Fund Launched for Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Restoration
December 29, 2011
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently joined other federal agencies, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Southern Company in Columbus, Georgia, to announce a $3 million fund designed to accelerate restoration of the longleaf pine ecosystem across its historic range. Grantees will be awarded up to $150,000 to restore longleaf forests, targeting areas anchored by military bases, national wildlife refuges, national forests and state-owned lands. Conserving the longleaf pine ecosystem is one of five new landscape-scale partnership projects designed to address local and regional conservation concerns across public, private and tribal lands under President Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative. Photo Caption: This longleaf pine forest on Fort Benning near Columbus, GA is home to a breeding group of red-cockaded woodpeckers, an endangered species. Twenty-eight other federally-protected species also depend on the longleaf ecosystem. The Department of Defense is one of the partners in the Longleaf Stewardship Fund. Credit: Stacy Shelton / USFWSLearn More (National Fish and Wildlife Foundation)
America's Longleaf Restoration Initiative
Longleaf Pine Log and "Cookies" En Route to Washington Botanic Garden