Initiative restores longleaf pine forests on private lands

The Longleaf Pine Initiative (LPI), launched in 2010, provided $4.65 million through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) to help private landowners improve the health of longleaf pine forest ecosystems in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

Longleaf pine forest once covered more than 90 million acres in the southeastern United States, serving as one of the most diverse ecosystems outside of the tropics.  Today, only 3.4 million acres remain.  The decline in ecosystem area has been accompanied by a decline in ecosystem health.  The remaining longleaf pine forest provides critical habitat for 29 threatened or endangered species.  The LPI ecosystem initiative seeks to use an integrated landscape approach to restore longleaf pine forests on private lands and improve plant and animal habitat.

In 2010, 296 contracts were awarded to landowners to implement more than 1,200 conservation and restoration practices in longleaf pine forests.  The projects supported improvements in plant and animal habitat on more than 33,000 acres, through thinning, burning, release of seedlings, and the establishment of new stands through site preparation and plantings.

In 2011, the agency allocated $12.1 million in financial assistance through WHIP to continue assisting private landowners in improving the health of longleaf pine ecosystems in the States mentioned above.