Tag: Restoration

Longleaf Pine at a 50-Year High in South Carolina

by Zoё Hoyle, SRS Science Delivery  • 
Efforts to restore longleaf pine forests in South Carolina are proving quite successful, according to data published by U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit. Longleaf pine forests now occupy less than three percent of an original range estimated at around 92 million acres that once stretched across the coastal plains of…  More 

Saving the Genetic Treasures of Southern Forests

by Sarah Farmer, Science Delivery Group  • 
People have saved seeds since the dawn of agriculture, but scientists at the Southern Research Station (SRS) are doing something new–combining modern genetics and the silvicultural strategy of seed orchards to preserve the genetic heritage of the South’s most at risk- and most ecologically important trees. Trees across the Southeast face exotic pests, shrinking ranges and…  More 

Removing Privet Helps Restore Native Bee Populations

by Sarah Farmer, Science Delivery Group  • 
When plants travel the world, they escape the checks and balances of their ancestral ecosystems and can multiply without bounds, competing with native plants for light, nutrients, and water. Do non-native invasive plants also disrupt native bee populations? Jim Hanula, research entomologist with the SRS Insects, Diseases and Invasive Plants unit, explored this question by comparing bee…  More 

Bringing Longleaf Pine Forests Back to Louisiana

by Zoe Hoyle, SRS Science Communications  • 
Now is a good time to help bring back longleaf pine forests to Louisiana. That was the message for the 186 people who came from across the state and Texas to attend the Longleaf Restoration Field Day held this fall in the aptly named Long Leaf, LA. Longleaf pine forests once covered some 90 million…  More