United States Department of Agriculture NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE LONGLEAF PINE ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION FY20-24 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY Longleaf pine forests are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. TABLE OF CONTENTS Longleaf Pine Conservation Goals ............................................................ 3 USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Programs .................... 8 Conservation Actions ............................................................................... 13 Conservation Action: Vegetation Management ..................................................................................... 14 Conservation Action: Prescribed Fire ...................................................................................................... 15 Conservation Action: Longleaf Pine Establishment............................................................................... 16 Conservation Action: Working Forests Protection................................................................................. 17 Conservation Outcomes and Benefits to Landowners ........................ 18 NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY Longleaf pine forests are part of 4 the historical and cultural fabric of the Southeast. LONGLEAF PINE ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION Longleaf Pine Conservation Goals Longleaf pine forests once covered more than 90 million acres across the Southeast. They stretched from eastern Texas through central Florida, north to southern Virginia. These forests represent one of the world’s most unique and biologically diverse ecosystems. They support an estimated 900 different plant species and provide habitat to approximately 100 bird species, 36 mammal species, and 170 species of reptiles and amphibians. Longleaf pine forests are also part of the historical and cultural fabric of the Southeast. Native Americans have a long history of actively managing the region’s forests, including with fire, for food and fiber. Later, timber harvests and the extraction of naval stores (such as tar, pitch, rosin, and turpentine) helped supply raw materials to the growing country. Longleaf pine forests are also valued for their open, verdant, park- like beauty, and recreational opportunities such as birdwatching and hunting. Over the past two centuries, conversion to agriculture, other forest types, other land uses, and fire suppression have reduced the longleaf pine forests to less than five percent of their original range. The extensive loss of longleaf pine has caused a noticeable change in the Southeast, demonstrated by the fact that more than 30 species associated with longleaf pine forests, such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and black pine snake An Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas Elder and are listed as federally threatened or endangered by master basket weaver uses longleaf pine needles the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). to weave the Tribes intricate handmade baskets. Conservation Programs and Approaches Public and private sector leaders have recognized the need to address the substantial decline in both the quantity and quality of longleaf pine forests across the Southeast. In 2005, America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative (ALRI) was formed to support a focused, range-wide restoration approach across public and private lands. ALRI includes USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Forest Service, as well as partners like the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, American Forest Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Forest Landowners Association, The Conservation Fund, The Longleaf Alliance, and state agencies. Longleaf pine ecosystems include a unique and diverse understory including pitcher plants. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY 6 America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative MOVING TOWARDS In 2009, ALRI released the Range-wide THE EIGHT-MILLION- Conservation Plan for Longleaf Pine (range-wide plan), which provides a framework for longleaf ACRE GOAL pine ecosystem conservation. It includes a goal to • Restoring longleaf pine forests restore, improve, and maintain eight million acres on suitable sites within its range of longleaf pine forests on public and private currently in other forest types or land lands by the end of 2024. The three actions – classifications. restoring, improving, and maintaining – were identified because different sites have different • Improving forest stands with longleaf existing conditions and landowner objectives pine trees present, but missing that can benefit from site-specific conservation significant components of understory approaches. ALRI has also described an communities or fire regimes to support optimal forest structure and condition, called representative communities of longleaf the maintenance condition class, because it pine ecosystems. represents the optimal forest habitat for plants • Maintaining existing longleaf pine and wildlife associated with longleaf pine ecosystems in good condition. ecosystems. Assessing good condition can be done In June 2010, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, through an evaluation of the overstory Defense, and Interior formalized their canopy, mid-story canopy, and ground commitment to the ALRI in a Memorandum of layer conditions. Understanding. LONGLEAF PINE ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION The ALRI range-wide plan targets restoration, improvement, and maintenance activities to within Significant Geographic Areas (SGAs). SGAs are areas that contain large existing blocks of longleaf pine, many of them anchored by public lands such as military installations, national forests, national wildlife refuges, state forests, or heritage reserves. The ALRI goal is 50 percent of the acreage increases within 17 SGAs as delineated in the ALRI range-wide plan. Focusing in SGAs increases the value of longleaf habitats by building the footprint of existing forest blocks. These large forest blocks can support a diversity of wildlife, including those with large home ranges or those requiring buffers to development. Inherent to landscape-scale conservation sites is also an increased resiliency to catastrophic events such as hurricanes. Within the SGAs, partners are working in teams, known as local implementation teams (LITs), to coordinate local on-the-ground restoration efforts. Coordinated restoration efforts, such as controlled burns, through LITs can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the work while reducing the cost per acre. Over the first ten years of ALRI implementation, the long regional decline of longleaf pine ecosystems has reversed. Longleaf pine forests in the Southeast have grown from the historic low of approximately 3.4 million acres to approximately 4.7 million acres in 2020. In addition, populations of red-cockaded woodpeckers appear to be growing across their range. These achievements are the result of ten years of dedicated public and private efforts. Still, there are places in the range where longleaf pine is being lost or degraded. In order to achieve the ALRI goal, the pace and scale of restoration activities across land types will need to accelerate over the next five years. Within USDA, both NRCS and USFS are contributing Mature longleaf pine tree with thick fire-resistant bark to this Shared Stewardship approach. USFS has at Boykin Springs, TX. committed to restoring 1 million acres of longleaf pine on national forest system lands and works closely with state forestry agencies on their public lands. NRCS provides private landowners with technical and financial assistance for longleaf pine restoration. ALRI estimates that 80 percent of the overall eight-million- acre goal will have to occur on private lands. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY 8 USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Programs FARM BILL PROGRAMS NRCS’ longleaf conservation efforts support the • Environmental Quality Incentive Program ALRI range-wide plan through three distinct, (EQIP) - provides financial and technical assistance but related approaches: Longleaf Pine Initiative to agricultural producers and forest landowners (LLPI), Working Lands for Wildlife – Gopher to plan and implement conservation practices that Tortoise (WLFW-GT), and Regional Conservation improve soil, water, plant, animal, air, and related natural resources on agricultural land and non- Partnership Program (RCPP). Each NRCS initiative industrial private forestland. has a specific focus, but they complement each other to achieve the desired outcomes. • Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) - assist agricultural producers and Assistance to private landowners forest landowners in undertaking additional NRCS provides technical and financial assistance conservation activities beyond those typical to EQIP in improving, maintaining, and managing to customers, helping them identify and existing conservation activities. NRCS recently implement a variety of conservation practices. updated the program, which included several Financial assistance comes from a variety of Farm enhancements and bundles that benefit the Bill programs, which cover a portion of the costs management of longleaf pine forests. for implementing conservation practices. • Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) - offers new opportunities for the NRCS, conservation partners, agricultural producers, and forest landowners to work together to harness innovation and