Longleaf Pine Restoration

The US Army Corps of Engineers at Allatoona Lake has revived a natural ecosystem that was once native to the land surrounding the lake. Due to farming on the land prior to creation of the lake, the Longleaf pine ecosystem was transformed to a forest of more aggressive Loblolly and Virginia pines. Longleaf pine offers more benefits to wildlife and, in fact, offers such diversity that it serves as host to unique communities of plants and wildlife. Corps of Engineers personnel removed the competing pines and recreated the natural ecosystem through replanting and emulating wildfire. This undertaking took place on approximately 60 acres of the Allatoona Wildlife Management Area in Cherokee County near the border of Bartow County and has been so successful that the restoration will be expanded to almost 350 acres.


While this project is great for Allatoona Lake, it will hardly make a dent in the millions of acres of longleaf pine ecosystem that have been lost in the last 50 years. Many other parks and refuges are also planning longleaf pine restorations.

Longleaf Pine

200 years ago, longleaf pine trees covered 30 to 60 million acres of the southeastern United States Coastal Plains. Today, due to logging and development, less than 5% of those forests remain. Many native species, such as gopher tortoises, Florida mice, gopher frogs and eastern diamond-back rattlesnakes, rely on the longleaf pine ecosystem for survival and the red-cockaded woodpeckers and indigo snakes are now endangered due to the dramatic decline in this habitat.

Restoration of the longleaf pine ecosystem is a major effort with many difficulties. The largest difficulty with restoring longleaf pines is the extended time the plant spends in the grass stage. During the first 3 - 15 years, depending on competition, these plants expend almost all energy growing a long taproot and none on stem elongation. In this stage, the tree stem is only about 2-3" long and looks like a small stand of grass.

EMI is currently looking into procuring some longleaf pine seeds on which to test the air-pruning process. We have every reason to believe that this species will perform to the same standards as other EMI plants, meaning 3-5' of growth in the first seven months. This kind of growth rate could be a huge advantage for restoration projects. Planting a seedling at 3-5' would place the plant out of reach of most predators as well as above the burn height that threatens these trees during wild fires. Other basic air-pruning advantages would also apply; flood and drought resistance, early fruiting, high survivability and an earlier return of habitat for native wildlife.