A crack state forester came to Damariscotta Thursday to survey Martha Scudder’s huge eastern white pine tree in Damariscotta.
Although an impressive specimen, Scudder’s pine falls short of state record status.
The huge white pine surely watched Lincoln County boys march off to the Civil War. She is a towering survivor of the wholesale timber harvesting that helped the town build a fleet of sturdy schooners that carried the nation’s commerce to far away lands.
“It is a great tree. It has been here a long, long time,” said Morten Moesswilde, a forester for the Maine State Forest Service.
Sitting on a knoll not far from Martha’s home, now the Oak Gables Bed & Breakfast, the white pine was most likely standing when her stately home was built in 1835 on 11 acres of rolling riverbank property.
As bitter winter winds whipped through the tree branches, Moesswilde measured the mighty conifer. Her girth is 19-feet, 6-inches. She is more than 88-feet tall with an estimated crown spread of 83-feet.
Her total “tree score” works out to 336. This compares to the Maine state champion white pine that scores 379. That giant, which lives in Morrill, is just one inch fatter in the middle, but she is 44-feet taller and has a crown spread of 72-feet.
While she was disappointed the tree was not a state champion, Martha Scudder is still mighty proud of her mighty pine.
“My guests always remark on it. They take her picture and just love it.
So do I,” she said.
