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The problem is that the white pines usually did not grow back. Nearly all of them were cut and less than two percent grew back.  These graphs illustrate what happened to Minnesota forests between the time cutting began in 1837 and the time of the most recent forest survey in 1990.  The big squares again represent the total forested area of Minnesota, and we can see the total forest shrank only 38 percent as we turned some of it into cities and farms, but our white pine forest -- shown in red -- shrank 98 percent.  Only 67,000 acres remain.  Very few of the old trees remain.  The two percent we have left are mostly the two percent that grew back after cutting.  These are not the majestic white pines we once had. Most of them are only 60 to 120 years old.