Coastal Longleaf Pine Forests

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Coastal Longleaf • Longleaf occurred on an estimated 90 million acres at its peak, dominating on an estimated 60 million acres, probably the largest area on the continent dominated by Pine Forests a single tree species. • By the mid-1900’s, over half of that forest was gone.

• By 1995, an estimated 3 million acres remained, most of it in poor condition.

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Historical Accounts Historic Range of Longleaf Pine

“We find ourselves on the entrance of a vast plain which extends west sixty or seventy miles.... This plain is mostly a forest of the great long-leaved pine, the earth covered with grass, interspersed with an infinite variety of herbaceous plants, and embellished with extensive savannas....” William Bartram, 1791 Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia,...

“In "pine barrens" most of the day. Low, level, sandy tracts; the pines wide apart; the sunny spaces between full of beautiful abounding grasses, Liatris, long, wand-like Solidago, saw palmettos, etc., covering the ground in garden style. Here I sauntered in delightful freedom, meeting none of the cat-clawed vines, or shrubs, of the alluvial bottoms.” - John Muir

"Not a part of this great natural wonder worthy of the name forest remains intact within the state's borders. It has been rooted out by hogs, mutilated by turpentining, cut down in lumbering, or burned up through negligence. The complete destruction of this forest constitutes one of the major social crimes of American history." B.W. Wells, americaslongleaf.org ecologist, 1932

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Current Longleaf Pine Status Types of Longleaf Pine Forests

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South MS 2014 South MS “1814”

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What’s missing? Adapted to burn

Fire

Fire Prescribed Fire

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What else is missing? What else is missing? • Prior to European settlement, Bison roamed South MS • All native Bison east of Megafauna MS River were extirpated by 1875.

Megafauna Types of Longleaf Pine Forests “Annals of Louisiana from 1698 to 1722, by M. Penicaut” (1698), the author records the presence of the buffalo on the Gulf coast on the banks of the Bay St. Louis, as follows: “The next day we left Pea Island, and passed through the Little Rigolets, which led into the sea about three leagues from the Bay of St. Louis. We encamped at the entrance of the bay, near a fountain of water that flows from the hills, and which was called at this time Belle Fountain. We hunted during several days upon the coast of this bay, and filled our boats with the meat of the deer, buffaloes, and other wild game which we had killed, and carried it to the fort (Biloxi) .”

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Upland Longleaf Pine Forest Upland Longleaf Pine Forest • Include montane, coastal plain, piedmont, and • Forest structure is similar across range but Florida scrub forests understory grasses vary • Bluestems and Panic grasses in western ranges • Little bluestem is predominant in south MS mesic forests • Wiregrasses in eastern ranges

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Upland Longleaf Pine Forest Upland Longleaf Pine Forest • Shrub layer includes blueberry/huckleberry, • Shrub layer includes blueberry/huckleberry, yaupon, gallberry, winged sumac, wax myrtle yaupon, gallberry, winged sumac, wax myrtle

• Tree associations vary by soil moisture: • Tree associations vary by soil moisture: • (from mesic to dry) Dogwood, sweetgum, water • (from mesic to dry) Dogwood, sweetgum, water oak, red maple, sassafras, blackgum, oak, red maple, sassafras, blackgum, persimmon, chinkapin, southern red oak, post persimmon, chinkapin, southern red oak, post oak, blackjack oak, turkey oak, laurel oak, oak, blackjack oak, turkey oak, laurel oak, bluejack oak, and sand post oak bluejack oak, and sand post oak

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Flatwood Longleaf Pine Forest Flatwood Longleaf Pine Forest • Shrub layer includes blueberry/huckleberry, • Forest structure is similar to upland forests (i.e., gallberry, wax myrtle, large gall berry, swamp titi, savannah) buckwheat tree, saw palmetto (in dryer sites) • Understory has fewer grasses and more shrubs

• Tree associations: • sweetgum, water oak, red maple, blackgum, persimmon, sweetbay

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Fauna of Longleaf Pine Forest Management Challenges: WUI • Several T&E species • Gopher tortoise • Red-Cockaded Woodpecker • Eastern Indigo Snake • Flatwoods Salamander • Fox Squirrel • Northern Bobwhite Quail • Turkey • Bachman’s Sparrow • Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake

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Ecosystem Services Megafauna “Memoir addressed to Count de Pontchartrain,” December 10, 1697, the author, M. de • Forest products Remonville, describes the country around the mouth of the Mississippi, now the State of • Carbon cycling Louisiana, and further says: • Critical habitat “A great abundance of wild cattle are also found there, which might be domesticated by • Hydrology rearing up the young calves.”

Megafauna Pineywoods Cattle Project

Image from ppyalmbeachdailynews.com

Image from foresthistory.org Image from longleafalliance.org

Pineywoods Cattle Project Pineywoods Cattle Project

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Pineywoods Cattle Project Pineywoods Cattle Project

• Cattle placed into plots late March • ~ 2.5 cattle per acre • Allowed to roam freely within plots • Provided water, mineral tub, occasional protein tub • Cattle removed late May • Cattle “vacationed” with Justin Pitts • All cattle reintroduced into unburned plot in August • All but one cow and calf removed in October • One steer and one calf remain

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