Ecological Restoration and Management of Longleaf Pine Forests is a timely synthesis of the current understanding of the natural dynamics and processes in longleaf pine ecosystems. This book beautifully illustrates how incorporation of basic ecosystem knowledge and an understanding of socioeconomic realities shed new light on established paradigms and their application for restoration and management. Unique for its holistic ecological focus, rather than a more traditional silvicultural approach, the book highlights the importance of multi-faceted actions that robustly integrate forest and wildlife conservation at landscape scales, and merge ecological with socioeconomic objectives for effective conservation of the longleaf pine ecosystem.

The longleaf pine ecosystem, once one of the most extensive ecosystems in North America, is now among the most threatened. Over the past few centuries, land clearing, logging, fire suppression, and the encroachment of more aggressive plants have led to an overwhelming decrease in the ecosystem’s size, to approximately 2.2% of its original coverage. Despite this devastation, the range of the longleaf still extends from Virginia to Texas. Through the combined efforts of organizations such as the USDA Forest Service, the Longleaf Alliance, and the Nature Conservancy, extensive programs to conserve, restore, and manage the ecosystem are currently underway. The longleaf pine ecosystem is valued not only for its aesthetic appeal, but also for its outstanding biodiversity, habitat value, and for the quality of the longleaf pine lumber. It has a natural resistance to fire and insects, and supports more than thirty threatened or endangered plant and animal species, including the red-cockaded woodpecker and the gopher tortoise. The Longleaf Pine Ecosystem unites a wealth of current information on the ecology, silviculture, and restoration of this ecosystem. The book also includes a discussion of the significant historical, social, and political aspects of ecosystem management, making it a valuable resource for students, land managers, ecologists, private landowners, government agencies, consultants, and the forest products industry. About the Editors: Dr. Shibu Jose is Associate Professor of Forest Ecology and Dr. Eric J. Jokela is Professor of Silviculture at the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Dr. Deborah L. Miller is Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida in Milton.

"Ecological Restoration and Management of Longleaf Pine Forests is a timely synthesis of the current understanding of the natural dynamics and processes in longleaf pine ecosystems. This book beautifully illustrates how incorporation of basic ecosystem knowledge and an understanding of socioeconomic realities shed new light on established paradigms and their application for restoration and management. Unique for its holistic ecological focus, rather than a more traditional silvicultural approach, the book highlights the importance of multi-faceted actions that robustly integrate forest and wildlife conservation at landscape scales, and merge ecological with socioeconomic objectives for effective conservation of the longleaf pine ecosystem."--Provided by publisher.

Fire can be a destructive, deadly element of nature, capable of obliterating forests, destroying homes, and taking lives. Den Latham's Painting the Landscape with Fire describes this phenomenon but also tells a different story, one that reveals the role of fire ecology in healthy, dynamic forests. Fire is a beneficial element that allows the longleaf forests of America's Southeast to survive. In recent decades foresters and landowners have become intensely aware of the need to "put enough fire on the ground" to preserve longleaf habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers, quail, wild turkeys, and a host of other plants and animals. Painting the Landscape with Fire is a hands-on primer for understanding the role of fire in longleaf forests. Latham joins wildlife biologists, foresters, wildfire fighters, and others as they band and translocate endangered birds, survey snake populations, improve wildlife habitat, and conduct prescribed burns on public and private lands. Painting the Landscape with Fire explores the unique Southern biosphere of longleaf forests. Throughout Latham beautifully tells the story of the resilience of these woodlands and of the resourcefulness of those who work to see them thrive. Fire is destructive in the case of accidents, arson, or poor policy, but with the right precautions and safety measures, it is the glowing life force that these forests need.

Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land is the first practical guidebook to give restorationists and would-be restorationists with little or no scientific training or background the “how to” information and knowledge they need to plan and implement ecological restoration activities. The book sets forth a step-by-step process for developing, implementing, monitoring, and refining on-the-ground restoration projects that is applicable to a wide range of landscapes and ecosystems. The first part of the book introduces the process of ecological restoration in simple, easily understood language through specific examples drawn from the authors’ experience restoring their own lands in southern and central Wisconsin. It offers systematic, step-by-step strategies along with inspiration and benchmark experiences. The book’s second half shows how that same “thinking” and “doing” can be applied to North America’s major ecosystems and landscapes in any condition or scale. No other ecological restoration book leads by example and first-hand experience likethis one. The authors encourage readers to champion restoration of ecosystems close to where they live . . . at home, on farms and ranches, in parks and preserves. It provides an essential bridge for people from all walks of life and all levels of experience—from land trust member property stewards to agency personnel responsible for restoring lands in their care—and represents a unique and important contribution to the literature on restoration.

Humans have influenced the landscapes and forests throughout the temperate and boreal zones for millennia. Restoration of Boreal and Temperate Forests, Second Edition focuses on the negative impact of human activity, and explains the importance of forest restoration as a way to repair habitat, restore forest structure and function, and counteract t

Greenwood Plantation in the Red Hills region of southwest Georgia includes a rare one-thousand-acre stand of old-growth longleaf pine woodlands, a remnant of an ecosystem that once covered close to ninety million acres across the Southeast. The Art of Managing Longleaf documents the sometimes controversial management system that not only has protected Greenwood's “Big Woods” but also has been practiced on a substantial acreage of the remnant longleaf pine woodlands in the Red Hills and other parts of the Coastal Plain. Often described as an art informed by science, the Stoddard-Neel Approach combines frequent prescribed burning, highly selective logging, a commitment to a particular woodland aesthetic, intimate knowledge of the ecosystem and its processes, and other strategies to manage the longleaf pine ecosystem in a sustainable way. The namesakes of this method are Herbert Stoddard (who developed it) and his colleague and successor, Leon Neel (who has refined it). In addition to presenting a detailed, illustrated outline of the Stoddard-Neel Approach, the book—based on an extensive oral history project undertaken by Paul S. Sutter and Albert G. Way, with Neel as its major subject—discusses Neel's deep familial and cultural roots in the Red Hills; his years of work with Stoddard; and the formation and early years of the Tall Timbers Research Station, which Stoddard and Neel helped found in the pinelands near Tallahassee, Florida, in 1958. In their introduction, environmental historians Sutter and Way provide an overview of the longleaf ecosystem's natural and human history, and in his afterword, forest ecologist Jerry F. Franklin affirms the value of the Stoddard-Neel Approach.

The Earth's biodiversity is at risk, as delicate ecosystems struggle to overcome global climate change, rain forest destruction acid rain overfishing, erosion, and a host of other interconnected environmental problems. Written for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, Restoration Ecology addresses these growing environmental Concerns and offers practical and economical solution. The text opens with a look at fundamental ecological principles critical to understanding restoration, including nutriert cycing and factors that regulate ecosystem function, and continues on to explore restoration in practice, providing real-life accounts of the restoration of various disturbed ecosystems. The final section delves into the planning implementation monitoring, and appraisal of restoration work. --Book Jacket.

Longleaf forests once covered 92 million acres from Texas to Maryland to Florida. These grand old-growth pines were the "alpha tree" of the largest forest ecosystem in North America and have come to define the southern forest. But logging, suppression of fire, destruction by landowners, and a complex web of other factors reduced those forests so that longleaf is now found only on 3 million acres. Fortunately, the stately tree is enjoying a resurgence of interest, and longleaf forests are once again spreading across the South. Blending a compelling narrative by writers Bill Finch, Rhett Johnson, and John C. Hall with Beth Maynor Young's breathtaking photography, Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See invites readers to experience the astounding beauty and significance of the majestic longleaf ecosystem. The authors explore the interactions of longleaf with other species, the development of longleaf forests prior to human contact, and the influence of the longleaf on southern culture, as well as ongoing efforts to restore these forests. Part natural history, part conservation advocacy, and part cultural exploration, this book highlights the special nature of longleaf forests and proposes ways to conserve and expand them.

This innovative book integrates practical information from restoration projects around the world with the latest developments in successional theory. It recognizes the critical roles of disturbance ecology, landscape ecology, ecological assembly, invasion biology, ecosystem health, and historical ecology in habitat restoration. It argues that restoration within a successional context will best utilize the lessons from each of these disciplines.