We are fired up about burning for healthy forests!
Longleaf Allinace Academy: Longleaf 101
December 13th, 2009 Filed Under Blog
Did you ever go to a professional meeting or some type of continuing education meeting where you came home all fired up? Excited! Sort of like the new convert who wants to do something with the new found energy. I used to really enjoy going to company meetings and association meetings where I learned something new. That hasn’t happened to me much lately but it did this week. I attended the Longleaf Alliance Longleaf 101: Academy for Longleaf Ecosystem Managers at the Dixon Center in Covington County, Alabama, Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences remote education facility. There were folks there from South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Alabama. All of us knew what longleaf pine is all about. But our perspectives have definantly been broadened. The Longleaf Alliance staff has put together an excellent four day program including class room work and lots of field exercises designed to hone the management skills of the participants.
The setting, the Dixon Center, could not have been better. Twenty-five years of management designed to augment Auburn’s forestry and wildlife curriculums while at the same time generating enough revenue to be self sustaining are bearing fruit. The long skilful hard work of the Dixon Center staff is paying off. The natural beauty of the piney woods is spectacular. There are other places in the South, such as Eglin Air Force Base, Jones Ecological Research Center, and Tall Timbers, where you can see longleaf pine landscapes in their full glory and now the Dixon Center is becoming one. The stands along the entrance road were spectacular this week.
If you are interested in longleaf pine management, if you are interested in playing a role in the ecological imperative of restoring longleaf pine to a significant portion of its former 90 million acres range, you should seriously consider contacting the Longleaf Alliance staff, jbachant@auburn.edu, and making arrangements to attend one of the four remaining academies. The Longleaf Alliance web site, http://www.longleafalliance.org/ , is being reworked. There is lots of good information out there but direct contact with JJ is probably the way to go.
Check it out.
466 Views |
Permalink | Trackback |
|
Print This Article | Leave a Comment