Abstract
Longleaf pine once was present on 90 million acres of the southern landscape, ranging from coastal Virginia to east Texas and from central Florida to the mountains of Alabama. On nearly two-thirds of that area, longleaf pine grew in nearly pure (single-species) stands maintained by frequent, low-intensity surface fires of both natural and human origin. The remaining one-third of that area was still dominated by longleaf pine but experienced slightly longer intervals between fires and consisted of mixed pine-hardwood stands on uplands and mixed pine stands on flatwoods sites. Today longleaf pine ecosystems exist on only three percent of their pre-settlement range, and restoration goals call for restoring them to an extent of 8 million acres, or 9 percent, of their original range.
Keywords
Longleaf pine,
selection silviculture
Citation
Dyson, D.S. 2012. Uneven-aged management for longleaf pine: freedom to choose. Alabama's Treasured Forests 31(2):7-9.