Longleaf pine forests once covered as much as 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas. Today, this habitat has been reduced to approximately 5% of its original range, with most of the remnants scattered across public lands.

Longleaf pine habitat is among the most diverse in the world and provided the backdrop for much of the economic and cultural development of the American South. Known for the exceptional quality of their timber, longleaf pines were cut in great swaths over the last two centuries. Insect-resistant, fire and wind tolerant, and able to grow in dry, sandy soils, these durable trees are ideally suited to the Gulf Coastal Plain.

America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative

Longleaf restoration efforts thus far have primarily been focused on public lands and relatively small acreages. To address the lack of landscape-scale longleaf restoration, America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative aims to restore 8 million acres of longleaf pine across its historic range by 2025. In order to reach this goal, it is imperative to engage large, private timberland owners, which will require a new and creative approach.

Our Efforts

We have pursued many projects throughout the range of the longleaf pine, completing land conservation projects in nearly every state. Using an innovative approach, we are working together with Resource Management Service LLC to create a landscape-scale working longleaf forest in the lower Alabama-Florida panhandle region. The proposed Coastal Headwaters Forest — Longleaf Conservation and Restoration project will:

1. Establish conservation easements that require longleaf pine restoration and protect the land as a working longleaf forest in perpetuity;
2. Protect water quality and quantity by managing the property for longleaf pine with practices such as prescribed fire and preventing conversion to more intensive uses;
3. Support forest-related economic development in local communities and create and expand markets for longleaf pine products;
4. Provide ecological benefits for plants and animals inherent to the longleaf ecosystem;
5. Buffer and protect local military installations and provide potential training and mitigation opportunities; and
6. Demonstrate that a landscape-scale longleaf forest restoration project that employs a working forest model can be successful

Approximately 70% of Coastal Headwaters Forest is currently composed of loblolly pine, which will be replanted with longleaf as easements are completed and managed with the use of prescribed fire. The forest also supports a variety of other habitat types — from ephemeral ponds to bottomland hardwood forests — and contains numerous streams and creeks that feed into major rivers. Protection of this habitat benefits many imperiled species and safeguards a wildlife corridor that connects conservation lands in Florida to those in Alabama.

Coastal Headwaters Forest will also protect water quality and quantity within five major river watersheds. Long-term protection of these watersheds — and preventing conversion to more intensive land uses — will help ensure the continuation of clean freshwater flows to critical Gulf estuaries so they can remain productive and vibrant for years to come. The majority of the site is also within an aquifer recharge area.

Fighting Climate Change

Longleaf pine restoration is a promising adaptation strategy to mitigate the impacts of climate change on southeastern forests. Longleaf pine ecosystems are naturally resilient to climate extremes — they are able to grow under very dry and wet conditions, tolerant of and dependent on frequent fire, better able to weather severe storms and more resistant to beetle infestations likely to be intensified by warmer and drier conditions. Longleaf pine ecosystems are also well suited for long-term carbon sequestration because the trees live longer than other southern pine species.

Making This Happen

In 2018, we made significant headway by placing a conservation easement on 3,719 acres, which represented the first coastal headwaters project to be completed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, through its Regional Conservation Partnership and Healthy Forest Reserve programs, awarded us a federal grant for an easement that restricts development on the property while allowing it to remain under private ownership for sustainable timber production, which benefits the local economy and provides forestry jobs.

We continue to work with Resource Management Service LLC and coalition partners to secure additional federal, state and private funding that will allow us to protect the remainder of the Coastal Headwaters Forest. Collaboration will be the key to continued success throughout the region. And by using the Coastal Headwaters project as a model, longleaf pine will have a real chance at making a comeback.

Partners

Alabama Forestry Commission
Alabama Forest Resources Center
America’s Longleaf Initiative
Alabama Power
Alabama Wildlife Federation
Atlanta Botanical Garden
Audubon Florida
E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
Florida Defenders of Wildlife
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Florida Forest Service
Florida Wildlife Federation
Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership
Gulf Power
Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center
National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative
National Wild Turkey Federation
National Wildlife Federation
Northwest Florida Water Management District
Ocean Foundation
Resource Management Service LLC
Quality Deer Management Association
Saloom Properties LLC
SERPPAS
Southern Company
The Longleaf Alliance
The Nature Conservancy
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Forest Service
U.S.D.A. Natural Resource Conservation Service

Learn More

• “The Right Acres in the Right Place at the Right Time – Coastal Headwaters Forest” (USDA)