Evergreens, pine particularly, come to light now but there is much more to this species than a 10-year-old tree with resin behind its five-needle leaf clusters. Many are severed from their root systems and come indoors for decorating.

Not all saplings live and those dead trees, left standing to dry a couple years, make excellent kindling for wood furnaces, fireplaces, and camp fires. Most small stems don’t require splitting because flames from newspaper will ignite the soft, resin-laden pieces. That pine flame is strong enough to ignite birch, hickory, maple, and oak sticks.

Burning starter pine wood may pop and send a spark out an open furnace door or onto a shore lunch paper plate creating an accident but there are safe ways to avoid this. The wood burned after should be hard wood.

As simple, and not requiring a saw or ax, is to pick up spent seed cones and stuff a few in a paper bag or large envelope, match the paper, which then ignites the cones and the fire is ready for sticks and larger.

These pine seed cones took two years to develop and dropped their winged seeds well before falling from the tree’s top. The seeds are likely to be a tiny seedling next summer and much easier to transplant than an oak. The seeds are great bird feed, and are there for a bird to find and eat without help of a feeding station.

All conifers develop two cone types, a pollen producer and a seed cone. Pollen cones fizzle and drop after releasing the pollen and quickly become unrecognizable. Fir seed cones stand upright on branches and come apart as seeds are shed, leaving nothing to gather to start a blaze or decorate a wreath.

All tree’s parts and tissues contain ducts that ooze resin, which eventually turns whitish and remains sticky. Lean against a pine tree trunk while turkey or deer hunting and you might find yourself stuck to the tree. Forget to remove a jacket and you’ll be stuck to your truck seat after driving home.

White pines, particularly when pruned while growing, make acceptable Christmas trees that retain their needles. Pine boughs are great for decorating, too, without pointy, prickly needles.

Buck whitetails are not bashful about rubbing their antlers on pines up to 20 years old, leaving a damaged tree and oodles of resin running down the tree’s trunk.

Check out When White Pine Was King by Jerry Apps, 2020, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, regarding Wisconsin’s past lumber industry.

The early catch and release trout season opens January 6, 2024, at 5 a.m. no less, and Bret Schultz, of Black Earth, Wisconsin, says the early, snowless winter will not have much impact on the fish and make walking less difficult for fly-fishers.  

“It starts with basic fishing, no particular pattern or color of flies because there really are no insects,” Schultz said.

Fishing trout in January starts with upper stream sections, moving down as it warms. Most anglers learned what fish populations are like when they last cast.

The worst weather Schultz says, “I hate wind.”

Schultz is looking forward to easing into retirement in May and says he wants to be 10 again, fishing when he wants to and not be tied to leaving the water just when the fishing starts getting good again, which is when the air temperatures reach the daily January highs.

Don’t worry, Schultz never takes a fish home, leaving them all for me and you.

Doug Williams, at D W Sports Center in Portage, Wisconsin, says there may be some open-water fishing of another kind, so don’t put the boat away just yet.

“Make sure you take the plug out of the motor when the day is over.”

When ice does become safe, Wally Banfi, at Wilderness Fish and Game in Sauk City, Wisconsin, cautions anglers to take a spud, fish with someone, carry ice picks around your neck not in a bucket and have 50 feet of rope with a float.

The holiday release of pheasants has occurred so get at it before the season closes January 7, 2024.

Want to give yourself an outdoor gift? Purchase a light, flexible backpack to ease carrying a camera, a box for morels or extra clothing items.

— Jerry Davis is an Argyle native and a freelance writer who lives in Barneveld. He can be reached at sivadjam@mhtc.net or at 608-924-1112.