(July 7, 2022) The white pine is the tallest and largest pine tree in the eastern half of the United States. In the Midwest United States, Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan seems to have the last publicly accessible old growth White Pine forests left in the United States.
Pine smell is caused by a terpene chemical. If we can smell a plant odor the plant is using it for communication. What pine terpenes do is presently being researched but many other terpenes have health benefits. (Joshee, and all 2019). This spiritual and possible physical benefit of trees is why the Japanese developed a concept during the 1980s called forest bathing or shinrin-yoku.
Joshee, Dhekney, and Parajuli (2019) Therapeutic and Medicinal Uses of Terpenes. Medicinal Plants. Nov 12 : 333–359. Online at: https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-030-31269-5_15