massachusetts, whole-plant behavior, or a DCR planting list.
How it works
2024, as DCR and DFS printed it (11 June 2025):
- Historic season: 1,300 wildfires.
- October–November: occurrence up roughly 1,200%. Drought, critically dry fuels. 14 NWS red-flag warnings in November, an all-time monthly record.
- That period: more than 660 wildfires, 4,000 acres, seven homes and over 40 outbuildings damaged or destroyed, more than 550 homes threatened.
- Vast majority: debris pile burning, abandoned campfires, and equipment.
- Celino: historical in modern times; southern New England is no stranger to large wildfire events over the long history of the region.
- Commissioner Arrigo: Firewise precautions may seem small.
Immediate / Intermediate / Extended (same release, NFPA Firewise USA as restated):
- Immediate Zone: the home and the five-foot area around it. Clean roofs and gutters of dead leaves and pine needles. Move mulch, flammable plants, dried leaves, pine needles, and firewood off exterior walls and from under decks.
- Intermediate Zone (5–30 feet): propane tanks cleared. Fuel-break borders: driveways, walkways, paths, patios. Lawns and native grasses not above four inches. Lowest branches 6 to 10 feet. Trees spaced 18 feet apart.
- Extended Zone to 200 feet: remove small conifers growing between larger mature trees. Canopy spacing 12 feet (30–60 ft) and 6 feet (60–100 ft).
The tree (FEIS, Gucker 2007; Wayback 4 February 2025):
- Often dominant in northeastern pine barrens. Cape Cod pitch pine-oak named. New England pitch pine-oak best represented on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.
- Early seral without fire: replaced by oaks and other hardwoods.
- Fire adaptations: thick bark; epicormic and basal sprouts; seed from serotinous and nonserotinous cones.
- Fire-dependent ecosystems. Dwarf communities 5–15 year intervals; tree-sized forests 15–150. Intervals around 30 years or more favor deciduous reproduction.
- Live USDA FEIS HTML blocked this session.
This directory:
- Massachusetts: 598 occurrence records. 359 on-list, 62 avoid, 18 conflict, 159 candidate. 37 owners also carry the bounded multi-state laboratory source.
- Pinus rigida avoid, consensus, MA.
- Pinus strobus avoid, MA. White pine is not pitch pine.
- Quercus alba currently computes as on-list and includes MA. FEIS: oaks replace pitch pine without fire. On-list oak is not Zone 0.
- Juniperus virginiana avoid.
See how to read a plant page. See is mulch your biggest plant decision for pine needles as groundcover.
The paths
| Claim | Opened source | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Barrens need fire | FEIS fire-dependent; 5–15 / 15–150 yr | A five-foot planting |
| 2024 was a fluke | Celino: no stranger; 1,300 fires | A climate exemption |
| Pitch pine thick bark | Survives a barrens fire | A house-side Firewise tree |
| 598 Massachusetts occurrence records | Stored range evidence | A DCR species table |
| 37 Dibble source owners | Conditioned foliage-and-twig lab context across five states | Whole-plant or Massachusetts planting guidance |
| Immediate Zone 5 feet | Needles, mulch, flammable plants off walls | A pitch-pine exemption |
| White pine vs pitch pine | Different records, both avoid here | The same Pinus |
What people mix up
- A fire-adapted landscape with a fire-safe yard tree.
- 2024’s 1,300 fires with “Massachusetts doesn’t burn.”
- Pitch pine (P. rigida) with white pine (P. strobus). Both currently avoid; they are not interchangeable.
- FEIS sprouting after a barrens fire with a tree against vinyl siding.
- Oak replacement without fire with “plant oak in Zone 0.”
- Debris-pile burning as someone else’s problem. DCR: vast majority of 2024 starts.
- Maine 1947 spruce with Cape Cod pitch pine. Related needles, different species.
How to check
- Open the 11 June 2025 DCR/DFS release. Read 1,300 wildfires and the Immediate Zone pine-needle sentence.
- Open FEIS Pinus rigida (or the Wayback capture if live USDA HTML is blocked). Read Cape Cod and fire-dependent.
- Open Pinus rigida and Pinus strobus.
- Open Massachusetts plant evidence. Keep occurrence separate from the 37 bounded laboratory owners; neither is a DCR recommendation.
- Do not plant in Zone 0.
Limits
This page quotes the opened 11 June 2025 mass.gov HTML, the opened FEIS Gucker 2007 capture (Wayback 4 February 2025), and the official USDA-hosted Dibble 2007 article. Live USDA FEIS HTML was blocked. Live mass.gov prescribed-fire habitat page returned 403 to fetch this session and is not quoted. Myles Standish State Forest plans and the Plymouth Independent interview were not opened as primary files. The 598 and 37 counts are stored relationships, not DCR statistics. The Dibble footprint does not mean every taxon was sampled in Massachusetts. Zone 0 is not a planting list.
Related records
- Pinus rigida
- Pinus strobus
- Quercus alba
- Massachusetts plant evidence
- Could the 1947 Maine fires happen again
- Is mulch your biggest plant decision
- Glossary: Zone 0
- Glossary: Firewise USA
Questions
What should Plymouth-area yards know about pitch pine?
The barrens need fire. The five feet do not. FEIS (Gucker 2007): pitch pine is often dominant in northeastern pine barrens, including Cape Cod, Massachusetts; it has thick bark, basal and epicormic sprouts, and serotinous cones; without fire it is replaced by oaks. DCR/DFS (11 June 2025): after a historic 2024 season of 1,300 wildfires, the Immediate Zone is the home plus five feet. Move mulch, flammable plants, dried leaves, pine needles, and firewood away from exterior walls. This directory’s Pinus rigida currently computes as avoid and includes MA.
Was 2024 a fluke in a low-risk state?
DCR Chief Fire Warden Dave Celino, in the opened 11 June 2025 release: the 2024 fall fire activity was historical in modern times, however southern New England is no stranger to large wildfire events over the long history of the region. October–November 2024: wildfire occurrence up roughly 1,200%; more than 660 wildfires burned 4,000 acres; seven homes and over 40 outbuildings damaged or destroyed; more than 550 homes threatened. Vast majority: debris pile burning, abandoned campfires, and equipment. Fourteen NWS red-flag warnings in November 2024, an all-time monthly record.
Does DCR tell you to plant pitch pine near the house?
The opened release does not. Immediate Zone: move flammable plants and pine needles away from exterior walls. Intermediate Zone (5–30 feet): prune lowest branches 6 to 10 feet; space trees at least 18 feet apart. Extended Zone out to 200 feet: remove small conifers growing between larger mature trees. That is NFPA Firewise USA precautions as restated by DCR and DFS, not a pitch-pine planting list.
Is this a Massachusetts doorway page?
No. The object is a fire-dependent barrens tree versus the five-foot Immediate Zone. Place claims sit on whereThisDiffers. The Massachusetts plant surface combines 598 occurrence records with 37 owners from a multi-state USDA Forest Service cone-calorimeter study. Those laboratory rows are regional context, not a DCR planting list.