Southern Research Station Headquarters - Asheville, NC
![[Images] Five photos of different landscape](/images/imstr1.jpg "[Images] Five photos of different landscape")
Issue 10
A Natural History of Loblolly Pine
The Poster Child for Forest Carbon Research
by Kurt Johnson
Loblolly pine, though native to the South, doesn’t do well in shade and is not fire resistant. Before European settlement, these characteristics meant that the tree’s extent—where it will live—was much more limited than it is today. Though it occurred across a region ranging from the Coastal Plain through the Piedmont to the gulf coast, loblolly pine was mostly restricted to narrow, wet habitats in low-drainage areas that came to be called “loblollies.” Across the southern half of its range, loblolly was largely excluded due to fire, which allowed the fire-dependent longleaf pine to thrive. In the northern part of its range, loblolly’s extent was reduced due to natural succession toward longlived, shade-tolerant hardwoods.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, except for particularly difficult sites (usually wetlands), most southern forests were cut over, initially to provide pasture and agricultural land. After the Civil War, most of the remaining old-growth forest was cut to supply rapid industrial growth.
Meanwhile across the Coastal Plain and Piedmont—one after another—the farmlands cleared from forests were abandoned, the soil worn out from poor agricultural practices. Because its light seed is easily carried on the wind and it can survive and grow in poor soil, loblolly pine began to move into many of the old fields naturally; then it made sense to start growing the tree for timber on land that wouldn’t support much else.
Wildfire control, followed by the rise of plantation forestry, increased loblolly pine acreage in the Southeast, particularly from the 1950s through the end of the 20th century. Today, there are approximately 26 million acres of loblolly pine plantations in the Southeast, and another 18 million acres of naturally regenerated loblolly forests. Due to its ability to thrive under diverse conditions, loblolly not only holds promise as an adaptable plantation species during times of rapid climate change, but as reliable stock for reestablishing forests on land degraded by catastrophe or depleted by unwise farming practices.
