Why are we cutting longleaf pine to plant longleaf pine? Development of a technical assistance team to stop this madness

Background/Question/Methods

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) was the dominant tree and ecosystem on 20-30 million hectares across the southeastern US at the time of European settlement.  Today, longleaf occupies less than 1 million hectares and a majority of these ecosystems are owned by non-industrial private landowners.  Numerous efforts are underway to more than double the forested acreage in longleaf pine.  This includes the assumption that natural stands will not be lost, which is currently NOT a reality.  Naturally-regenerated longleaf pine stands, those quite often in the best ecological shape are lost at the rate of several thousand hectares/year.  No efforts or programs exist to help those landowners that have these stands to retain them or to educate landowners about naturally regenerating their planted stands.  Quite often, the advice they get is that longleaf is too difficult to manage that way and they clearcut their longleaf pine stand only to plant it back to longleaf.  Guidance and information are needed to slow this loss of the most critical longleaf pine stands and to educate landowners about the benefits of natural regeneration.

Results/Conclusions

Most of the focus of a longleaf pine range-wide restoration plan is to plant or re-plant the tree, but there is NO focus on maintaining existing stands of naturally regenerated longleaf pine stands.  There is a tremendous need for a technical assistance team to help landowners who currently have naturally regenerated stands to retain them or to educate landowners about naturally regenerating their planted stands. Therefore, promoting education and demonstration about the benefits of natural regeneration and proven practices are a critical step in achieving restoration goals. This project is developing a technical assistance team devoted to the natural regeneration of longleaf pine.  This team will attempt to reduce misconceptions about natural regeneration of longleaf pine.  It will provide the much needed “boots on the ground” assistance to landowners and land managers with information about natural regeneration and stand conversion that is lacking in the current longleaf pine community. The team is developing materials and outreach programs to raise awareness about the many opportunities longleaf pine natural regeneration offers and developing curricula for academic programs that focuses on longleaf pine stand dynamics and fire ecology.