Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Austrian Pine

“I found lone tree hill at the Chinese Reconciliation Park,” says Sarah Low, executive director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “A time for reflection revealed a pine tree sharing stress. The park was developed as an effort to heal the wound caused by the forced removal of the Chinese population from Tacoma in 1885. Located where Ruston Way and Schuster Parkway meet in Old Town Tacoma, the site looks out at Commencement Bay. It’s decorated with interesting plants including quite a variety of pine trees, including a particularly well-placed Austrian pine. The tree sits alone on a mound; the trunk arches away from the Bay creating a interesting form.”

This lone Austrian pine (P. nigra) is this week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma, Peaks & Pints’ weekly Tacoma tree column. Inspired by our house beer, Kulshan Brewing Tree-dimensional IPA, Peaks & Pints branches out for a weekly look at terrific trees of Tacoma, in conjunction with our friends at Tacoma Tree Foundation.

“When trees are planted intentionally, as this one has been, there is an agreement, sometimes unspoken, to continue to care for the trees,” continues Low. “Such care might involve a regular visit for watering or the occasional thoughtful pruning or the preservation of land. As with any other kind of relationship, we need to invest energy into an on-going commitment to care.”

Austrian pine (Pinus nigra) is a fast growing, pyramidal tree when young, becoming a flat topped large tree when it matures. It is well adapted for landscape planting, growing well in a wide variety of sites ranging from clay filled homesites and shoreline sand dunes to healing parks in Tacoma.

Check out the Austrian Pine in Old Town Tacoma, and then head for a growler fill of Tree-dimensional IPA (6.8%) at Peaks & Pints. Kulshan Brewing collaborated with the Tacoma craft beer lodge on their house beer. Paying homage to the outdoor enthusiasts who join Peaks daily in Tacoma’s Proctor District, Tree-dimensional IPA is the perfect beer to toast the powder, currents or trails, as well as reveal the sprains. Tree-dimensional IPA, or Tree-D, continues Peaks & Pints’ love affair with old school piney IPAs, this time brewed with Simcoe, Idaho 7, CTZ, Centennial, and whole leaf Cascade in the hop back for all the pine, a little citrus, with a creamy mouthfeel and bitter finish.

Tacoma Tree Foundation is dedicated to educating, empowering, and supporting community members in neighborhood-based greening. In other words, the Tacoma organization strives for a greener, healthier, more connected Tacoma — which plants well with Peaks and Pints. We will host TTF fundraisers during Tree-dimensional IPA’s reign as our house beer, which pours through October 2020.

LINK: Kulshan brews Peaks and Pints Tree-dimensional IPA

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Sugar Maple

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Tulip Poplar

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Giant Sequoia

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Pin Oak

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Douglas Fir

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Incense Cedar

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Plume Sawara Cypress

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Western Red Cedar

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Ponderosa lemon hybrid

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: London planetrees

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: “Vanderwolf’s Pyramid” limber pine