Treesearch

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) plays a vital role in the economy and ecology of the Southeastern United States. Prescribed burning is an important tool for perpetuating the longleaf pine ecosystem (Van Lear and others 2005); however, surprisingly little is known about how its repeated use affects important aspects of wood properties. Developing this knowledge is important because trees that contain the highest amount of latewood, wood density, and specific gravity will be the most valuable to the producer of structural lumber products (Jane 1970).

In the Western Gulf region, eastern sources of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) are often chosen for planting rather than western sources. Eastern sources are considered less drought resistant than western sources, but to date, they have performed well in the western range. Climate shifts are expected to increase drought severity across the Western Gulf region. To facilitate planting decisions, we need knowledge of the ability of eastern and western loblolly pine sources to tolerate severe drought. Three genotypes of 15-year-old loblolly pine, two from the eastern and one from the western...

Restoring fire-maintained woodlands (forests with a noncontiguous canopy and herbaceous understory) has been a priority in the Southeastern United States for 4 decades. One of the major perceived challenges to restoration is the increased presence of loblolly (Pinus taeda) and slash (P. elliottii) pines, which have been widely planted throughout the region. Land managers have traditionally addressed this problem by clearcutting loblolly and slash pines and planting longleaf (P. palustris) or shortleaf (P. echinata) pines that had been historically prevalent on their respective sites prior...

Carbon storage, attainment of desired wildlife conditions, and potential timber yields for 30 of the oldest Wetland Reserve Easements in Arkansas were quantified. Observed and projected values were used to evaluate tradeoffs among carbon storage, wildlife habitat desired conditions, and merchantable yield. Plantations with relatively higher stocking had higher carbon storage and merchantable yields and were projected to continue to grow over the next 35 years. Low stocking, as a result of lower planting survival or volunteer recruitment, resulted in plantations with about half of the total...

Sonderegger pine (Pinus x sondereggeri), the natural hybrid of longleaf (P. palustris) and loblolly pine (P. taeda), is often described as having stem and branch deformities at maturity that may lead to poor wood quality. For this reason, Sonderegger pine seedlings are traditionally culled from southern forest tree nurseries to ensure only pure longleaf pine seedlings are outplanted to meet landowner objectives. The general acceptance of Sonderegger pine as an inferior tree has led to an absence of research to determine its morphological development from the seedling to mature stand...

Understanding fire and large herbivore interactions in interior western forests is critical, owing to the extensive and widespread co-occurrence of these two disturbance types and multiple present and future implications for forest resilience, conservation and restoration. However, manipulative studies focused on interactions and outcomes associated with these two disturbances are rare in forested rangelands. We investigated understory vegetation response to 5-year spring and fall prescribed fire and domestic cattle grazing exclusion in ponderosa pine stands and reported long-term responses...

All stands experience disturbance events that impact succession and development. Most mortality in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems consists of localized, gap-scale events composed of one to several canopy trees (Mueller and others 2022, Palik and Pederson 1996) that free resources including light, soil nutrients, moisture, and growing space (Hart and Kleinman 2018, Palik and others 1997). Available resources allow for tree establishment and recruitment that may result in a mosaic of age and size classes (Richards and Hart 2011, Varner and others 2003). We quantified the stand...

Fire-dependent longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems in the Southeastern United States require viable seed sources for successful natural regeneration. Most studies focus on cone production as a relatively easy-to-measure variable. However, there is little understanding of whether cone production is a reliable proxy for both seed production and seed viability, which may be decoupled at high cone production levels. Identifying relationships between cone production, seed production, seed size, and germination rate should provide managers and landowners better information to predict the...

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) is an important economic and ecological species in the Southeast. The removal of fire from southeastern forests and a landowner preference for loblolly pine (P. taeda) and slash pine (P. elliottii) has resulted in a major decrease of the range of longleaf pine. This study investigates the potential of two fertilization methods and inoculation with diazotrophic endophytes to reduce time in the grass stage and improve diameter growth in longleaf pine. The study area was located in Clarke County, Mississippi, on soils that consisted of a mix of fine sands and...

Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) are a rapidly increasingly nonnative invasive species that has spread widely across the Southern United States, impacting water quality and causing severe damage to tree regeneration. As a result, controlling feral hogs is an urgent issue for many forest landowners and silviculturists. To provide land managers in the Western Gulf Region (WGR) with a better sense of the extent of feral hog damage and landowner perspectives on controlling this invasive species, we sent 4,500 mail surveys in the summer of 2021 to randomly selected landowners in Arkansas, Louisiana, and...