NatureMan's Official Blog: Longleaf Pine

The Longleaf Pine is perhaps the most interesting tree in all the world. Longleaf Pine forests are one the most biologically diverse forests on Earth. A single Longleaf Pine forest can contains nearly 1000 species of plants, and over 300 animals endemic to Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, several of the animal species are endangered. It is the most diverse forests next to tropical rainforests. Many of the grass plants hold up the dead Pine needles from the ground, and makes for better fires, that can spread easier. Fires are essential to the survival of the Longleaf Pine forests. The pine cones won't open up to release their seeds until extreme heat by fire roles by. Even the grasses and hundreds of other plant species require fire in order to reproduce. The Longleaf Pine forests require wildfires every 2-5 years or so. Fires naturally would start by lightning stirkes in Spring and early summer thunderstorms. With logging that began in the mid-1800s and through the early 20th centrury brought the Longleaf Pine forests to a dwindle. The remaining forests were threatened by wildfire bans by the government. The remaining forests either didn't reproduce and died from lack of fire, or the forests lost plant life and were unhealthy for future generations. Before logging and fire supression began, there were over 90 million acres of Longleaf Pine forests. Now less than 5 million acres remain, and only a fraction of that is old growth forests. Now many people and are working hard to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. Millions of Longleaf Pine seedlings are germinated to be sold to people with private land and preserved forests to restore this once great ecosystem. Even the grass and plants that only exsist in a Longleaf Pine forest are being grown and planted in the new restoration areas. Every couple of years there are prescribed burns to keep the Longleaf Pine ecosystem healthy. Prescribed burns are done by the nature conservationists in the government, or by private land owners by getting burn permits.

Native Range