The Paint Rock Forest Research Center has long been a leader in efforts to
restore shortleaf pine, the cornerstone one the South’s most important
ecosystems.
If you are interested in containerized native shortleaf pine
seedlings from Alabama and Tennessee forests, we have them
available in blocks of 1000. Contact Bill Finch
for more info
Seeds of a new initiative sown at national Shortleaf Pine conference
The mountain-top plateaus surrounding the Paint Rock Valley were once covered in a forest unlike anything most folks have ever seen. It was a sun-drenched savanna you could see through, rolling hills of stately shortleaf pines over waving meadows of grasses and wildflowers. Wildlife abounded, quail and grouse, deer, buffalo and elk.
And we’re about to lose the last fragments of it.
The Paint Rock Forest Research Center decided we needed to start picking up the pieces, fast. We began by collecting the precious seeds of the shortleaf pines, the first time anyone had made a major effort to collect Eastern shortleaf pine seed in almost a century. That effort, partially funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, helped inspire the national revival of the Shortleaf Pine Initiative. And this November, Alabama hosted the reborn national Shortleaf Pine Conference at Guntersville Lake State Park, with more than 175 participants from Missouri to Ohio to the Carolinas.
The conference was a huge success. The legends of the shortleaf pine revival—Clarence Coffey, Jim Gulden, Dan Dey, Wally Akins, and others—joined forces with a new generation of shortleaf enthusiasts led by Paint Rock Valley’s Carter England and Nature Conservancy foresters Davis Goode and Britt Townsend to create a new vision of shortleaf.
Three days of speakers covered the gamut: the benefits of shortleaf to quail, deer, turkey and rare birds; shortleaf timber management and markets; genetics and fire; and (thanks to landscape artist Phillip Juras) how art can help us see shortleaf. We included tours of some of the South’s best remaining stands of shortleaf at Little River Canyon National Preserve and a working forest restoration on private lands above Paint Rock. And the Research Center staff got to show off their efforts to create shortleaf pine seed orchards at Guntersville State Park, while ensuring the genetic integrity of Eastern shortleaf and the efforts needed to secure enough seed to support a revival.
The fact that so many top scientists and conservationists from around the country came to the Tennessee River Valley is an important reminder: The Research Center isn’t working with the Shortleaf Pine Initiative just because it’s important to Paint Rock and northeast Alabama. Many believe shortleaf is one of the most important trees for the future of the nation’s forests. And our region holds the seeds of that future.
Land set ablaze, flames racing to devour plants and leaving only a trail of blackened ash — it’s an image that may seem destructive, but in a prescribed burn, it’s one of nature’s most powerful tools for restoration Director of Paint Rock Forest Research Center, Bill Finch, says that converting the former agricultural lands back to native grasslands could offer a number of advantages. One particular benefit we look forward to is the attraction of disappearing wildlife such as ruffed grouse and quail.
The field had beautiful stands of native grasses, but some portions had been invaded by Asian fescue grass, which is toxic to most wildlife. These fires will help tip the balance back to native grasses and wildflowers.
Joined by Alabama A&M’s Fire Dawg crew, Bill and the Research Center crew—Brandon, Mary and Nathan—were able to spend ample time setting up fire lanes and making sure that no excess fuel was laying around, waiting to cause a problem.
The group used bush hogs and lawnmowers to remove dried grasses from the fire containment lanes and made use of roads and creeks as natural firebreaks. Much of the success of a burn is dependent on the weather conditions. The humidity levels and the wind are important factors to consider when it comes to planning a burn. If the wind changes directions it can affect how the fire travels, and being in control of the movement of the burn is crucial.
“The wind wouldn’t always follow the rules and it would change directions,” Finch said, “Which meant we would have to go chase it with a drip torch to make sure the fire was moving where we wanted it to go.”
With all of the factors involved, setting a date for a burn can prove to be a headache. This year, each time the group planned to burn, like clockwork the sky let loose and rained on their parade. Too much moisture eliminates the ability to do a prescribed burn, thus the date for this grassland fire was pushed back much later than anticipated.
“The moisture from the plants would burn off and make these clouds that would actually cool off the area that you were trying to burn.” Finch says with a chuckle. “Sometimes it’s a bit harder to start a fire than you would think it’d be.”
With each burn, the crew discovers something new about the valley. Finch says he’s begun to realize that a distinctive grass community is emerging, dominated by what Finch calls “cutthroat grasses.” These handsome and often quite colorful grasses (all in the genus Coeleatenia) are closely related to the “cutthroat” wetland grasses of the Everglades, but in the most limestone clays of Paint Rock, they dominate native meadows.
