The biggest eastern white pines.

Though they don't quite rank as old-growth, these co-champions will surely give you a crick in your neck.

AROUND the country, at a variety of events and the end of each broadcast day, w sing our respects to the flag and what it represents. But if some New Englander had had their way 200 years ago, we might today be singing, "Oh, say, does that mighty pine banner yet wave."

In the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War at Bunker Hill, Colonel William Prescott's men carried a colonial flag emblazoned with an eastern white pine. A different pine-tree flag was flown by the ships of the American Navy in New England waters. Among other grievances with the Crown, the colonists were fed up with British laws that reserved the choicest white pines for masting the Royal Navy. To New England patriots, the eastern white pine was a symbol of American hardiness, potential, and pride.

COMMON NAME                  EASTERN WHITE PINE
SCIENTIFIC NAME              PINUS STROBUS
LOCATION                     MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN (BOTH)
NOMINATOR                    PAUL THOMPSON (BOTH)
MOST RECENT MEASUREMENT      1984 (BOTH)

                                CO-CHAMPIONS:

CIRCUMFERENCE AT 4 1/2 FT.     186 IN.     202 IN.
HEIGHT                         201 FT.     181 FT.
CROWN SPREAD                    52 FT.      64 FT.

TOTAL POINTS                   400         399

But from a modern perspective, the pride of building our country, both economically and literally, out of white pine is tarnished with regret for the complete loss of the virgin pine forests. The co-champion eastern white pines, as listed in AMERICAN FORESTS' National Register of Big Trees, are huge by current second-growth standards, but as modest survivors of the vast cathedral-like original groves, they would not have impressed Paul Bunyan. Before the lumberjacks cut the old-growth as efficiently as a sheep is shorn of its wool, white pines up to 240 feet tall were not uncommon.

Fortunately, the memory of the great pine forests has been preserved in a few tiny groves, while their destruction inspired the first forest conservation law and helped to save parts of our western forests. Perhaps this effect will someday come full circle to allow future generations to experience the forests known by the founders of our country. If not, maybe we should bring back the Bunker Hill Flag.