A Practitioner’s Guide to Landowner Participation in the Longleaf Pine Restoration and the Conservation Reserve Program

Abstract

At the beginning of the 17th century, the southeastern United States was home to an estimated 90 million acres of longleaf pine forests, which supported nearly 900 plant species. However, due to extensive logging, land conversion, and fire suppression, these forests were drastically reduced. Efforts to restore this critical ecosystem on private lands have been significantly supported by cost-share programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). CRP was first authorized in the 1985 Farm Bill and designed to encourage private landowners and agricultural producers to convert marginal cropland to conservation covers, including longleaf pine. Approximately 400,000 acres of longleaf pine have been restored through the program. In addition, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Longleaf Pine Initiative (LLPI), launched in 2010, has supported producers in restoring over 870,000 acres of longleaf pine on private lands. Combined with other conservation efforts, these initiatives have increased the total area of longleaf pine forests from approximately 3.4 million acres to 5.2 million acres over the past 40 years. This literature review was conducted by members of the Dayer Human Dimensions Lab in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech, in collaboration with Professor Shorna Allred and Kingsley Oppong (research assistant) from the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This literature review is part of a larger study examining motivations and challenges to participation in the Conservation Reserve Program and was funded by the USDA (grant #FSA23CPT0013578). The purpose of this document is to support practitioners who aim to promote landowner participation in longleaf pine restoration conservation programs. It provides an overview of the longleaf pine ecosystem and the role of conservation programs in its restoration, with particular focus on CRP’s contributions to longleaf pine restoration. The review also explores landowners’ motivations and obstacles to participation in conservation programs and examines post-CRP land use options, including the persistence of longleaf pine forests through CRP.