Costs and benefits of creating wildlife habitat on newly planted longleaf and loblolly silvopasture sites

Background/Question/Methods At the turn of the 20^th century early studies began to examine what many landowners were already successfully practicing at the time: benefits of combining cattle grazing in the pine forests of the southern United States.  However, agroforestry’s potential for increased productivity, additional and more regular income, and improved environmental conditions is largely unrecognized by most contemporary land management professionals.  Professional land managers are often hesitant to recommend forest farming to landowners because of the perception that there are limited management alternatives and the economic benefits are unproven.  Several present-day studies have examined the potential income opportunities from silvopasture systems as compared to traditional forest management scenarios, but few studies have included economic and biological considerations of wildlife habitat creation and ecosystem restoration.  Well suited to southern pine management, silvopasture can used to restore pine ecosystems while providing economic alternatives other than livestock production. In 2008 research and demonstration sites were established on the EA Hauss Demonstration Forest in Atmore, Alabama, USA to determine potential benefits of longleaf pine agroforestry systems for limited resource landowners in rural Alabama while restoring native warm season grasses in the understory.
Results/Conclusions Longleaf and loblolly pine stands were established during the winter of 2008. Thirteen 5-acre blocks were hand planted in double rows (8’ x 6’ spacing), leaving a 40-foot “alley” between double rows.  Five loblolly and eight longleaf blocks were planted at approximately 350 trees per acre. Tree establishment costs were limited to site preparation, planting, and first year herbicides for competition control.  First year survival on all sites was ³50% with loblolly having greater survival than longleaf. Post planting, the understory of each block was planted to either exotic (Bahia) or native (eastern gamagrass) warm season grasses.   Land expectation values, equivalent annual income (EAI), and rate of return (ROR) for each agroforestry system were determined and potential for supplemental income from wildlife habitat assessed.