Since the days of Henry David Thoreau, poets and naturalists have contemplated the importance of preserving the natural world, but few early Americans had the luxury of quiet contemplation. They needed to build homes, barns, and boats, and they needed to find firewood. The pine-filled forest was a plentiful resource. In fact, shortleaf pine forests and associated habitats once covered a vast area of the continent, stretching from eastern Texas and Oklahoma to the eastern seaboard of New Jersey south to Florida. Early settlers and Government Land Office surveys describe these pine-dominated and mixed pine-oak forests as open woodlands where sunlight reached the ground, and a diverse assortment of native wildlife flourished. Over time, settlers and colonists found pine resistant to rot and used the straight, tall logs for poles, for building naval ships, and to make charcoal for iron furnaces. Despite decades of deforestation, a handful of pine species were still prevalent in most forests until the last 50 years when farming and logging, altered fire regimes, changes in land use, the invasion of the southern pine beetle, and Littleleaf Disease took a toll. Over the last 30 years, the once extensive shortleaf pine ecosystem has lost over 50% of its former acreage. But the tree has obtained a champion. In 2010, a diverse group of the region’s resource management leaders formed the Shortleaf Working Group (SWG). Then, in 2013, several public and private organizations joined to form the Shortleaf Pine Initiative (SPI). Together they are working to address the multiple threats facing this imperiled ecosystem and have formed an Advisory Committee and Planning Team to lead their efforts. For a deep dive into the ecology and history of the shortleaf pine, click here. To get involved in SPI, email info@shortleafpine.net.
Photo: Unloading small shortleaf pine logs