The Longleaf Leader · populations. Beautiful, well-managed and protected longleaf forests provide that habitat on much of the pub-lic and private lands of the Southeastern Coastal

The longleaf forest has been removed from approximately 97% of its range and many of us want to restore it to much of its former range. Longleaf, compared to the other southern pines, produces a relatively heavy seed that does not pioneer far from the parent tree. Thus, natural regeneration is not going to be an option for many landowners and most of this hoped for longleaf acreage will be restored through artificial regeneration.

The Longleaf Alliance began tracking longleaf pine seedling production in 1996. The Alli-ance conducts an annual survey of all the nurseries that offer longleaf pine for sale. When we contact these nurseries we ask them: How many seedlings did you produce for the past season and how many for the current planting season? How many seedlings were sold or not sold at the end of each planting season? How many were bareroot? How many were container? What is the seed source? And, what are your pricing levels? This information is made available free of charge through our Longleaf Nursery List, and most of this information is also available through our website: www.longleafalliance.org

Besides printing and distributing the Longleaf Nursery List, we stay in close contact with the nurseries throughout the year. Even in years when the nurseries have presold their entire inventory by mid-summer, we can generally locate seedlings that have become available through cancelled orders, inventory mistakes, and other extenuating factors.

It is always a good idea to order your seedlings well in advance. Most of the bigger tree planters, landowners, and forestry consulting firms have their seedlings reserved at a fixed price six-to-nine months in advance of the fall planting. In general, the earlier the order is placed, the better match you will find in terms of: seed source, pricing, location, and seedling quality.

Locating and tracking longleaf seedlings is a key service that The Longleaf Alliance pro-vides to its contributors, and this is also a beneficial service to the tree nurseries. The tree nurseries repay the LLA through a program called the Longleaf Seedling Surcharge. Par-ticipating nurseries set aside $1.00 for each thousand seedlings that are sold. These dol-lars come back the Alliance and they allow us to continue our educational, research, and outreach efforts that further the restoration of the native longleaf pine ecosystem.

(Continued on page 4)

SPOTLIGHT ON NURSERIES by Mark Hainds

Spring 2013 Volume VI, Issue I

The Longleaf Leader Published Quarterly by The Longleaf Alliance

Deadline for submission

for the Summer 2013

issue is May 31st.

Send items to

[email protected]

Robert Abernethy [email protected]

803-480-1849

Steve Bennett

[email protected]

Vernon Compton

[email protected]

850-623-0987

Carol Denhof

[email protected]

678-595-6405

Mark Hainds

[email protected]

334-427-1029

Rhett Johnson

[email protected]

Ad Platt

[email protected]

850-982-8480

Anne Rilling

[email protected]

334-427-1029

Brian Schumann

[email protected]

Vickie Stallings

[email protected]

334-427-1029

Donna Vassallo

[email protected]

Bob Wilken

[email protected]

Karen Zilliox

[email protected]

Cover Photo: International Forest Company seed-

ling facility, photo by Carol Denhof

From the President’s Desk by Robert Abernethy

Page 2 The Longleaf Leader

Exploring the winter woods with a drip torch.

As I write this column, it is cold and rainy in South Carolina. However, the calling of the titmice and cardinals at dawn let me know that spring is nearly upon us. I have seen one bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) leaf and the dwarf iris (Iris verna) leaves are pushing up through the blackened acorns and oak leaves of a recent burn. This is my favor-ite time of year; the grey and black symmetry of the trees is not hid-den by the lush green foliage of summer and the subtle rolls in the landscape are more visible. This is the time of year when many of us take to the woods with drip torch in hand to once again apply a cleansing dose of fire to the land. A couple weeks ago, I burned a few acres of sand ridge that my brother and I had planted to long-leaf two years ago. Already, some of the seedlings were knee high

and covered in a lush and protec-tive growth of needles. In just two years, this cutover patch of sandy land has vegetated in waist high broomsedge with patches of wire-grass that bloomed this past fall.

As the fire picked up speed with an 8 mph gusty wind out of the southwest; I marveled at how quickly it roared through the broomsedge toward the bay swamp. When it hit the dense border of gallberry, it flared even higher and then lay down and started to crawl along until it hit damp hardwood leaves and ex-hausted itself.

I walked through the smoking landscape and looked at the small longleaf that appeared “completely burnt up”. I stooped and examined the living bud, still protected by a tight covering of green, but toasted, needles. Long-leaf is amazing in its ability to not only survive but to thrive with fire. Over time, I hope that not only longleaf and wiregrass return to this hill but also the native wild-flowers like the pink moccasin flower (Cypripedium acaule) that my aunt tells me used to grow here. She has not seen one in over 60 years.

This spring, get out and enjoy your woods before the ticks and chiggers emerge. Hike and picnic and go bird watching and turkey hunting. You might even do a lit-tle spring burning if you get the right weather; but watch the long-leaf candles on the young trees and hold off burning these stands once the candles start shooting up. You can still burn the larger longleaf even after green up and it might even be preferable if you are trying to get rid of thick hard-wood brush. Do not worry about burning up turkey or quail nests. Like the longleaf pine itself, they evolved with fire and flourish in its presence. If a nest is de-stroyed, they will re-nest and the habitat they will find in the year or two following the burn will be so much better for nesting and suc-cessfully raising their broods that the increase in populations will more than offset the loss of a few nests. The longleaf pine is not the only species in the southern land-scape that flourishes after the careful application of prescribed fire. Have a wonderful spring and thank you for helping with the restoration of our longleaf forests.

Habitat is the Key

Spring is upon us. The young longleaf seedlings have been planted and the prescribed burning is nearly com-plete for the year. The setters and pointers are resting up from a long and hopefully productive quail season and many of us are contemplating the spring gobbler season. Habitat is the key to having bountiful wildlife populations. Beautiful, well-managed and protected longleaf forests provide that habitat on much of the pub-lic and private lands of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. The Longleaf Alliance is committed to ensuring the future of not just the longleaf pine but the entire longleaf ecosystem, plants and animals. During this most beautiful of seasons, please consider investing in the restoration and protection of our most threatened south-ern forest. I hope you will consider a donation of $250 or more to The Longleaf Alliance and together we can help ensure that our children and grandchildren will always have wild lands in which to ramble.

Thank you

Robert Abernethy, President

Spring Calendar

Page 3 Volume VI, Issue I

April What: Nature Day Outreach Event When: April 12-13 Where: Nichols Longleaf Pine Preserve, Montgomery County, NC Details: Open to the public. Contact Nell Allen at 336-879-7409 for

more information.

What: Field Day: Managing Woodlands & Wildlife in Challenging Times

When: April 18 Where: Saloom Properties LLC, Evergreen, AL Cost: Free Details: Open to the public. See LLA website for flyer. What: Herbicides & Longleaf 201 Academy When: April 23-25 Where: Tifton, GA Cost: $75; includes registration, materials, & meals Details: Open to the public. See LLA website for details. Please RSVP to Anne at [email protected] or 334-427-1029 What: 10th Annual Southern Co./NFWF Stewardship Partners Meet-ing When: April 23-25 Where: Mobile, AL What: Regional Longleaf Partnership Council Meeting When: April 25-26 Where: Mobile, AL May What: Longleaf Academy: Longleaf 101 course When: May 8-10 Where: Southern Pines, NC Cost: $100; includes registration fee, materials, and food Details: See LLA website for details. What: Longleaf Workshop When: May 21 Where: Texas (exact location TBD) Details: Check LLA website for details as they develop. What: Longleaf Workshop When: May 23 Where: Louisiana (exact location TBD) Details: Check LLA website for details as they develop. June What: Herbicides & Longleaf 201 Academy When: June 11-13 Where: Columbia, SC Details: See LLA website as details develop. To register, please email Anne at: [email protected] Other Academies and Workshops are currently being sched-uled across the region. Please check the LLA website and/or Facebook pages for updates.

Images of Spring: Top, Early blooming Rose Rush by

Carol Denhof; Middle, LL Forest post burn courtesy of CFLCP; Bottom, Grass sprouting post burn cour-tesy of LLA

Back in 1996, our initial survey found that there were approximately 60 million long-leaf pine seedlings being produced annually in the southeastern, US. Half of these seedlings were bareroot and half were container-grown. In our most recent surveys, longleaf seedling production was between 80 and 90 million seedlings regionwide, and approximately 90% of this production is now container-grown seedlings.

In 1996, longleaf comprised less than 3% of total tree plantings in the south and long-leaf ranked a distant third behind loblolly and slash pine seedling production. In less than two decades, loblolly and slash pine production has declined dramatically, while longleaf seedling production has increased over the same timeframe. Examining our most recent numbers and comparing them with numbers from the Auburn University Southern Forest Nursery Cooperative, we are confident that longleaf now comprises more than 10% of total plantings in the South and longleaf has passed slash pine as the second most planted tree species in North America.

Nurseries continued…..


Newly planted Longleaf seed-

lings, photo courtesy of LLA

Andrews Nursery, Florida Division of Forestry

Chiefland, FL Tel: 352.493.6096 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.fl-dof.com

ArborGen - Georgia Supertree Nursery

Shellman, GA

Tel: 800-554-6550 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.supertreeseedlings.com

Beauregard Nursery

DeRidder, LA Tel: 337.463.5509 E-mail: [email protected]

Claridge Nursery/Goldsboro Forestry Center, N.C. Divi-sion of Forest Resources

Goldsboro, NC Tel: 919.731.7988 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.dfr.state.nc.us

Deep South Growers

Douglas, GA Tel: 912.384.5450

Flint & Walker Nurseries, Georgia Forestry Commission

Byromville, GA Tel: 229.268.7308 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.gfc.state.ga.us

Rutland Forest Nursery

Lenox, GA Tel: 229.382.5504

Taylor Forest Tree Nursery, S.C. Forestry Commission

Trenton, SC Tel: 803.275.3578 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.state.sc.us/forest/nur.htm

Other Nurseries that Support

The Longleaf Alliance


Andrews Nursery Longleaf Beds. Photo by Carol

Denhof

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.fl-dof.com


http://www.supertreeseedlings.com



http://www.dfr.state.nc.us


http://www.gfc.state.ga.us


http://www.state.sc.us/forest/nur.htm


Herbaceous competition will arrive early in 2013. Fre-quent precipitation and mild temperatures through the winter months led to bumper crops of mushrooms in the fields and forest around the Solon Dixon Forest-ry Education Center – home of The Longleaf Alliance. This is the first year I can remember Elliot’s blueberry (Vaccinium elliottii) blooming in January, and this is the first year I have seen so many longleaf saplings with bud elongation in February. This early growing season has complicated prescribed burn plans for landowners who wanted to burn their young longleaf prior to candling.

Because this winter was so mild in much of the south, we received very few reports of freeze damage as com-pared to the last couple of winters. With these mild

temperatures, newly planted longleaf seedlings should have been able to quickly establish their root systems. At the same time, warm soils will see quicker germina-tion of herbaceous plants, and it is likely that we will need to consider herbaceous release treatments at an earlier date in 2013, especially if we are dealing with fertile agricultural sites.

Before applying any herbaceous release treatments over longleaf pine, we should test agricultural fields to make sure that the pH is not high. Our most com-monly used active ingredient for early season herba-ceous release treatments is sulfometuron. Sulfome-turon is the active ingredient in Oust®, and one of two active ingredients in Oustar®. Sulfometuron is much more active on soils that have high pH readings. We

Dear LLA,

I teach Dendrology at UGA and have been looking for information on and/or photos of a small population of longleaf in extreme southeastern VA or perhaps extreme northeastern North Carolina that have 24-inch-long nee-dles. When I was at Virginia Tech over 30 years ago, a student brought in some foliage from these trees. I have looked all over for information on the trees and have been unsuccessful. I would very much like to have some pho-tos of the trees so I can show them to my dendro stu-dents. Do you have any information on these longleaf pines?

Scott A. Merkle Professor Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 706-542-6112 Email: [email protected]

Dr. Merkle,

We are not familiar with this particular stand of longleaf pine with 24” needles in North Carolina, so we are includ-ing your inquiry in this edition of the Longleaf Leader.

If there is anyone out there who can assist Dr. Merkle with information about this stand, please email Mark Hainds at [email protected].

While we are not familiar with this specific stand of long-leaf, the LLA holds a competition every two years at our Biennial Regional Conference. We ask our conference attendees to bring in their largest longleaf pine cones and

their longest needles. At our October, 2010 Regional Con-ference in Columbia, South Carolina, Mr. Jack Chappell, representing Meeks Nursery, brought in the winning needles with a length of approximately 2 ½ feet. At our Regional Con-ference in Nacogdoches, Jack gave me a longleaf fascicle with needles that were 29 ½” long. Mark Hainds is holding the needles in the adjacent photo.

Mr. Chappell collected his nee-dles from a young stand of longleaf that was planted on a former agricultural field near Swainsboro, Georgia. Jack knows of several young long-leaf trees that are producing needles in excess of 2 feet in length, and he has considered marketing them as a specialty product to longleaf basket weavers.

Longleaf Alliance

The Longleaf Alliance receives numerous inquires about

restoration and management of longleaf forests. Sharing

some of these questions and our responses should en-

lighten our readers to common issues faced by our sup-

porters across the Southeast. If you have questions for

the LLA, email them to: [email protected]

Seasonal Questions by Mark Hainds

Questions from the Inbox by Mark Hainds

Photo courtesy of LLA

tel:706-542-6112



There will be surplus container-grown longleaf pine seedlings available for summer planting this year -2013. If you, as a landowner, forester, or tree planter, have land that is adjacent to the coast and subject to frequent summer precipitation, consider summer planting of longleaf pine.

The Longleaf Alliance installed summer plantings at several sites in Alabama and Florida during the months of May, June, and July. To date, every time we have attempted a summer planting we have been successful. In each of these reforestation efforts we utilized carryover container-grown seedlings that went unsold from the previous planting season.

On the downside, summer planting in the south is a harsh endeavor for the tree planter. Temperatures and humidity make this activity challenging, to say the least. However, our summer plantings have been successful in terms of survival and growth of the long-leaf seedlings. One year post-planting, summer plant-ed seedlings do not look like one-year old stock. By the following summer we find most of these seedlings have started height growth and outgrown seedlings that were planted a few months later in the traditional fall-winter planting season. In fact, the single best stand of newly planted longleaf I inspected in 2010, had been planted the previous August by Dr. Paul Langford in an old field in Covington County, Ala-bama.

It is important to time the rainfall with summer plant-ing. It’s doubtful that a newly planted longleaf will survive long in loose, dry, sandy soils during the month of July. However, if the seedlings are planted and settled in shortly after planting by an afternoon

thunderstorm, they appear to survive subsequent dry spells quite well.

Summer planting is especially well suited for filling in holes from winter plantings. For example, if a site receives a good site preparation, but tree planters place 20% of the container seedlings too deep, or 20% of the bareroot too shallow, it is possible to come back and fill these holes with container-grown seedlings the following summer while the site preparation is still holding back competition.

Also, summer planting may be just the ticket for planting small tracts of land that have been recently logged and are on the wet end of the spectrum. As long as seedlings are not under water, long-leaf tolerates fairly wet sites.

If you are interest-ed in summer planting of longleaf pine seedlings, con-tact us at The Long-leaf Alliance and we’ll help you lo-cate seedlings for potential planting projects during the summer of 2013.

Summer Planting by Mark Hainds

recommend against the use of Oust® or Oustar® on soils that are near neutral or basic in nature, 6.8 or higher.

We also want to make sure that our planted seedlings have well established root systems prior to the appli-cation of any herbicides that include sulfometuron. Sulfometuron inhibits root growth of newly planted longleaf, so we are going to dig up several representa-tive seedlings and examine them for root growth out-side the plug. More root growth is better and we pre-fer a minimum of 2” of new root growth exiting the plug before we apply an herbaceous release treatment that includes sulfometuron. Seedlings that are plant-

ed early in the growing season are much more likely to see a beneficial result from an early season herba-ceous release treatment. Con-versely, late-planted seed-lings are more likely to exhibit mortality or delayed growth when treated with an early season herbaceous release treatment.

Seasonal Questions continued

Mark Hainds planting Longleaf seed-

lings in summer, photo courtesy of LLA

Treating old field weeds prior to planting

longleaf. Photo by Mark Hainds.

JJ Bachant-Brown, the longtime outreach coordinator for the Alliance, left the or-ganization at the end of February to pursue other options. Most of you have inter-acted with JJ on some level since she came to work for the Alliance in 2007. She planned, organized and coordinated all of our Academies and workshops, handling every detail including planning meals, arranging lodging, renting vans, securing facilities and audio-visual equipment, handling registration, advertising the events, tracking down CFE’s, maintaining a database of attendees, helping with field sites, providing printed and digital educational materials, compiling evaluations and, when needed, assisting with instruction. She once asked me if she needed to be present at all of our Academies (particularly the distant ones, like Withlacoochee, FL), or if Mark and I could wing it without her. I told her that Mark and I were like trained seals, mounting the podium on command from her, performing our act, honking on cue, and then accepting our reward if we did it well (thankfully, not a raw fish!). The field trips at our Regional Conferences were models of efficiency and interest and she never overlooked a single detail. Like the Germans, she made the trains run on time. We often joked that the students should be happy that we took her whistle away. JJ took on the responsibility for the Alliance’s website and worked with experts to update it and make it user-friendly, despite having to learn those skills from scratch. Because of her efforts, we now have a Facebook page and a Twitter Account. JJ became our staff photographer early on and many of the images on our publications and website are hers. Besides coordinating our events, JJ’s finest ac-complishment is this very newsletter. It went from an occasional four or six page pamphlet to the quarterly publication that we enjoy today. Just corralling the staff and other contributors would try the patience of a saint, but formatting and fitting everybody’s submissions into a readable and in-teresting final product took real creative imagination. We’ll miss JJ a great deal and will have to search hard to find a replacement. We wish her the best as she goes forward in her professional and personal life. Maybe she’ll have more time with husband, Eddie, and those amazing canine companions she loves so much. Again, heartfelt thanks from all of us for all that she did for the Alliance.

JJ’s Gone!!!! by Rhett Johnson


30th Longleaf 101 Academy a Great Success by Rhett Johnson

The Longleaf Alliance conducted its 30th Longleaf 101 Academy at Ft. Stewart near Hinesville, GA on March 5th - 8th. The audience was typically diverse, with representa-tives from the Forestry and Wildlife Branches of the Natural Resources Staff at Ft. Stew-art, Georgia DNR, Georgia Forestry Commission, the Audubon Society, the Orianne So-ciety, the North American Land Trust, the Meeks and IFCO seedling nurseries, the Pana-ma City Park System, and several landowners. The 24 attendees came from Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Alliance staff providing instruction and coordination in-cluded President Robert Abernethy, Rhett Johnson, Mark Hainds, and Ad Platt. This was our first Academy without the physical presence of longtime Outreach Coordinator, JJ Bachant-Brown. Prior to her resignation last month, JJ had graciously made arrange-ment for lodging, meals, classroom space, van rentals, etc.; making our first experience without her much easier. Landowner technical assistance specialist Ad Platt was pressed into service to keep us on track and on time and did so admirably. We also enjoyed con-siderable assistance from onsite staff. TJ Quarles in particular was supportive and help-ful throughout the planning process and the actual course, despite dealing with the un-knowns caused by the dreaded “Sequester”. As is always the case, the class resulted in a great deal of discus-sion between the instructors and the students, and more importantly, among the members of the class. The networking that results from spending time together in the Academy atmosphere may be the most valuable outcome of the experience. We always leave an Academy feeling like we just made a number of new friends as well as longleaf converts. To date, 612 people have completed the Longleaf 101 course.

Above

Right: JJ Bachant-Brown.

Photo courtesy of LLA

Pole Exercise, photo

by Ad Platt

Trees for a Greener Georgia by Anne Rilling


In the summer of 2010, The Longleaf Alliance was award-ed a grant from The Home Depot Foundation. There were several desired outcomes of this partnership and we achieved them all.

First, develop a successful model of direct corporate

involvement in longleaf restoration. From early on the conservation partners (The Natural Conservan-cy, Georgia Forestry Commission, Georgia Depart-ment Natural Resources, Lolly Creek, Inc. and Trees Atlanta) have been able to leverage the Home Depot Foundation’s commitment through the site selection process, site preparation and land management activi-ties, time and effort, and promotion. This will contin-ue into the future through the monitoring of seedling survival and prescribed fire activities.

Second, establish longleaf pine on approxi-mately 1,000 acres. During the planting season (winter) of 2010-2011, a total of 278,500 longleaf pine seedlings were planted. The next planting season of 2011-2012, 153,000 seedlings were planted. The final planting season 2012-2013 69,000 longleaf pine seed-lings were planted. Thus the project is on track to plant a total of 500,000 longleaf pine seedlings help-ing the Home Depot Foundation meet its commitment to restore 1-million trees. These plantings took place

over 11 different sites throughout Georgia that are either owned or managed by our various conservation partners. The total acreage of these 11 sites is 708 acres.

Third, create a demonstration forest to link Home Depot cus-tomers and communities to the longleaf pine restoration efforts. The Longleaf Alliance part-nered with Trees Atlanta to create a longleaf pine eco-system along the Beltline in downtown Atlanta. In December 2012 a host of volunteers planted longleaf pine of various sizes on a site donated by Georgia Power along the beltline. Later in the spring we will add warm season grasses to complete the longleaf pine ecosystem.

The Longleaf Alliance would like to thank The Home

Depot Foundation for their financial support of this

project. Initially, the conservation partners identified

27 sites occupying over 5,600 acres. This would have

required approximately 3-million longleaf pine seed-

lings for restoration. The take home lesson was that

there is much more acreage and sites available than

what we had funding to restore. In addition, this pro-

ject was fo-

cused on just

Georgia. If

we looked at

the other

eight states

within the

longleaf pine

historic

range, the

opportunity

is enormous.

Upper right

photo: Anne Rilling (l) and Carol

Denhof (r) at tree planting on Atlanta Belt Line.

Photo courte-sy of LLA

NRCS Incentive Programs for Longleaf by Ad Platt

tracts signed. The majority of funds went to the longleaf range in south Alabama. Next will be ranking and funding some $4,000,000 in WHIP for the Go-pher Tortoise Habitat Improve-ment Landscape Initiative, by the end of March. Interest remains strong, with some 358 applica-tions for over $7,000,000, with the majority of these also in south Alabama. Certainty for the partic-ipants in Gopher Tortoise habitat improvement is still a priority, however there is no agreement in place with USFWS yet.

Mississippi has planted 6,822 acres of longleaf pine seedlings over the past three years in vari-ous government programs. These programs include EQIP, LLPI, and HFRP. Several silvopasture systems have been planted to con-tainerized longleaf pine seedlings. Landowners have shown a great deal of interest in planting long-leaf seedlings since Hurricane Katrina, as they observed that longleaf survived the storm much better than loblolly pine.

Landowners in south Mississippi are showing renewed interest in planting longleaf. The longleaf tree planting programs expect increased numbers of acres plant-ed over the next few years as long as the containerized seedling sup-ply is adequate and the program cost share money is available.

In Florida, NRCS works in coor-dinated efforts with conservation partners and state agencies to pro-vide financial and technical assis-tance to landowners for the resto-ration and enhancement of long-leaf pine habitat. Through FY 2013, the WLFW and EQIP Long-leaf Pine initiatives have $1.7 mil-lion in financial assistance funds available to assist in these ef-forts. Additional conservation partners that are assisting NRCS

in Florida include The Longleaf Alliance, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation, Florida Forest Service and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Com-mission. In FY 2013, this should result in assisting Florida land-owners with the restoration, pro-tection, and/or enhancement of some 26,000 acres of longleaf pine forests. This includes fund-ing for treatment of Type 1 inva-sives, especially Japanese climb-ing fern, cogon grass, and some-times privet and tallow tree con-trol.

In Texas, the longleaf pine range includes fourteen counties in southeast Texas, along with por-tions of four additional counties. Since 2010, the Texas NRCS has assisted private landowners with the restoration and management of longleaf on nearly 4,000 acres through the Longleaf Pine Initia-tive (LPI). One such project in-cludes the efforts of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe as they planted 400 acres of their reservation out-side of Livingston, Texas, back to longleaf. The tribe has used the needles for generations to create beautiful handmade baskets, but also seeks to improve wildlife hab-itat and recreational opportunities for the tribe.

NRCS personnel work with the Texas A&M Forest Service staff and others on the Texas/Louisiana Longleaf Taskforce to coordinate training events for landowners and to promote the establishment of longleaf on suita-ble sites. Several longleaf demon-stration areas have been estab-lished where landowners can view management practices and the growth and development of long-leaf stands. The NRCS LPI will


So, we’ve gone into sequestration, though it may not be clear quite what that means. Having received a number of questions about how budget reductions might impact USDA and State Natural Re-sources programs, we decided to perform a quick survey of states across the longleaf range. We asked for an update on what’s changing and what’s not, and acres impacted in each state. Re-spondents indicated that the USDA Natural Resource Conser-vation Service (NRCS) continues business as usual with authoriza-tion under the 2008 Farm Bill, though some staff positions re-main unfilled. NRCS continues to provide incentives to landowners investing in longleaf management by funding additional work under both the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW, formerly WHIP) pro-gram. For improved alignment between states, NRCS is adopting a regional pricing structure for 2013, with all states in the longleaf range except Texas being defined as the “Southeast Region”, and Texas as Central.

Some specific improvements con-tinue to be made each year to how these programs function, and some changes to note this year include an allowance for water bars and skid trail rehabilitation, and the separation of prescribed burning from chemical site prepa-ration as a practice. Within EQIP, allowable tree planting densities have increased from 544 to 622 trees per acre.

In Alabama, NRCS is obligating $2,000,000 to longleaf in 2013, and recently funded 132 contracts covering approximately 13,300 acres, mostly for establishing new stands. District conservationists are in the process of getting con-


continue to be a source of finan-cial assistance in 2013 to encour-age restoration and management in east Texas. Texas NRCS part-ners with other agencies and or-ganizations including the Texas A&M Forest Service and the Na-tional Wild Turkey Federation to provide technical assistance and guidance to landowners.

Uncertainty, for now, seems to be the most appropriate description of what programs will be like in 2014. The 2008 Farm Bill was

extended through the end of this fiscal year. The next farm bill will determine funding levels in 2014.

Landowners are encouraged to apply to NRCS based on the ex-pectation that programs will con-tinue in 2014. There is no risk in applying, as landowners are free to cancel applications at any time, but will be on list when or if the 2014 funding is made. This also allows NRCS more time up front to work on planning with partici-pants on their goals and needs.

All NRCS programs are voluntary, but participants must meet eligi-bility requirements. For more in-formation about signing up for this initiative, contact your local USDA-NRCS office. You can read more about these initiatives, or find your local service center, at www.nrcs.usda.gov. The Alliance can also act as a clearinghouse for information on incentives that may be available in your area. Call the office (334.427.1029) or Ad (850.982.8480) for help.

Incentive Programs continued...


The Longleaf Alliance Ecosystem Support Team, known locally as the EST, has had a great start to the spring burning season. The work of the EST basically falls into 5 functional areas. These are Pre-scribed Fire, Invasive Species, Me-chanical Prep, Ecological Moni-toring and Training. This time of year the focus is usually on the fire and mechanical aspects of our work. On any given day we could find ourselves doing a range of activities starting with the most mundane duties such as equip-ment maintenance to riding back seat in a helicopter flying 150 feet above tree tops and igniting the woods. The beauty of the EST is our ability to adapt to the partner

needs and remain as self-sufficient as possible. To that end, we find ourselves very versatile and BUSY!!!! Already since Janu-ary 1st we have set fire to over 25,000 acres over a period of about 22 days. This fire has oc-curred on a variety of ownerships including Eglin AFB, Conecuh National Forest, The Nature Con-servancy both in Alabama and Florida and one small parcel of private land in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. We have prepped over 6,600 acres on Eglin AFB and Blackwater State Forest making them ready to burn. Finally, we have taught 7 professional fire classes with a total of 198 students in all from various state and federal agencies as well as private landowners. So

needless to say, we are moving in many directions and our feet are a blur at times. After all, it’s cold and we need to stay warm. If you would like more information on the EST or want to know how you can help further the EST mission, just send me an email to

[email protected].

Fire Team is Keeping Warm by Steve Bennett

We currently have 517

“Friends” on Facebook.

Are you one of them?

Come join us!

Photo Credits: Above left: Prescribed

burn at Glass Dairy Road tract in AL by Bob Wilken; Below left, Conecuh NF Burn by Karen Zilliox.

Editors Note: Carol, LLA’s Understory Coordinator, will spotlight one understory plant per edition. To nominate a

plant for consideration, email Carol at: [email protected]

Sensitive Brier

Mimosa quadrivalvis var. angustata (Torr. & A. Gray) Barneby

Mimosa quadrivalvis var. angustata (Sensitive Bri-er) is another one of the many legumes that can be found within the Longleaf Ecosystem. The scientific name of Sensitive Brier will bring to mind the non-native invasive tree species Silktree or Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin). These two are related but bear no significant similarities except for the appearance of their compound leaves.

The common name Sensitive Brier comes from the ability the plant has to close its leaflets when touched. At the base of each leaflet is a structure called the pulvinus, which can change the water pressure (called turgor pressure) in the leaflet. When touched, the affected leaflets quickly lose tur-gor pressure and the leaflets collapse. This is called a thigmonastic movement, and usually only the leaflets touched will fold. One reason for this adap-tation is to protect the plant from foraging by herbi-vores.

Description

Sensitive Brier is an herbaceous perennial that trails along the ground. The plant is covered with short, hooked, thorns. The leaves are compound and the leaflets respond to touch by closing. The powder puff pink flowers can be seen throughout the sum-mer. Prickly legume fruits containing multiple seeds are formed in the fall.

Distribution & Habitat

You will find Sensitive Brier growing throughout

the range of Longleaf Pine from Virginia to Texas. It inhabits a variety of sites including dry longleaf pinelands, openings or burned areas within oak-hickory woods, fallow fields, and roadsides.

Wildlife Use

The seeds are used sparingly by Northern Bobwhite and likely seed foraging songbirds. The foliage is reportedly a common item in the diet of the Gopher Tortoise.

Other common species

Powder Puff (Mimosa strigillosa Torr. & Gray) is very similar to Sensitive Brier but has no thorns. Sensitive Brier was formerly known as Schrankia microphylla.

Availability

Sensitive Brier seed is available for purchase from Roundstone Native Seed.

References

Miller, J.H. and K.V. Miller. 2005. Forest Plants of the Southeast and their Wildlife Uses. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA. 454 pp.

Radford, A.E., H.E. Ahles, and C.R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 1183 pp.

Sorrie, B.A. 2011. A Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 378pp.

Understory Plant Spotlight by Carol Denhof


Above Left: Sensitive Brier photo by JJ Bachant-Brown; Distri-

bution Map from the USDA / NRCS Plants database

The Steering Committee of the Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership (GCPEP) met in January of 2013 to finalize work plan priorities for the year. Those priorities continue to be focused on important land manage-ment actions such as prescribed fire, invasive species control, longleaf pine and native ground cover restora-tion, and on other conservation priorities such as land protection, outreach and education.

When GCPEP began in 1996, there were six partners managing 842,000 acres. Over the years the partner-ship has grown to 11 partners and over 1.05 million acres. New partners have added much to the overall con-servation efforts across the landscape. The partners agreed during the January meeting to the addition of another landowner in the Florida Panhandle, Gulf Power Company. All were excited about the opportunity to work cooperatively with Gulf Power on conservation projects, especially related to the restoration and man-agement of longleaf pine.

Gulf Power is an investor-owned electric utility with all of its common stock owned by Atlanta-based South-ern Company. Gulf Power's service territory spans the area from the Alabama border on the west to the Apalachicola River on the east; from the Alabama border on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. Gulf Power serves more than 430,000 customers in 71 towns and communities throughout Northwest Flori-da.

Gulf Power, as part of Southern Company, helped launch the Longleaf Stewardship Fund in late 2012 to ex-pand on efforts already achieved with its Longleaf Legacy grant program. This new longleaf partnership ex-pands the coverage to the entire range of longleaf pine and includes more partners along with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. They now are joined by the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Gulf Power land management practices focus on providing optimum stewardship of land holdings, a sustain-able yield of quality forest products, and supporting company financial goals, while protecting the assets and maximizing all land uses on these properties. Land management practices concentrate on timber manage-ment including restoration of longleaf pine through removal of offsite species, site preparation of those areas followed by reforestation with longleaf, and supplemental plantings of longleaf in natural longleaf stands. In addition, management favors the establishment of old growth forests and the resulting diversification of for-est products on company land holds, including pulpwood, CNS, saw logs, and poles. Other priorities include improvement of existing forest stands through timber harvests, eradication of invasive species, understory and mid-story control, and reintroduction of prescribed fire.

On behalf of the LLA and the GCPEP partners, a hearty welcome to Gulf Power. The recovery of the longleaf pine depends upon the involvement of private landowners and businesses such as Gulf Power. The partners look forward to building upon the Gulf Power commitment to the longleaf ecosystem through increasing co-operative conservation in the GCPEP landscape.

On March 5th the EST received a request to respond to a wildfire on Eglin AFB. The wildfire was caused by a military mission that had initially set one of the live fire ranges ablaze. Usually this is not an issue as those fires are kept on the range by preexisting control lines. However, due to sustained winds in the high teens and gusts registering in the 20's and 30's, the fire left the boundary of the range and entered the natural longleaf woods surrounding it. Almost 4500 acres later, the EST found themselves in a variety of roles involving pump and roll operations, fir-ing operations and chainsaw operations. The fire went on for three days and the crew is now back to normal operations. At stake were some of the only remaining old growth longleaf on Eglin AFB and a multitude of RCW clusters. The hard work of the Eglin fire crews coupled with the EST kept the loss of this re-source to an absolute minimum.

EST Responds to Wildfire by Steve Bennett


Steve Bennett

cutting down a burning snag en-dangering a con-

trol line. Photo by Karen Zilliox

GCPEP Expands Partnership with Addition of Gulf Power by Vernon Compton

The Longleaf Alliance welcomes Randy Tate as Partnership Coordinator for a new partnership forming in the Ft. Stewart/Altamaha landscape in southeast Georgia. Randy has had a long conservation career in Georgia where he previously worked for the Georgia Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. His expertise and experience will be invaluable as he works with local partners in de-velopment of the partnership and implementation of conservation projects.

The Partnership Coordinator will be located in the Georgia Department of Natural Resources office in Rich-mond Hill adjacent to Ft. Stewart. The LLA is excited to work collaboratively in the development of a public/private partnership in this Significant Geographic Area. The landscape is anchored by Ft. Stewart, at 280,000 acres, the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi. It also contains Townsend Bombing Range, and over 100,000 acres of state-managed lands, including Townsend Wildlife Management Area (WMA), Griffin Ridge WMA, Big Hammock WMA/Natural Area, Penholoway WMA, Altamaha WMA, Clay-hole WMA, Richmond Hill WMA, Sansavilla WMA (leased), and Hofwyl-Broadfield State Historic Site, as well as lands recently purchased by the Ft. Stewart Army Compatible Use Buffer Program (ACUB) and under management of the Georgia Land Trust. Private landowners include large Timber Investment Management Organizations, Real Estate Investment Trusts, and non-industrial landowners large and small.

A special thanks to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation Longleaf Stewardship Fund for their support of this project and to several partners who have been instrumental in the initial efforts including the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Ft. Stewart, the Georgia Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and the Georgia Land Trust.

Staff Announcements


Rhett Johnson, past President of the Alliance, was recently presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation. John-son stated that he was surprised and very appreciative, particularly since the award came in his home state and espe-cially when he understood that his as-sumption that such awards were given posthumously was in error.

Robert Abernethy, President of the Longleaf Alliance, was recently awarded the Henry Mosby award for his contributions to the restoration of the wild turkey and the conser-vation of wildlife habitat at the National Wild Turkey Federation’s 2013 National Con-vention. . Abernethy coordinated the NWTF’s efforts to restore wild turkeys from 1995 to 2012 as well as coordinating habitat management efforts with the US Forest Service and the NWTF’s efforts to restore longleaf pine. Upon accepting the award, Abernethy recognized the hunters and volunteers who raised the money to fund the restoration effort and the state wildlife agency biologists and technicians and federal land management agency resource professionals, who, by working cooperatively, were able to completely restore the wild turkey to all suitable habitat in the US by 2003. “It was an honor to be part of this successful, nationwide, conservation effort”, Abernethy said.

Alliance Past President is Honored

LLA Welcomes New Staff in Georgia

Robert Abernethy Honored with Mosby Award

Award presentation photo, from left Ben

Gregg, Executive Director, SCWF; Anne Tyson, Award Presenter; Rhett Johnson; Dan Scheffing, Immediate Past President, SCWF

Robert Abernethy with Mosby

Award. Photo courtesy of Na-tional Wild Turkey Federation.


“Grass Stage” is a section just for kids and/or kids-at-heart. Longleaf forest manage-ment is a long-term endeavor and in order to keep the longleaf pine ecosystem in long-leaf, the next generation must get engaged or else all of the hard work, restoration, and protection currently going on will be for naught. We hope you share “Grass Stage” with your “next generation” longleaf enthusiast.

Lesson Seven: The Copy-Cats of the Longleaf Pine Forest. The venom of the

coral snake is similar to those found in the cobras of India. Although this snake has no

rattles like the rattlesnake its colors are very bright and attracting to other animals

walking around the woods looking for food. Use Lesson Seven found on our website

(www.longleafalliance.org/nextgeneration) to fill in the blanks and find the answers in

the crossword puzzle. Answers can be found below the picture.

While in the Grass Stage by Anne Rilling

Answer: ACROSS: 4. Yellow; 9. Nettle; 11. Venomous; 14. Neurotoxin; 15. Den; DOWN: 1. Defensive; 2. Wood-

pecker; 3. Nutrient; 5. Germinate; 6. Mimicry; 7. Snag; 8. Widowmaker; 10. Poison Ivy; 12. Scarlet; 13. Coral

Across 4. “Red next to black is a friend of jack, but red next to __________will kill a fellow.” 9. Plant with stinging hairs. 11. Coral snakes are a member in this group of snakes. 14. Coral snakes have this to capture their prey. 15. Tree cavities are sometimes made into these animal homes. Down 1. Kind of mechanism used by plants and animals for protection. 2. Birds that build cavities in snags for roosting and nesting. 3. This cycle is where plants, such as butterfly pea, take nitrogen from the air and replace it in the soil 5. The process whereby seeds sprout and begin to grow. 6. Coral snakes have this to capture their prey. 7. A dead tree that beetles and termites feast on. 8. Dead trees can be dangerous to people that work or play in the forest. 10. Plant with skin irritating oils. 12. This snake looks like a coral snake but is not poisonous. 13. This snake has colored bands that are used as a deterrent to predators.

http://www.longleafalliance.org/nextgeneration

Page 16

A Longleaf Story: Notes from the Hitchiti by Kayla & John Morgan

It did not look like a longleaf stand from the road. All you could see were thousands of loblolly seedlings 4 or 5 feet tall, but the sign said mountain longleaf had been planted in 2008.

My Daughter, Kayla and I were driving up to her grandparent’s house when we first saw the stand and she decided she wanted to release the longleaf like we had done on our property. Trouble was, it was on the Hitchiti Experimental Forest and what could one 9th grade girl do? I called Robert Abernethy, President of the Longleaf Alliance and he stopped in and discussed the concern with Ben Battle, District Ranger for the Oconee National Forest. Within the week, the paper-work was complete and we were volunteering on the Hitchiti.

The Hitchiti is a 4,735 acre demonstration forest run by the US Forest Service and the Georgia Forestry Commission. It is located about 18 miles north of our home in Macon, Ga. The site had been planted to longleaf as a way to restore the areas that had been affected by southern pine beetles in 2008. However, the surrounding forest of loblolly and slash had seeded into the site and the longleaf was fighting for survival. The young longleaf had not been burned quickly enough and the young slash and loblolly could now withstand the burns .

Kayla has committed to 80 hours of community ser-vice as part of her high school education and she want-ed to release these young longleaf on the Hitchiti so they could escape the competition. She and Ben se-lected more than a dozen planted bug spots ranging in size from 3 to 26 acres. The plantings totaled 126 acres and we got started on January 20, 2013.

I will let Kayla pick up the story from here.

“My first day began on Sunday, January 20th. We vis-ited the arboretum and observed the slash, longleaf, and loblollies planted in six rows of each. Although the longleaf trees were as tall as or even taller than the other two species, my dad explained that they were slower starters. Our mission was to remove other trees that had grown up near the longleaf to give them a chance to grow. We then went to tract 9-13 and cut trees near the longleaf. This area had been burned a month earlier, but if the trees had a green top, we would cut them. We worked for four hours that day. The next day, we worked on the south side of Highway 18. This tract had more briars than tract 9-13. Tues-day, Wednesday, and Thursday we worked for two hours each day on the tract of the north side of High-way 18. This was a very hilly area, and I worked most-ly at the top of the hill where there were less briars. There was a lot of low grass and tall trees at the top of the hill. On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we

worked on an area near the arboretum. This area had many sweet gums as well as loblollies. I mainly cut the loblollies while my dad cut most of the sweet gums. On Thurs-day, January 31st; Saturday, February 2nd; and Sunday, February 3rd we worked on all three previous tracts removing pine trees a little farther away from the long-leaf. The next day I worked was Wednesday, February 6th on Highway 18 North. On this day I found a 1965 RC Cola bottle. The last two days I worked was Febru-ary 9th and 10th. On both of these days we worked tract 9-13, the burned tract, and we looked for loblollies with a green top to cut. Track practice began on Feb-ruary 11th, so I retired my volunteer work this season. I really enjoyed getting out and working in the forest. Next season, I plan on starting in November and spreading out my working days more.”

What can one 9th grade girl do? What about release 126 acres of longleaf regeneration on our public lands over the next 4 years! Way to go Kayla!

If you would like to share a longleaf story please email Carol at: [email protected]. Deadline for the Summer 2013 edi-tion of The Longleaf Leader is May 31st. LLA reserves the right

to make final edits to submissions due to space and/or content.

The Longleaf Leader

Kayla Morgan at Hitchiti Forest.

Photo by John Morgan.

The Longleaf Leader

The Longleaf Partnership Council recognizes the im-portant role that tracking and measuring restoration and management success plays. An evaluation of res-toration progress was recently completed which shows an increase of 320,000 acres of longleaf dominated forests over the past decade. This 8% gain suggests that sustained efforts by many partners have reversed the decades long decline in longleaf in a measurable way. The Partnership's survey was developed by State Coordination Teams under the leadership of the U.S. Forest Service, State Foresters, and NRCS State Con-servationists. Significant points included the following items.

States estimate there is currently 4.4 million

acres, with 65% occurring in Georgia, Florida,

and Alabama

States project a net increase of 300,000 acres

over next 3 years

69% increase in Georgia, Florida, and Ala-

bama

21% increase in North Carolina, South Caroli-

na, and Virginia

10% increase in Mississippi, Louisiana, and

Texas

Project an increase to 6.1 million acres in 15

years based on program capabilities and cur-

rent budget environment

In October 2012, the Longleaf Partnership Council approved a proposal to implement an Annual Range-wide Performance Report for the agencies, organiza-tions, and interests involved in efforts to restore long-leaf pine. The first range-wide report will cover Fed-eral Fiscal Year 2013 (October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013) and will be published in December 2013. The report will be used to communicate the annual restoration work accomplishments and associ-ated expenditures being put forward from both public and private sources. The America’s Longleaf Restora-tion Initiative is seen nationally as one of the model collaborative landscape conservation efforts. This re-port will provide the Council and its individual mem-bers with a venue to communicate the scale of the on-the-ground work being accomplished and how public/private funds are being expended and leveraged.

The report will contain the annual accomplishments for several performance measures, along with addi-

tional measures for land acquisition/easements and landowner technical assistance. The accomplish-ments will be reported for total acres and be strati-fied by public and private lands. In addition ac-complishments that occur within Significant Geo-graphic Areas will also be reported. A State Coor-dination Team performance accomplishment work-sheet will be provided to the teams listing the infor-mation categories and the public/private team members that will contribute the information. Per-formance measures are identified below.

1. Acres of Longleaf Pine Established. The accomplishments reported here are for the acres of longleaf pine planted in establishment or reestab-lishment to longleaf from other land use or forest types.

2. Acres of Prescribed Burning in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems. Accomplishment includes prescribed burn acres completed in longleaf pine ecosystems

3. Acres of Overstory Treatments in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems. Accomplishments for this per-formance measure includes activities aimed at re-ducing overstory tree density, improving over-structure, release of longleaf regeneration, or to im-plement uneven-aged or patch-cut silviculture treatments in longleaf pine ecosystems

4. Acres of Mid-Story Treatments in Long-leaf Pine Ecosystems. This performance measures includes both mechanical and chemical treatments to remove or control mid-story hard-wood or pine encroachment in longleaf pine ecosys-tems.

5. Acres of Native Understory Plants Estab-lished in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems. The ac-complishments reported here are for the acres of


Longleaf Partnership Council Update by Vernon Compton and Glen Gaines

Page 17

REGIONAL UPDATES

Volume VI, Issue I

the past year new state and local implementation teams have been forming across the longleaf range. Partners working together in these efforts are imple-menting the strategies and actions identified in America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative on the ground. These teams, identified on the adjacent map, show the increasing cooperative efforts are helping to ensure the positive trends in longleaf res-toration will continue in coming years.

Longleaf Partnership Update continued...

Page 18

native understory plant species planted in longleaf pine ecosystems.

6. Acres of Non-Native, Invasive Plant Species Treated in Longleaf Pine Ecosystems. Accom-plishments include herbicide or mechanical single or multiple treatments to control non-native, invasive plant species in longleaf pine ecosystems.

7. Acres of Land Acquisitions/Conservation Easements affecting Longleaf Pine. These in-clude acres of private lands that are acquired through purchase or exchange and for lands protected through conservation easements.

8. Number of Private Landowner Longleaf In-centive Program Contracts. This measure is aimed at capturing the number of individual private landowner contracts through various incentive pro-grams and measures progress for technical assistance and outreach.

9. Number of Private Landowner Resource Management Plans Completed. This measure is aimed at capturing the number of individual private landowner resource management plans (i.e. Forest Stewardship Plans) focused on longleaf pine conser-vation and measures progress for technical assistance and outreach.

Great progress is also being made with implementa-tion of longleaf restoration and management, as over

The Longleaf Leader

Meeting Hosted -The Chattahoochee Fall Line Conservation Partnership (CFLCP) hosted both a Steering Commit-tee and Full Partnership meeting at Ox-bow Meadows Environmental Learning Center in Columbus, GA on February 27 & 28. Nearly 50 people participated with many individuals and organizations at-tending for the first time. The agenda in-cluded: reports from the Working Groups (Modeling/Prioritization, Land Protec-tion, Stewardship, Outreach, and Ecologi-cal Monitoring/Research), information about America’s Longleaf Restoration Ini-tiative, and an overview of CFLCP’s mis-sion along with a field tour to key longleaf sites in the region.

Land Protected—The close of calendar year 2012 brought an additional 2,317 acres of fee owned land (The Nature Conservancy in partnership with the U.S.

Army) and 2893 acres of conservation easement land (in partnership with the Chattahoochee Valley Land Trust) under protection. Protection activities in the region to date total nearly 23,000 acres (17,560 ac fee + 5386 ac easement) which exceeds the land protection goal of 20,000 acres by 2014.

The Public Educated—Active out-reach to landowners is underway. The CFLCP recently launched a website (www. CFLCP.org) and produced a flyer to use as outreach tools. Over 700 peo-ple and 50 volunteers have learned more about the longleaf pine ecosystem

through a diverse set of CFLCP events, programs and exhibits. In celebration of Georgia’s Arbor Day, a team of very enthusiastic volunteers from UPS plant-ed over 1000 longleaf pine seedlings on a tract where sand pine had been removed.

News from Chattahoochee Fall Line Conservation Partnership by LuAnn Creighton

Georgia Fall Line. Photo

by Brant Slay.

Volume VI, Issue I The Longleaf Leader

Three Prescribed Burn Trailers are coming to LA as a new tool to assist private landowners with prescribed burns. The LA Chapter of NWTF has provided the financial support for two of the three trailers with The Nature Conservancy providing funding for a third trailer through a NFWF Piney Woods grant. All three trailers will be operational by mid-summer and located in Hammond, LA and Lake Charles, available to use for $100 dollars per day. All three trailers are located in areas of historical longleaf forest and will provide LA landowners equipment such as drip torches, fire flaps, fire rakes, back pack water cans, fuel containers, back pack blowers, burning warning signs, and other needed equip-ment for conducting prescribed burns. A prescribe burn trailer will be available to view at the LA Longleaf Pine field day in Natchitoches parish on May 23rd. Details will be posted on the LLA website as they develop.

Prescribed Burn Trailers in Louisiana by Luke Lewis

Page 19

The Nature Conservancy planted 5,010 containerized longleaf pine seedlings at the 5,654-acre Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary in Har-din County, Silsbee Texas. Seedlings were provided through a generous donation of the Apache Corporation. College stu-dents from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Ver-mont volunteered their time for planting the seed-lings in forest gaps needed reforestation from wild-fire and hurricanes in 2005 and 2008, and in areas lacking seed tree production.

TNC Plants Longleaf in Texas by Wendy Ledbetter

St. Michael’s College

Volunteers with Bob Boensch, Southeast Texas Preserve Man-

ager. Photo by Kerry Cannon

A new ally for longleaf pine takes shape in South Carolina! The Sewee Longleaf Conservation Cooperative (SLCC) formed in late 2012 to promote longleaf pine in the Sewee landscape (Berkeley, lower Georgetown, and Charleston Counties within and surrounding the Francis Marion National Forest) through resource shar-ing, collaboration, and education. Major contributors to the SLCC include The Nature Conservancy, USDA Forest Service, SC Department of Natural Resources, Clemson Extension Service, US Fish and Wildlife Ser-vice, National Wild Turkey Federation, White Oak Forestry, Sabine and Waters Environmental Land Manage-ment Consultants, Doe Creek Timber Company, the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, Natural Resource Conservation Services, The Longleaf Alliance, and the SC Forestry Commission.

It’s no accident that the landscape surrounding the Francis Marion National Forest was chosen for this initia-tive. Longleaf pine has long been recognized in the region for its natural, cultural, and economic values. Since the turn of the century, longleaf pine in these forests has declined from its once dominant status, but thanks to private landowners and conservation leaders at the state and federal level, South Carolina is making strides in recovery. Naturalists and hunters would agree this landscape is special for the opportunities to view wildlife and see intact native plant communities.

The regional America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative chose this site as one of 16 significant landscapes in the southeast. America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative is a public/private partnership with a goal of in-creasing longleaf pine forest from 3.4 million to 8.0 million acres in 15 years across the historic range. As a result, several cooperative groups across the southeast are forming with similar goals of maintaining and re-


Sewee Longleaf Conservation Cooperative Forms by Colette DeGarady

Volume VI, Issue I

Prescribed Burn Trailer.

Photo courtesy of Luke Lewis.

Page 20

storing longleaf pine. “There is no down side to working on a regional scale like this” says Mike Prevost, President of White Oak Forestry, which owns and manages 20,000 acres in the Sewee-to-Santee region.

The first kickoff SLCC meeting was held February 12, 2013 with 40 people in attendance. Focused discussions at this meeting included topics on the challenges of prescribed fire, understory restoration, outreach and education workshops, and data collec-tion and mapping of longleaf pine.

Participation in the SLCC by anyone interested in longleaf pine restoration is encouraged. Please visit www.seweelongleafcoop.com to learn more or contact SLCC coordinator, Colette DeGarady at (843) 937-8807 ex 15, [email protected].

Longleaf Pine Restoration in the Oconee National Forest

Sewee Longleaf Conservation Cooperative continued...

This month, the Oconee National Forest in Georgia is planting 86 acres of longleaf pine to offset Southern pine beetle outbreaks in loblolly pine stands. Last month the forest conducted the first prescribed burn in 700 acres of longleaf planted in 2008 because fire-adapted longleaf pine is more resistant to the beetle and to disease and provides habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker.

Military bases are central to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) recovery plan for the red-cockaded woodpeck-er (RCW) in North Carolina. A key strategy proposed for meeting the on base requirements of ESA is the de-velopment of economic incentives to encourage cooperative conservation of RCW habitat between federal military and nonindustrial private agricultural and forest landowners (NIPAFs). Longleaf pine management regimes were analyzed for three primary goals that included (1) timber maximization, (2) multiple products, and (3) ecological services focused on developing RCW habitat. Capital budgeting models for land manage-ment options consistent with RCW habitat requirements were analyzed and compared with traditional pine management options and agricultural alternatives, using discounted cash flow measures of net present value (NPV) and soil expectation value (SEV) as criteria at a 4% discount rate. The difference between the base pine management options and the longleaf pine for ecosystem alternative provided a baseline opportunity cost for conversion to RCW habitat.

Longleaf pine managed for ecosystem services had lower financial returns than conventional loblolly pine and only yielded a positive NPV with the addition of moderate pine straw revenues. Depending on the site quality and management regime, the opportunity costs of conversion of loblolly pine to longleaf pine managed for ecosystem services ranged from $485 to $698 per acre with no pine straw income to $56 to $255 per acre with moderate income from pine straw. These results were highly sensitive to changes in both stumpage price and cost share rate. The opportunity cost associated with transitioning average agriculture sites to long-leaf ranged from $1,612 to $4,655 per acre dependent on the crop, indicating that any future incentives for habitat creating programs should focus on lands that favor forestry or on poor agriculture lands. These alter-native pine and crop opportunity cost estimates could be used as a basis to support conservation payments to provide an economic incentive for NIPAFs to manage for RCW habitat. The 10 year annual conservation pay-ment that would be required to make longleaf pine financial returns equal to loblolly pine ranged from $58 to $83 per acre per year with no pine straw income and $7 to $30 per acre per year with moderate income from pine straw. These conservation payment rates are reasonable, and suggest payments for ecosystem services

Longleaf Economics Study in NC by Fred Cubbage

The Longleaf Leader

SLCC Understory Breakout Session.

Photo by Colette DeGarady.

The Longleaf Leader

offer potential to establish longleaf pine ecosystems and create additional RCW habitat on nonindustrial pri-vate agriculture and forest lands. Other possible RCW ecosystem payments that could be investigated could include paying much of the costs for longleaf stand establishment, or paying landowners to extend the harvest of old loblolly pine or longleaf stands for up to 30 years beyond their typical sawtimber rotations.

For more information on this study, contact Fred Cubbage, Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA , Phone: 919-515-789, Email: [email protected].

Economics Study continued...

Page 21

Southern Native Plant Restoration and Seed Increase Project (SNPRSIP) was established to provide a regional framework for private land owners, public land managers, research scien-tists, seed companies, nurseries, seed certification agencies and others to share information and resources to develop and increase the availability of regionally adapted native plant material. The overall goal of this collaborative effort is to connect ecological projects from across the south-eastern United States to not only promote the development of the native seed and plant industry but also to promote increased understory restoration efforts across the entire region. In order to reach this goal, SNPRSIP provides access to technical information, promotional and outreach resources through its website, and partner workshops and presentations. The SNPRSIP website (http://www.snprsip.com/resources/restoration-projects) features a project database that has been created to store information about restoration projects from around the region. This storehouse of data will allow for increased sharing of lessons learned between restoration practitioners and better tracking of total acres of understory restored. However, we must build up the database in order to achieve these objectives. If you have restoration experiences you would like to share, please consider taking a few minutes to visit the SNPRSIP website and enter information about your project(s). The form is simple and asks for basic details on the project site and a short description of the pro-ject. If you have questions please contact Carol Denhof ([email protected]) or Victor Vankus ([email protected]).

Understory Project Request by Carol Denhof

If you would like to submit

an article about longleaf

restoration work in your

area, please email Carol at:

[email protected].

Deadline for the Summer

2013 edition of The Longleaf

Leader is May 31st. LLA

reserves the right to make

final edits to submissions

due to space and/or content.

Volume VI, Issue I

Photo Credits: Top left, Home Depot tree planting by Anne Rilling;

Bottom left, Hauss Understory Nursery by Anne Rilling; Above, GA Fall Line Prescribed Burn courtesy of CFLCP.



Longleaf Alliance Store

The Longleaf Alliance offers some great longleaf related merchandise for purchase through our Store. A sam-ple of what we have available is listed below. Call the LLA Office today to check on availability and make an order. 334.427.1029

Upcoming Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See

Book Signings:

April 18, 6:00 PM, Spring Island, SC

May 10, 8:00 PM, Northeast Branch Library,

New Hanover County, Wilmington, NC

May 5, TBD, Walthour-Moss Foundation

Property, Southern Pines, NC

As of Feb 28, more than 5,000 copies of the book have been sold, an average of nearly

300 per week. Contact the Longleaf

Alliance Office to get your copy today!

Supporters who

donate $250 or more

will receive a free

Longleaf, Far as the

Eye Can See and

Landowner Sign!

$20

$20 $20 $20

$40 ($25 paperback) $25

$14

$12

$12

$14

$12

Landowner Sign

$25

$35


Welcome to our Newest Supporters!

Bennie Moore

Judd Brooke

William Smith Jr.

Benjamin Wyche

Michael Holland

Nan Locher

Fred Nation

Medford Haskew

Howard Muse Jr.

Carol Knight

Jim and Peg Thomas

Scott and Julie Sager

Leah DiRenzo

William Holt

J. Blake Sullivan

Garden & Gun Club

Roger Dennington

Steve Raper

Girls Inc. of Bay County

J. M. Carstarphen

Gates Shaw

James & Beverly St. John

Squire on point. Photo by Hal Avery. Graduates of the recent Longleaf 101 held at Ft. Stewart,

GA. Photo by Ad Platt.

Photos from Near and Far…..

Silviculture burn in Greene County, NC. Photo courtesy

of James Dupree. 7-year-old Sand Mountain Longleaf Plantation in Dekalb

Co., AL. Photo courtesy of Sandy Harris.

If you would like to submit a photo for the next newsletter please email Carol at: [email protected].

Deadline for the Summer 2013 edition of The Longleaf Leader is May 31st. LLA reserves the right to make final

edits to submissions due to space and/or content.

The Longleaf Alliance

12130 Dixon Center Road

Andalusia, AL 36420

If you are already a supporter of The Longleaf Alliance, THANK YOU; please consider passing this form on to a friend or colleague. If you are not a supporter, please join us and help The Longleaf Alliance keep this forest type as part of the southern landscape.

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The Longleaf Alliance is a non-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All contributions are tax deductible when made payable to The Longleaf Alliance, 12130 Dixon Center Rd,

Andalusia, AL 36420

The Longleaf Leader · populations. Beautiful, well-managed and protected longleaf forests provide that habitat on much of the pub-lic and private lands of the Southeastern Coastal

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