CRESTVIEW — The United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service has $10.6 million to aid forest managers restoring longleaf pine ecosystems on private lands in nine states.
Longleaf pine forests have almost vanished, but a coordinated, USDA-led conservation effort is helping this Southeast ecoystem recover.
Just more than $1.2 million in assistance is available to land managers in Florida. Help also is available for longleaf pine forests in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
"USDA is committed to working with land managers to help restore and expand this critical ecosystem, and together we have restored nearly a quarter of a million acres since 2009," said Russell Morgan, NRCS state conservationist in Florida. "Longleaf forests provide vital habitat to a variety of species as well as valuable timber.
"We look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together in this next round of the initiative."
NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to help landowners and land managers plant longleaf as well as manage longleaf forests through practices like prescribed burning.
Longleaf trees resist fire, and prescribed burning mimics a natural process that once enabled them to thrive, according to the NRCS. Additionally, fire gives life to a fresh understory of plants that provides food for wildlife.
Landowners interested in the conservation program can contact their local USDA service center, including the one at 934 Ferdon Blvd. N., Crestview, at 682-2416.
●Longleaf forests once dominated the Southeast's coastal plains, and 29 threatened and endangered species — including the gopher tortoise and black pine snake — depend on these forests for survival.
●During the past two centuries, development, timbering and fire suppression reduced the longleaf pine ecosystem's range by almost 97 percent, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
●The Natural Resources Conservation Service's Longleaf Pine Initiative, now in its sixth year, has helped restore more than 240,000 acres of longleaf forests.
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview help available to restore, manage longleaf pines