PLACERVILLE, Calif.—Researchers, educators and the public now can go online to view what the U.S. Forest Service says may be the world's largest collection of information about pine trees.
The website that debuted Tuesday includes photographs and descriptions of more than 4,000 dried, mounted specimens, demonstrating the diversity of pine trees in one location.
The Forest Service says many of the specimens were donated by forest geneticists and date to the early 1920s.
The Critchfield Memorial Herbarium collection is housed at the Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, 45 miles east of Sacramento.
The lab was a target of ecoterrorists in 2006, although the plot was disrupted before any attacks took place.