The Longleaf Alliance th Regional Conference and Forest Guild Annual Meeting Forestry in a Changing World: New Challenges and Opportunities Longleaf Alliance Est. 1995 Report No. 14 July 2009 The Longleaf Alliance The Longleaf Alliance 7th Regional Conference and Forest Guild Annual Meeting Forestry in a Changing World: New Challenges and Opportunities We would like to thank the following for providing financial support: Auburn University School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences Berger Peat Moss Beth Maynor Young Photography Discovering Alabama DuPont Forestland Group Grasslander International Forest Company Joint Fire Sciences Program Meeks Tree Farm Mississippi State University Forestry Extension National Wildlife Federation Stuewe & Sons, Inc The Lyndhurst Foundation University of Alabama Press Citation: Bowersock, Elizabeth P., Hermann, Sharon M. and Kush, John S., comps. 2009. Forestry in a Changing World: New Challenges and Opportunities. Proceedings of The Longleaf Alliance Seventh Regional Conference and Forest Guild Annual Meeting. October 28-November2, 2008. Sandestin, FL. Longleaf Alliance Report No. 14. Longleaf Alliance Report No. 14 July 2009 Forward: 7th Regional Conference a Great Success by Rhett Johnson The 7th regional conference, like its predecessors, was Longleaf, was included and an entire breakout session was a huge success. The conference was sited in Sandestin, dedicated to discussion of that plan. Florida at the Baytown Resort and Conference Center in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Forest Guild Other topics included the projected impact of climate and attracted about 50 attendees from around the region change on longleaf and other southeastern ecosystems and and nation. As in the past, attendees were from a vast array communities, and longleaf conservation and restoration of backgrounds, with “‘ologists” of all types, foresters, efforts in the Florida Panhandle. The concurrent sessions, landowners, nurserymen, photographers, researchers, including the introduction of the America’s Longleaf plan, managers, etc., included in the mix. They represented included panel discussions or presentations on Education everything from private foundations to federal agencies and Outreach, Assessment and Regeneration, Managing and included state agency personnel, private consultants, for Multiple Uses, Prescribed Fire and Understory researchers and academics, landowners and representatives Restoration Advances, Lessons Learned from Long- from an array of environmental organizations. The poster Term Research, and New Conservation Opportunities for session, always a hit, contained about 60 entries and Longleaf Landowners. Obviously, there was something for displayed some of the best longleaf ecosystem research everyone, no matter what their background or interest. and restoration projects currently going on in the region. We also saw our greatest number of exhibitors to date. A highlight of the meeting was the excellent field trip. We Attendees of our regional conference had opportunities to visited three sites: the outstanding restoration project on the meet and socialize with equipment manufacturers, native 5,000 acre privately owned Nokuse Plantation; a unique seed companies, tree and native plant nurseries, herbicide old-growth longleaf stand immediately adjacent to the companies, nursery suppliers, professional photographers, bayfront beach; and a beautifully restored longleaf forest book publishers, lumber and decorative manufacturers, on Eglin AFB. The presentations on the field trip ranged seed companies, the producers of Discovering Alabama, from underplanting longleaf in slash pine plantations to a forest certification organization and other nonprofit gopher tortoise relocation to red-cockaded management to organizations! understaory restoration to longleaf products to feral hog control to snag management for songbirds and on and Presentations at the plenary and concurrent sessions on. The tours were leisurely, as always, but intricately were uniformly good, with timely topics and interesting timed and planned and went off like clockwork, surely a and diverse perspectives in every case. Of course, the testimony to hours of hard work and preparation by our highlight of the entire conference was the presence of and own JJ and a host of volunteers. presentation by Dr. Edward O. (“please just call me Ed”) Wilson. His participation attracted many to the conference As always, the food was good, the beverages abundant, and who may have deferred because of tight budgets and travel the company excellent. The Thursday night band, Eclectic restrictions. Acoustic, was perfect for the occasion and the weather couldn’t have been better. Regular attendees and “newbies” Other notable presentations during the plenary sessions alike commented over and over about the excitement and included “State of the Alliance” address, and introduction enthusiasm so obvious. A frequent comment was that our to Auburn’s Center for Longleaf Pine Ecosystems, Dr. conferences are the best among conferences and that this Reed Noss’s excellent presentation on Grasslands and was our best effort to date. I don’t know whether that’s true Geoff Hill’s update on the search for the Ivory-Billed or just a failure of long term memory, but I couldn’t agree Woodpecker. A special introduction to the nearly complete more. See you in 2010! range-wide restoration plan for longleaf, America’s Table of Contents Forward: 7th Biennial Regional Conference a Great Success 3 Rhett Johnson Longleaf Alliance and Forest Guild 2008 Joint Meeting Program 10 Longleaf Alliance 7th Regional Conference Field Trip 19 Speaker Bios Longleaf Alliance 21 Forest Guild 27 Presenters 31 Ecosystem Level Restoration of Longleaf Pine Communities on a Private Conservation Preserve in Northwest Florida Matthew J. Aresco, Vernon Compton and M.C. Davis The Longleaf Academy: Developing More Longleaf Expertise Through Training Foresters and Biologists JJ Bachant Brown Managing for Diversity on Private Lands Mark Bailey 5 The “Farm 40” - Sixty Years of Management for the Private Landowner Becky Barlow, John S. Kush and William D. Boyer 6 Palustris Experimental Forest James Barnett and James Haywood 6 Managing for Avian Diversity in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem: Snags, Cavity-nesting Birds and the Need for Meaningful Guidelines Lori A. Blanc and Jeffrey R. Walters 7 The Escambia Experimental Forest Kristina F. Connor, Dale G. Brockway, William D. Boyer and Ronald K. Tucker 45 A Strategy for Transitioning Loblolly Pine Stand to Longleaf: Implications for Restoring Native Groundcover Robert M. Franklin and John S. Spearman, Jr. 49 The Longleaf Alliance GIS Database of Existing Longleaf Pine Stands John C. Gilbert, Dean H. Gjerstad and John S. Kush 50 Restoring Longleaf Groundlayer on Private Lands in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina Jeff Glitzenstein, Jim Bates, Jill Barbour, Donna Streng, Beau Dudley, Lisa Lord, John Brubaker, Joe Cockrell 50 5 A Decision Support Tool for Longleaf Pine Restoration for the East Gulf Coastal Plain Joint Venture James B. Grand and K.J. Kleiner 51 Conservation Needs of Gopher Tortoises Craig Guyer, Sharon Hermann and Val Johnson 51 Palustris Experimental Forest: Changing the Face of the South James D. Haywood, James P. Barnett, Shi-Jean Susana Sung and Mary Anne Sword Sayer 52 Significance of Forest Structure to At-Risk Terrestrial Vertebrate Species in the Southeast Sharon Hermann, Craig Guyer, John Kush, Geoff Sorrell and Becky Estes 5 Ivory-billed Woodpecker Update Geoff Hill 54 Long-term Research at the J.W. Jones Ecological Research Center: Pursuing Emergent but Unexpected Outcomes Steven B. Jack, Robert M. Mitchell, J. Kevin Hiers, L. Katherine Kirkman and Lindsay R. Boring 54 Introducing Longleaf into Elementary Classrooms Rhett Johnson 55 Managing for Longleaf Pine in Support of Military Training: Fort Benning Case Study Robert Larimore 55 Naturally-regenerated Longleaf Pine: A New Site Index Model and Soon-to-Be Growth and Yield Model Dwight K. Lauer and John S. Kush 56 Long-Term Research at Tall Timbers Research Station Ronald E. Masters 56 Education Programs at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center Kevin McIntyre 57 The National Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils: An Initiative to Nationally Address Key Management, Policy, and Regulatory Issues Mark A. Melvin, Johnny Stowe and Dale Wade 57 New Conservation Opportunities for Longleaf Landowners - An Overview of Available Cost-share Programs, Conservation Agreements, and a Look at New Markets Moderator: Julie H. Moore 58 The Healthy Forests Reserve Program: An Assurance and Incentive-Based Tool for Conserving Listed Species on Private Land: The Mississippi Pilot Program Shauna M. Ginger 58 6 Programmatic SHA/CCAA for Gopher Tortoise, Black Pine Snake and Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Shauna M. Ginger 59 Opportunities for Gopher Tortoise Relocations to Private Lands Deborah Burr 61 Developing and Implementing a Market-Based Habitat Credit Bank for the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) on Family Forestlands Todd Gartner 62 Fire, Big Animals, and Bad Weather: Origins and Maintenance of Southern Grasslands Reed F. Noss 6 Fire Management of Coastal Pine Savannas in the Context of Rapid Global Climate Change William J. Platt 6 Using the Novel “Longleaf” to Teach Kids about Longleaf Roger Reid and Mark Hainds 64 Effects of Fire Regime on Fire Behavior in Southeastern U.S. Pine Forests Kevin Robertson 64 Effects of Fire Frequency on Ecosystem