Pinus Palustris - Longleaf Pine Restoration

Longleaf Pine Restoration

Before European settlement, the Longleaf Pine pine forest dominated as much as 90,000,000 acres (360,000 km2) stretching from Virginia south to Florida and west to eastern Texas. Its range was defined by the frequent widespread fires that occurred throughout the southeast. In the late 19th century, these virgin timber stands were "among the most sought after timber trees in the country." This rich ecosystem now has been relegated to less than 5% of its pre-settlement range due to clear cutting practices:

As they stripped the woods of their trees, loggers left mounds of flammable debris that frequently fueled catastrophic fires, destroying both the remaining trees and seedlings. The exposed earth left behind by clear cutting operations was highly susceptible to erosion, and nutrients were washed from the already porous soils. This further destroyed the natural seeding process. At the peak of the timber cutting in the 1890s and the first decade of the new century, the longleaf pine forests of the Sandhills were providing millions of board feet of timber each year. The timber cutters gradually moved across the South; by the 1920s, most of the "limitless" virgin longleaf pine forests were gone.

In "pine barrens" most of the day. Low, level, sandy tracts; the pines wide apart; the sunny spaces between full of beautiful abounding grasses, liatris, long, wand-like solidago, saw palmettos, etc., covering the ground in garden style. Here I sauntered in delightful freedom, meeting none of the cat-clawed vines, or shrubs, of the alluvial bottoms. -John Muir

Efforts are being made to restore Longleaf Pine ecosystems within its natural range. Some groups such as the Longleaf Alliance are actively promoting research, education, and management of the Longleaf Pine. In August 2009, the Alabama Forestry Commission received 1.757 million dollars in stimulus money to restore longleaf pines in state forests.

There are four large core areas within the range of the species that provide the opportunity to protect the biological diversity of the coastal plain, as well as to restore wilderness areas east of the Mississippi River. Each of these four (Eglin Air Force Base: 187,000+ ha; Apalachicola National Forest: 228,000+ ha; Okefenokee-Oceola: 289,000+ ha; De Soto National Forest: 200,000+ ha) have nearby lands that offer the potential to expand the total protected territory for each area to well beyond 500,000 ha. These areas would provide the opportunity not only to restore forest stands, but to restore populations of native vertebrate animals threatened by landscape fragmentation.

The United States Forest Service is conducting prescribed burning programs in the Francis Marion National Forest, located outside of Charleston, South Carolina. They are hoping to increase the Longleaf Pine forest type to 44,700 acres (181 km2) by 2017 and 53,500 acres (217 km2) in the long term. In addition to Longleaf restoration, prescribed burning will enhance the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers' preferred habitat of open, park-like stands, provide habitat for wildlife dependent on grass-shrub habitat, which is very limited, and reduce the risk of damaging wildfires. A parallel protocol of prescribed burns is carried out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the adjacent Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge.

A 2009 study by the National Wildlife Federation says that Longleaf Pine forests will be particularly well adapted to environmental changes caused by global warming.