Southern Research Station

Title: Ecological restoration of an old-growth longleaf pine stand utilizing prescribed fire

Author: Varner, J. Morgan, III; Kush, John S.; Meldahl, Ralph S.

Date: 2000

Source: In: Moser, W. Keith; Moser, Cynthia E., eds. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture and vegetation management. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, No. 21. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 216-219

Description: Ecological restoration using prescribed fire has been underway for 3 years in an uncut, old-growth longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) stand located in south Alabama. The longleaf pine ecosystem requires frequent (once every 1-10 years) surface fire to prevent succesion to later several stages. Before this study began, this stand had not burned in >45 years, resulting in heavy litter accumilation (>25 centimeters), a dense hardwood mid-story, and few herbaceous spacies. Baseline data were collected prior to reintroduction of fire into the 23-hectare stand in 1995. Since hardwood stems were removed in a fuelwood operation and fire was reintroduced, litter depth and composition of herbaceous and woody species have changad significantly. Prescribed fire has been used to reduce litter layers, encourage establishment of herbaceous vegetation, diseoumge survival of hardwocd species, deter non-native species establishment and persistance, and alter residual longleaf pine stand structure. Analysis of data collected prior to the onset of restoration and 4 years later shows highly significant changes in surface soil nutrients, litter depths, and herbaceous species establishment, as well as substantial longleaf pine mortality.

Keywords: ecological restoration, longleaf pine, mortality, nutrients, old-growth, Pinus palustris, prescribed fire, south Alabama

View and Print this Publication (204 KB)

Pristine Version:  An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here:

View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (776 KB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Varner, J. Morgan, III; Kush, John S.; Meldahl, Ralph S.  2000.  Ecological restoration of an old-growth longleaf pine stand utilizing prescribed fire.   In: Moser, W. Keith; Moser, Cynthia E., eds. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture and vegetation management. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, No. 21. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 216-219