Longleaf Academy Overview
What is the Longleaf Academy?
The Longleaf Alliance has developed, and is continuing to develop, courses to better prepare foresters and other natural resource professionals to address management problems and issues specific to longleaf pine ecosystems.
Why the need for the Longleaf Academy?
There has been a growing interest in longleaf among landowners due to evolving science and management tools, changing landowner demographics, and changing markets. Also, demand for technical assistance outstrips supply, for instance, the small staff of The Longleaf Alliance. And, there is a high degree of variability in knowledge regarding longleaf restoration and management within the professional community.
Who should attend a Longleaf Academy course?
Those who would benefit from attending are federal and state agency personnel, nursery representatives, private landowners, and private natural resource professionals such as consultants, industry employees, TIMO’s, REITs and NGO’s throughout the longleaf natural range.
Goals for the Longleaf Academy
- Increase knowledge level of managers regarding longleaf course specific topics such as longleaf forest history, ecology, restoration and management, economic opportunities, and understory restoration, just to name a few;
- Establish a standard and recognized level of knowledge among professionals that ensures successful establishment, management, and/or restoration of longleaf ecosystems; and
- Create a uniformly well-informed network of longleaf ecosystem professionals to extend the reach of The Longleaf Alliance.
The Future of the Longleaf Academy
Since the inception of the Longleaf Academy in the fall of 2008, The Longleaf Alliance has been offering a course called Longleaf 101. While this course is an in-depth course on longleaf, due to the numerous and diverse topics covered in a short amount of time, we aren’t able to delve into great details or specifics that many of the topics require for greater understanding or comprehension. Based upon the evaluations from these courses and from the survey conducted by the Southern Regional Extension Forestry (SREF) Office of Information Technology, we have a good understanding of the top requested one-topic specific courses and the delivery mechanism preferred related to each course. We will continue to offer the Longleaf 101 course, in fact it will be a prerequisite for many of the new courses, and we hope to expand on locations where it will be held, but in the fall of 2011 we are excited to announce that we are rolling out the next level of Longleaf Academy courses. The 201 courses as it were! Please see the Course Descriptions section of this website for more details.
Bottom Line
Through the courses provided by the Longleaf Academy, professional forest managers have the knowledge to provide “correct” assistance to private landowners.