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19002109_Magazine.qxp 6/13/19 9:32 AM Page 2 Reading the Landscape: Managing for YOURForest VOLUME XII - ISSUE 2 SUMMER 2019 19002109_Magazine.qxp 6/13/19 9:32 AM Page 3 19002109_Magazine.qxp 6/13/19 9:32 AM Page 4 34 TABLE OF CONTENTS 8 51 32 14 38 President’s Message....................................................2 REGIONAL UPDATES .........................................20 Upcoming Events ......................................................4 NEXT GENERATION ............................................30 Letters from the Inbox ...............................................5 Understory Plant Spotlight........................................7 ARTS & LITERATURE ........................................32 Sprewell Bluff Managing without Bounderies............8 Longleaf Destinations ..............................................38 RESEARCH NOTES .............................................12 PEOPLE .................................................................42 LANDOWNER CORNER .......................................14 SUPPORT THE ALLIANCE ................................47 TECHNOLOGY CORNER .....................................18 Heartpine ................................................................51 PUBLISHER The Longleaf Alliance, E D I T O R Carol Denhof, ASSISTANT EDITOR Margaret Platt, DESIGN Bellhouse Publishing ADVERTISING Carol Denhof 678.595.6405 – [email protected] COVER Hog Plum Glade on Sprewell Bluff. Photo by Philip Juras. The Longleaf Leader (USPS#) is an official publication of The Longleaf Alliance, 12130 Dixon Center Road, Andalusia, Alabama 36420 and is published 4 times a year. The Longleaf Alliance reserves the exclusive right to accept or reject advertising or editorial material submitted for publication. Advertising rates quoted upon request.Postmaster: Send address changes to The Longleaf Alliance, Address12130 Dixon Center Road, Andalusia, Alabama 36420. Periodicals Postage Paid at Montgomery, Alabama. In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, or disability. (Not all prohibited bases will apply to all programs.) To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. [ 1 ] 19002109_Magazine.qxp 6/13/19 9:32 AM Page 5 BY ROBERT ABERNETHY, THE LONGLEAF ALLIANCE PRESIDENT ’S M E S S A G E As I write this, it is mid-May and still cool. All the oaks have gopher tortoises and buying land throughout the longleaf range been fully leafed out for several weeks, and the first flush candles to restore gopher tortoises, longleaf, and the myriad species from the young longleaf are tall, straight and have 2-inch green associated with the landscape. And we are planting about 100 needles. You will be reading this in July, in the heat of summer million longleaf seedlings a year. That is getting pretty close when we have long since forgotten the cool spring and are living to a billion trees in the last ten years. Those trees planted on with the heat of another Southern summer. Time passes. 130,000 to 150,000 acres a year are the first step in restoring When we plant trees, we learn to be patient. I planted my the longleaf forest. first field of longleaf before the CRP When I say, “we,” I mean, “The Big program allowed it in 1992. Two months We.” Sure, I mean our staff, members, and later, our son Garrett was born. Today, partners; but I also mean all the landowners those trees are 30 - 40 feet tall and growing we are and companies that know about longleaf straight and clear, and we have thinned and understand the history and importance them once. Garrett is 27 and married and truly of it because of the conversations you have on his own. Trees grow up, kids grow up all had with them. Conversations you have and time passes on. the had in the woods, in the line at the grocery Some of you may have heard that I have store, and over Thanksgiving dinners with decided to “transition toward retirement,” longleaf relatives. as I am calling it. The process may take We are having this incredible success several months, but the Board of Directors alliance because of you and what you are doing on and I are actively searching for a new your own land or the WMAs and National President of The Longleaf Alliance. I will Forests that you manage, but we are also still be around working on special projects having this success because you care so but I want to take a step back and spend more time with a drip deeply about this ecosystem that has sustained Southerners for torch on our farm in North Carolina and a fishing rod with our generations. It is more than just a job, it is who you are. We kids in Oregon and Utah. And Yvonne and I plan to spend as all think it, and most of us are proud to say, we are doing this many summers as possible camped above 7,000 feet in the work for the next generation and “we want to leave the land in Rocky Mountains catching trout, watching elk, and enjoying better shape than we received it.” the heat of a campfire on a summer night. You cannot do that So yes, I am stepping down as the President of The Longleaf in South Carolina. We have the heat; the campfire is Alliance, but I am not retiring, I am “transitioning toward unnecessary. retirement.” There is too much work to do to fully retire. Too I am very proud of what we have all accomplished in my many hills to climb; too many trees to plant, too many turkeys nearly seven years as President. We have worked together from to chase and too much work that needs to be done. Thank you Texas to Virginia, and we have made a real difference. We have for all the conversations and meals we have shared, the trust and increased prescribed fire on the land and populations of red- friendships we have forged, and all the great work we have cockaded woodpeckers. Partners and the like are head-starting accomplished together. We are truly The Longleaf Alliance. [ 2 ] 19002109_Magazine.qxp 6/13/19 9:32 AM Page 6 Longleaf Alliance Staff Board of Directors Robert Abernethy Vernon Compton Jessica Sandoval President GCPEP Director Biological Technician Marc Walley – [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Chairman Ad Platt Carol Denhof Brian Schumann Reese Thompson – Vice President of Operations Understory & Media Coordinator Ecosystem Support Senior Team Member Vice Chairman [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Rufus Duncan – Anne Rilling Bobby Franklin Kaiden Spurlock Secretary/Treasurer Vice President of Business SoLoACE Partnership Coordinator Ecosystem Support Team Supervisor [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Barclay McFadden – Past Chairman Charlie Abeles Lucas Furman Randy Tate Wildlife Biologist GIS Support Specialist Ft. Stewart/Altamaha Longleaf Angus Lafaye [email protected] [email protected] Restoration Partnership Coordinator Lynda Guerry Beam [email protected] Nicholas Barys Kelsea Heider Robbie Fisher Wetland Ecosystem Support Team Wetland Ecosystem Support Team Ben Tuttle Member Member Ecosystem Support Team Member Amanda Haralson [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Ken Nichols Lynnsey Basala Lisa Lord Donna Vassallo Development Director South Carolina Field Project Ecosystem Support Senior Team Member Mickey Parker [email protected] Coordinator and Savannah River [email protected] Mac Rhodes Watershed Project Director Ryan Bollinger [email protected] Brian Whalen Salem Saloom Local Implementation Team Consul Wetland Ecosystem Support Team Member [email protected] Ryan Mitchell [email protected] Latimore Smith Outreach & Technical Assistance Karen Zilliox Brown Coordinator Casey White George Tyson Technical Assistance & Training [email protected] Administrative Assistant Phillip Woods Specialist [email protected] [email protected] Edward O’Daniels Wetland Ecosystem Support Bob Wilken Emma Browning Senior Team Member Fire Specialist Biological Technician [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [ 3 ] 19002109_Magazine.qxp 6/13/19 9:32 AM Page 7 UPCOMING EVENTS 2019 | Calendar July 16 - 18 September 24 - 26 November 19 - 21 Longleaf Academy: Longleaf 101 Longleaf Academy: Understory Longleaf Academy: Longleaf 101 Withlacoochee Training Center Diversity 201 Wakefield, Virginia Brooksville, Florida Heflin, Alabama August 13 - 15 October 22 - 24 For more information about events Longleaf Academy: Fire & please visit The Longleaf Alliance Longleaf Academy: Groundcover website (www.longleafalliance.org). Longleaf 201 Restoration 201 Wesley Center Austin Cary Forest Campus Woodworth, Louisiana Gainesville, Florida SUMMER 2019 MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST • Evaluate Young Stands: Inspect new longleaf plantings and • Spray invasive species such as kudzu, cogongrass, plan future treatments if problems are noted. Mow or spray bermudagrass, Japanese climbing fern, bahiagrass, and fescue. problematic species such as crabgrass, coffee weed, partridge pea, hairy indigo, and other emergent weeds. • Prescribed Fire: Burn wiregrass and native groundcover to maximize fall seed production and viability. • Planting