The Station joined with Auburn University to celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the Escambia Experimental Forest, a 3,000-acre tract in southern Alabama created to help revive the longleaf pine ecosystem. On May 12, 2009, a field day—the first in more than 40 years—was held to highlight long-term research that has helped foresters and private landowners understand how to regenerate longleaf pine forests.

Station scientists developed a comprehensive database on potentially invasive plant species. Over the years, through accidental and intentional releases, more than 4,000 plants—some of which out-compete native species and reduce the diversity of species—have been introduced in the United States. With the database, scientists and others will be able to predict and prevent invasions.

A Mississippi power company’s effort to reforest 1 million acres owes much to a program that Station scientists helped develop. With Federal, State, and industry partners, the Station developed a cottonwood-hardwood interplanting silvicultural method. Duke Energy has adapted the method for a carbon-offset project to help landowners in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley increase their profits from carbon sequestration and timber harvests.

The Station’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program worked with State agencies to publish 5-year reports on the forest conditions in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, eastern Texas, and Virginia. The reports give State forestry agencies a better understanding of the issues affecting their forests, and inform other agencies that structure landowner assistance programs. State agencies also use FIA data findings to determine availability of timber resources and ways to attract new industries that use wood as raw material.

The Station addressed the need for Spanish language materials. InterfaceSouth, a Station center run in partnership with the University of Florida, translated into Spanish its Web site on wildland-urban interface as well as many related fact sheets and other material, including the Fire in the Interface factsheet series. The Spanish version of InterfaceSouth can be found at www.interfacesouth.org/espanol.

Several organizations honored Station publications. The Station received a gold award for the publication Conservation Buffers: Design Guidelines for Buffers, Corridors, and Greenways in the technical publications category of the 2009 Association for Communication Excellence Critique and Awards Program. Compass magazine won an award of excellence in the periodicals category of the 2008 Society for Technical Communications International Technical Publications competition. The Station’s 2007 annual report received two awards in 2009.

Photo by John Butnor, U.S. Forest Service.