Course Descriptions
At this time we offer the following courses. Please keep checking back as we continue to expand the courses offered. All courses offer CFEs!
Workshop Courses
Longleaf 101
The Longleaf 101 course is an intensive 3-4 day, depending upon location, in-depth classroom and field instruction in “all things longleaf”. The topics are diverse and cover such things as:
- The cultural and natural history of longleaf pine;
- The use and effect of fire in longleaf ecosystems;
- Artificial regeneration, including site selection, seedling quality, site preparation, planting, and release techniques;
- Natural regeneration systems;
- Stand management considerations;
- Longleaf growth and yield and stand dynamics;
- Wildlife management including T&E species considerations;
- Cost-share opportunities;
- Native understory restoration;
- Diseases and insect identification;
- Economics and products; and
- Available resources and materials.
Field exercises include an entire day examining long term studies at the Escambia Experimental Forest (if held at the Solon Dixon Center in AL), regeneration assessments in naturally regenerated stands, cone counts in preparation for natural regeneration, pole classification, shelterwood regeneration systems, uneven and even-aged management systems, artificial regeneration, gopher tortoise and red-cockaded woodpecker management, understory vegetation ID and management with an emphasis on wildlife and aesthetic values, prescribed fire effects on young and mature longleaf forests, effects of management on growth and pole production, and stand conversion.
Understory Restoration 201
The purpose of this course is to provide continuing education about the diverse longleaf understory, with an emphasis on native warm season grasses, composites and legumes. Main topics included in the curriculum are plant identification, native plant wildlife usage, seed production operations, understory restoration techniques, and management methods. This 2-day workshop will consist of both classroom lectures and hands-on field exercises. Plant identification manuals and equipment will be provided for attendees. Note: graduates of the Longleaf 101 course have first opportunity to enroll in this course when offered; afterwards it will be opened to the general public. We also invite you to join our native understory discussion on Facebook!
Webinar Courses
Large Flower Partridge Pea in Longleaf Pine Plantings: The Plant, The Issues, The Answers
Large flower partridge pea - Chamaecrista fasciculata aka Cassia fasciculata, is a native- annual legume that occurs across the native range of longleaf pine. It has been widely utilized in food plots as a quail food. Partridge pea cultivars were included in many native herbaceous seed mixes that were broadcast or drilled into young longleaf pine plantations across the southeast. Subsequently, many longleaf pine plantings failed as a direct result of over-competitive partridge pea dominating these planted fields.
In this webinar, we will examine how partridge pea grows, reproduces, and spreads. We will also examine potential means of controlling partridge pea with both mechanical and herbicide treatments. We will look into how: partridge pea kills young longleaf seedlings, which cultivars are most risky to utilize, and we will present several alternative species that should be considered as logical and desirable native legumes that could be substituted in native seed mixes to replace large flower partridge pea.
To view the archived webinar course on this topic, click HERE (September 6, 2011) or HERE (November 8, 2011).
Longleaf Container Grown Seedlings: What’s Good? What’s Bad? What to Look for in Your Seedling Shipment.
During the 2011-2012 planting season somewhere between 80 and 100-million longleaf pine seedlings will be planted across the Southeastern, US. Approximately 90% of these seedlings will be grown in containers and shipped as plug or containerized seedlings. Most of these shipped seedlings will be acceptable or “target” grade seedlings. However, grades or categories of longleaf that one may find at varying percentages in a shipment include: weeds in plug, hybrids, floppies, doubles, dry plugs, previously frozen plugs, unacceptable root orientation, diseased plugs, dead seedlings, alternate pine species, and other grades or categories of container-grown longleaf. This webinar will help the participant to identify these various categories or grades and to recognize the costs or benefits of planting these seedlings.
This presentation is designed to assist: forest landowners, tree planters, foresters, consultants, and other interested parties who may be purchasing and planting container-grown longleaf pine seedlings. During the webinar we will demonstrate the many characteristics of longleaf pine seedlings and the various grades or categories of container-grown longleaf that are shipped on a regular basis. We will also examine the data from survival and growth studies that have been installed across the Southeast, with the express purpose of demonstrating how various categories or grades of seedlings perform in survival and growth when compared to target grade seedlings.
To view the archived webinar course on this topic, click HERE (October 14, 2011).
Online Courses
Economics and Products
Landowners and land managers often ask about the economic case for longleaf pine. The concern is rooted in the historic difficulty in successfully regenerating longleaf and perceived slow growth compared to other southern pine species. This self-directed course will look at the risk aversion of longleaf, the other products that longleaf provides and cost share opportunities. It will also examine several investment analysis assumptions. This course will be available in early 2012.