2000 Alexandria, Louisiana in Review

The Third Longleaf Alliance Regional Conference

The theme of the Third Regional Longleaf Alliance Regional Conference was Forest for Our Future. This premise acknowledges the growing interest in longleaf and its associated ecosystems by private landowners, conservation groups and organizations and many state and federal agencies. This proceeding contains a compilation of papers and posters presented at the conference addressing specific subject matter topics involving the restoration and management of longleaf pine ecosystems to include silvicultural, ecological, social, political and economic challenges.

The Third Longleaf Alliance Regional Conference held in Alexandria, Louisiana established a standard that will be challenging to surpass at future conferences. A special thank you goes to Sue Grace, our energetic conference coordinator, who spent countless hours to ensure the success of the conference. Many individuals worked behind the scenes to make the conference a success. Thanks goes to Brandy Winch, Susan Horton and Chris Pesson from the USGS Wetlands Laboratory in Lafayette; April Harris, Anne Carraway, Stephen Hudson, James Parker, Sharon Sparks, and Jerome Barker from the School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences at Auburn; Teresa Cannon and Vickie Stallings from the Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center, and Morgan Varner, University of Florida. Special thanks go to John Kush who has been an enormous contributor to all of our conferences. John organized the Poster Session, helped with audio-visual setup and coordinated publication of the Program and Abstracts for the conference as well as this proceedings.

Some 275 attendees were treated to 3 days of interactions with experts on all aspects of longleaf plus exemplary Cajun food and entertainment. Twenty-seven invited papers were presented on topics related to silviculture, ecology, fire, social, political and economic issues. The poster session was the largest ever (65 posters) covering a multiplicity of longleaf issues. In addition, vendors representing 22 companies demonstrated their equipment and seedling products. On a perfect fall day, the USDA Forest Service hosted an eight-station field trip on the Palustris Experimental Forest. Topics on the field trip included understory plants, fire, pine straw harvesting, wildlife, restoration and management, T&E species, invasive species, container seedlings and tree planting. Our gratitude goes to Dave Haywood and USDA Forest Service colleagues Jim Barnett, Alton Martin, Mary May, Finis Harris, Janess McBride, Phil Hyatt and Tom Stowers for organizing and conducting this outstanding field trip. Associated with the field trip was the opportunity to visit the historic Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Long Leaf, LA where we had the opportunity to tour a sawmill developed during the railroad-logging era. Following the field trip, we were treated to a most entertaining evening at Loyd Hall Plantation, a historic sugar cane plantation, where we enjoyed Cajun food, drink and music provided by the group Les Freres Michot. At the close of the conference, the torch was passed to North Carolina to host the 2002 conference with the challenge to continue a tradition of a high quality program laced with the charm of Carolina food and entertainment.