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Sixty years of management on a small longleaf pine forest

Informally Refereed

Abstract

A management demonstration in a 40-acre tract of second-growth longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) had its 60th anniversary in 2008. A demonstration was initiated by the U.S. Forest Service in 1948 on the Escambia Experimental Forest in south Alabama. At the time, the management goal for this Farm Forty was to produce high-quality poles and logs on a 60-year rotation. The goal was to be accomplished entirely through management of the existing natural forest with little to no capital investment other than the cost for prescribed burning, marking trees for cut, and limited control of cull hardwoods. Since that time, management has continued making the stand an excellent demonstration of small-scale longleaf pine management. This paper celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Escambia Farm Forty with discussions of standing volume of merchantable pine timber at selected inventories plus volumes harvested between inventories.

Parent Publication

Citation

Barlow, Rebecca J.; Kush, John S.; Boyer, William D. 2013. Sixty years of management on a small longleaf pine forest. In: Guldin, James M., ed. 2013. Proceedings of the 15th biennial southern silvicultural research conference. e-Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-GTR-175. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 163-165.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/43531