Ecological Restoration and Management of Longleaf Pine Forests is a timely synthesis of the current understanding of the natural dynamics and processes in longleaf pine ecosystems. This book beautifully illustrates how incorporation of basic ecosystem knowledge and an understanding of socioeconomic realities shed new light on established paradigms and their application for restoration and management. Unique for its holistic ecological focus, rather than a more traditional silvicultural approach, the book highlights the importance of multi-faceted actions that robustly integrate forest and wildlife conservation at landscape scales, and merge ecological with socioeconomic objectives for effective conservation of the longleaf pine ecosystem.

Greenwood Plantation in the Red Hills region of southwest Georgia includes a rare one-thousand-acre stand of old-growth longleaf pine woodlands, a remnant of an ecosystem that once covered close to ninety million acres across the Southeast. The Art of Managing Longleaf documents the sometimes controversial management system that not only has protected Greenwood's “Big Woods” but also has been practiced on a substantial acreage of the remnant longleaf pine woodlands in the Red Hills and other parts of the Coastal Plain. Often described as an art informed by science, the Stoddard-Neel Approach combines frequent prescribed burning, highly selective logging, a commitment to a particular woodland aesthetic, intimate knowledge of the ecosystem and its processes, and other strategies to manage the longleaf pine ecosystem in a sustainable way. The namesakes of this method are Herbert Stoddard (who developed it) and his colleague and successor, Leon Neel (who has refined it). In addition to presenting a detailed, illustrated outline of the Stoddard-Neel Approach, the book—based on an extensive oral history project undertaken by Paul S. Sutter and Albert G. Way, with Neel as its major subject—discusses Neel's deep familial and cultural roots in the Red Hills; his years of work with Stoddard; and the formation and early years of the Tall Timbers Research Station, which Stoddard and Neel helped found in the pinelands near Tallahassee, Florida, in 1958. In their introduction, environmental historians Sutter and Way provide an overview of the longleaf ecosystem's natural and human history, and in his afterword, forest ecologist Jerry F. Franklin affirms the value of the Stoddard-Neel Approach.

Interest in appropriate management approaches for sustaining longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) forests has increased substantially during the recent decade. Although long-leaf pine can be managed using even-aged techniques, interest in uneven-aged methods has grown significantly as a result of concern for sustaining the wide range of ecological values associated with maintaining continuous crown cover in these ecosystems. Indeed, land managers have recently sought to restore and sustain the many habitat attributes upon which numerous at-risk species depend, while simultaneously producing high-quality wood products from longleaf pine forest ecosystems. Although earlier research produced a substantial body of knowledge to guide even-aged management, less is known about application of uneven-aged management methods in longleaf pine forests. Much of this information is yet in the developmental staage. However, managers from the Florida Division of Forestry and Florida National Forests, having a keen interest in applying what is currently known, encouraged scientists of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station and faculty members from the School of Forest Resources and Conservation at the University of Florida to engage in a dialogue that focused on addressing 60 of their key questions concerning uneven-aged management of longleaf pine. This dialogue addresses issues related to (1) methods for converting even-aged to uneven-aged stands, (2) growth and yield, (3) selection harvest techniques, (4) optimum logging practices, (5) effects on red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis), (6) prescribed burning approaches, (7) regeneration, (8) optimum stand structure, (9) competition tolerance and release of various seedling age classes, and (10) the viability of interplanting and underplanting.

This book unites a wealth of current information on the ecology, silviculture and restoration of the Longleaf Pine ecosystem. The book includes a discussion of the significant historical, social and political aspects of ecosystem management, making it a valuable resource for students, land managers, ecologists, private landowners, government agencies, consultants and the forest products industry.