The Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Ecology, Silviculture, and Restoration ppt

[...]... conservation and providing targets for restoration One of the significant reasons for the reduction of longleaf pine regeneration was the interruption of natural fire cycles in the understory Understanding the role of fire and the autecology of longleaf pine is vital for the restoration of this ecosystem The chapter by Brockway et al (Chapter 4) discusses the ecology of longleaf pine and the silvicultural... today Of the original range, only about 0.2% of the land in 2000 was being managed with fire sufficient to perpetuate the open structure and species diversity represented by the hundreds of firedependent plant and animal species of the longleaf pine ecosystem Ecological Significance The longleaf pine ecosystem plays a prominent role in the ecology and economy of the southeastern United States These ecosystems... forests, in 1900, and in 2000 for the 412 counties of the original longleaf pine ecosystem Percent of uplands 2000 1 2 + 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Longleaf pine (natural) Mixed pyrophytic spp Upland slash pine Beech-magnolia Successional forests Pine plantation Pasture and cropland Developed Wetlands Longleaf pine (natural) Mixed pine- hardwood Upland slash pine Beech-magnolia Successional forests Pine plantation... when the last of the virgin forests were depleted in the 1920s The Spread of Agriculture in the Longleaf Pine Region Indians were the first farmers, and the full extent of Indian agriculture in the South has 2 History and Future of the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem 25 F IGURE 11 This virgin longleaf stand in Beaufort County, SC, had been boxed for turpentine Fires further weakened the trees by setting the. .. export demand for yellow pine (Wertenberger 1931) The designation “yellow pine most often meant lumber from longleaf pine in the early trade Early channels of trade in tar and pitch in Virginia were the Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers, with their tidal tributaries interpenetrating the lands in the interiors of Norfolk and Nansemond counties Not a single longleaf pine remains within the watersheds of these... threatened ecosystems in the United States Will this ecosystem always be in peril? Maybe not! The objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of the book’s content that will examine the historical, ecological, silvicultural, and restoration aspects of longleaf pine ecosystems In the second chapter in Section I, Frost describes the historic context of the decline of the longleaf pine ecosystem and. .. (Outcalt and Sheffield 1996) There are a variety of factors of uncertainty in the estimate of remaining longleaf pine The FIA data are based only on stands with at least 50% longleaf pine canopy cover, so will be an underestimate of the total remaining On the other hand, longleaf pine in FIA permanent sample plots declined by 22% from 1985 to 1995 (Kelly and Bechtold 1990; Outcalt and Sheffield 1996): the. .. health and integrity of the restored ecosystem from the sur- rounding landscape have been eliminated or reduced as much as possible 8 The restored ecosystem is sufficiently resilient to endure the normal periodic stress events in the local environment that serve to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem 9 The restored ecosystem is self-sustaining to the same degree as its reference ecosystem, and has the. .. Vegetation and Land Use Categories 1 Natural, fire-maintained communities dominated by longleaf pine 2 Longleaf- dominant patches and longleaf pine in fire-maintained mixed species savanna and woodland having longleaf, shortleaf, loblolly, pond pine, and sometimes hardwoods in various combinations 3 Pyrophytic woodlands without longleaf pine 4 Natural, fire-maintained slash pine on uplands 5 Southern mixed... to 30% of wetlands in the region (Hefner and Brown 1985), the elimination of natural vegetation on 97% of uplands (Table 1) has gone largely unnoticed Presettlement Vegetation of the Longleaf Pine Region The presettlement range of longleaf pine has been estimated at 37 million hectares, of which 23 million were longleaf dominant and 14 million had longleaf in mixtures with other pines and hardwoods . in the un- derstory. Understanding the role of fire and the autecology of longleaf pine is vital for the restoration of this ecosystem. The chapter by Brockway et al. (Chapter 4) discusses the. single and multiple cohort stands) with regard to achieving these goals. Restoration efforts in the longleaf pine ecosystem have focused on expanding areas of critical habitat. Ecosystem restoration. history of the southeastern landscape, current status of the longleaf pine ecosystem, its potential economic and associated biodiversity values, and the role of fire in maintaining the system