It was first described by early Spanish explorer Domingo Terán de los Ríos in his expedition along the Colorado River in 1691 and later by Stephen F. Austin and other settlers drawn to the area by the land grants awarded by the Mexican government.

[1] Thus the original Lost Pines population is not genetically depauperate despite its geographic separation from the larger, more continuous Pinus taeda forest.

The disjunct Lost Pines population at the westernmost edge of the widespread Pinus taeda range is well suited for testing this prediction.

The occurrence of one or more genetic bottlenecks in the Lost Pines population was tested using 34 nuclear microsatellite markers and a control sample from the larger, more continuous east Texas P. taeda forests.

The Texas A&M Forest Service and Bastrop County, along with the Lost Pines Recovery Team and TreeFolks, have developed a program to reforest private property affected by the fire, embarking on a 5-year campaign to plant more than 2 million loblolly pine trees on privately owned land in Bastrop County.