Wow. yes, this person (pine trees are just overgrown weeds???) is obviously a severely undereducated individual suffering from massive ecological ignorance. the longleaf pine forest is an endangered ecosystem which has levels of biodiversity reaching (or even exceeding) that of the equatorial rainforests. they are an ecosystem that adapted over thousands of years to periodic burnings from natural fires. once (200 years ago) spanning over 90 million square miles from southern VA to eastern TX, less than 3% of their original range remains. destruction of the forest began because of settlers exploiting every resource they could pull out of it - turpentine, lumber, naval stores, clearing space for agriculture and home sites, the list goes on and on. every last remaining patch of this ecosystem needs to be conserved. the one on UNCW campus is especially important due to the fact that it belongs to a university - an institute of higher learning which should be devoid of all such ignorance as above!! but we lack true leaders who care about our local environment, which is a very unfortunate fact to bear.