Status of the Longleaf Alliance

The Longleaf Alliance is alive, well and growing!

The original Longleaf Alliance, after nearly fifteen years as a successful program housed in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn University, recently re-created itself as a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.  The Longleaf Alliance (LLA) is still ably guided by its original co-founders Rhett Johnson and Dean Gjerstad.  Rhett and Dean now serve on the Board of Directors of the organization, Rhett as Chairman of the Board and President of the Corporation and Dean as Vice-President.  Other members of the Board are Kenwood Nichols-Secretary/Treasurer, Charley Tarver, Cody Laird, Dick Porterfield, Julie Moore, Drue DeBerry, Dick Brinker and Gaines Smith.  The Board is being expanded to include representatives of other longleaf interests.  (Additional information on the Board can be found here.) 

The Longleaf Alliance’s mission remains the conservation and restoration of significant functioning longleaf pine ecosystems across the southeastern United States forest landscape.  The longleaf pine ecosystem once occupied an estimated 90 million acres in the region and its unique and favorable economic, ecological and social values have been well documented.  By the early 1990s, only about 2.8 million acres of this once vast and majestic forest remained.  Due in large part to the efforts of The Longleaf Alliance and its many partners over the past 14 years, the acreage in longleaf forest has increased to approximately 3.2 million acres, the first such increase since the time of settlement.  Better understanding of the non-timber characteristics of longleaf ecosystems has increased the quality and supply of those conservation values. 

The new Board of Directors of The Longleaf Alliance met on January 20-21, 2009 to review the status of and set the direction for the new non-profit organization.  The Board was aided in its work by utilizing the “America’s Longleaf Conservation Plan,” which was developed by a Regional Working Group composed of several government and NGOs, including The Longleaf Alliance.  This effort was initiated by The Longleaf Alliance in 2005 and quickly became a collaborative effort involving many stakeholders and written by a team representing federal, state and private interests.  A goal of 8 million acres of longleaf pine was affirmed through:

During the past eight months, The Longleaf Alliance has successfully raised $500,000 in gifts and grants to pursue its mission and a search for a full-time Executive Director has begun.  In the interim, Rhett Johnson and Dean Gjerstad, with the support of the Board of Directors, will continue to guide the organization.

Building on the focus on longleaf ecosystems established by The Longleaf Alliance and the Longleaf Stand Dynamics Laboratory at Auburn University, the newly created Center for Longleaf Pine Ecosystems (CLPE) at Auburn University will continue and expand on those efforts, bringing resources and attention from a varied group of researchers and outreach specialists at the university to longleaf ecosystem restoration and management.  The Longleaf Alliance staff - Mark Hainds, JJ Bachant-Brown, Elizabeth Bowersock and Vickie Stallings - will continue as Auburn University employees and, with support from The Longleaf Alliance, will perform the same functions as in the past. 

Research and outreach partnerships with other universities and organizations are in place and additional partnerships are constantly being sought.  Support for outreach and research projects that augment Alliance goals will be provided when resources permit.  Memoranda of Understanding between The Longleaf Alliance and several state and federal agencies and NGOs are also in place or pending. 

Like The Longleaf Alliance before it, this newly developed corporation will remain the hands-on/go-to organization for “all things longleaf,” providing outreach and “how-to” information on longleaf pine conservation and management to landowners of all stripes, agencies, consultants and managers.  For instance, the Alliance’s Biennial Regional Conference was recently held in Sandestin, Florida and was attended by about 325 people.  This was the 7th such Conference organized and conducted by the organization, all of which have demonstrated the ability of the Alliance to pull together longleaf enthusiasts from across the range of the species as well as an audience with amazingly diverse backgrounds and interests.

The Alliance conducted three Longleaf Academies late in 2008 and six additional academies are being conducted in the first half of 2009.  These week-long courses for professionals and advanced landowners provide in-depth instruction in all aspects of longleaf ecosystem conservation and management.  Details of the academies and of other activities and offerings can be obtained within this website in the Education/Outreach section, or in the organization’s newsletter, The Longleaf Leader.

The future is bright for longleaf ecosystems and The Longleaf Alliance is definitely on its way to expanding its efforts and programs! 

 

We strive to:

 

Our goal:
To create a region-wide network of resource professionals available to land owners and armed with the latest and best longleaf information.  To that end, continuing education courses put on by the LLA and directed towards consulting foresters, biologists, and other natural resource professionals better equips them to serve the public and the resource.

 

We emphasize:
The ecological and economic values of longleaf forests.  The LLA reaches out to private and public landowners alike with the best available science, technical support, and management information to facilitate longleaf restoration efforts.

 

 

Additional Partners of the LLA