Southern Company’s subsidiary in northwest Florida joined forces with The Nature Conservancy to complete the final 1,000 acres of a longleaf pine restoration project, accelerating the environmental organization’s reforestation effort within the 6,350-acre Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve. The partnership also provided for the reforestation of 100 acres of the Conservancy’s Rock Hill Preserve.
Longleaf Legacy
The abundant wildlife and lush landscapes of the longleaf forest were once commonplace in the South. Now only a few remnants of this ancient forest remain. Longleaf Legacy supports restoration of longleaf pine forests, home to many endangered species like the red-cockaded woodpecker. Longleaf Legacy also helps sequester carbon through tree planting. To help bring back longleaf pine forests, Southern Company, with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, is funding the planting of millions of longleaf pine seedlings. As these trees grow, they will nurture an ecosystem of more than 600 species of plants, rivaling the diversity of a tropical rainforest. Southern Company has committed $6 million in matching funds over 10 years for projects in our region.
In the 1700s, longleaf pines blanketed the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions of the Southeast.
A program to restore the Southern longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem is underway.
Longleaf pines once blanketed the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions of the Southeast where Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and other early Europeans wandered. The longleaf forest was vast and open, with the pines standing high above a wonderful variety of wildflowers, grasses, shrubs and smaller trees. Once numbering nearly 92 million acres, less than 3 percent of this magnificent forest remains. Today, it continues to disappear at a rate of 100,000 acres per year as a result of fire suppression, logging, development and agriculture.
Longleaf pines grow better in poor soils and generally grow as well as other pines in richer soils. During their first few years of growth, longleaf pines do not look like trees, but remain in a grass-like stage until fire sparks their growth. Re-creating a longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem is a daunting task that requires the re-introduction of prescribed burning, or fire, to create the open savanna, or park-like beauty, of this ecosystem.
A longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) can reach over 120 feet in height with its trunk exceeding more than three feet in diameter and can live for three or four centuries. Large, straight and tight-grained longleaf is the hardest pine in North America and is resistant to many pine-damaging diseases and insects. Historically, longleaf were tapped for their sticky gum to make turpentine and were an economically-important species.
Southern Company and NFWF with many other organizations look to conserve existing longleaf stands, re-establish the critical habitat for healthy forests and begin bringing this signature forest system back to its former glory.
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