The Longleaf Pine Forests of the Southeast: Requiem or Renaissance?

Longleaf pine forests once dominated the southeastern states, but in the past 100 years have been reduced from 92 million acres to less than 3 million acres. The longleaf pine ecosystem includes vast tracts of pine barrens which are both persistent and diverse, but survive on infertile soils and do not develop the layered canopies typical of other diverse forests. Exploitation of these forests began during colonial times, and moves down from the Atlantic states to the Gulf states. Second-growth forests have been logged since WWII. Restoration of this ecosystem requires coordination between the federal and private landowners under a structure of incentives and regulations.