Longleaf Pine Plantation Becomes Preserve

NEW YORK, New York, July 30, 2002 (ENS) - One of the world's last stretches of longleaf pine forest will now be managed, and eventually owned, by The Nature Conservancy, the New York based Greentree Foundation announced Monday. The private foundation, created by the late Mrs. John Hay Whitney, chose the Conservancy to manage the 5,200 acre Greenwood Plantation in Georgia, considered one of the most biologically diverse privately held properties in the southeastern United States.

Located in southwest Georgia's Red Hills, Greenwood is an example of a vanishing ecosystem - the longleaf pine forest. Once covering more than 90 million acres across the southeast, less than three percent of the original longleaf pine forests remain.

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Longleaf pine with blazing star flowers at the Greenwood Plantation in Georgia. (All photos © Keith Lazelle, courtesy The Nature Conservancy)
Teeming with wildlife, the Greenwood property contains a 1,000 acre old growth section of longleaf pine known as the "Big Woods," where trees range in age up to 500 years old.

Rivaling Latin American rain forests in species diversity, longleaf pine ecosystems can contain more than 40 plant species per square meter - among the highest values reported at this scale in the world - and support an estimated 300 globally imperiled species.

The Nature Conservancy will officially assume management of Greenwood, which also includes several historic buildings, on September 1, 2002. At that time, the five person staff at Greenwood will shift to the employ of the Conservancy.

"Following the wishes of Mr. and Mrs. Whitney, the Greentree Foundation's Board of Trustees carefully considered how best to ensure the conservation and management of Greenwood," said Robert Curvin, president of the Greentree Foundation. "After careful analysis, they decided to entrust the property to The Nature Conservancy because of its exceptional record of managing important, diverse ecosystems throughout the world."

Over a period of 12 months, Greentree and the Conservancy staff will work to educate the Conservancy about all aspects of the property, and establish partnerships with educational, research and preservation organizations. Following that first year, the Greentree Foundation expects to transfer full ownership of the property to The Nature Conservancy.

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Some of Greenwood's old growth longleaf pines. (Photo © Keith Lazelle)
"Greenwood is truly a special place, and The Nature Conservancy is honored to continue the Whitney family's tradition of protecting its natural diversity," said Steve McCormick, president and chief executive officer of The Nature Conservancy. "This management agreement offers us the opportunity to protect a rapidly disappearing longleaf pine habitat, which is home to a variety of species like the red-cockaded woodpecker and the gopher tortoise."

Longleaf pine grasslands, such as those at Greenwood, are crucial to the survival of a host of other species. The property supports a population of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, for example, because of the abundance of old growth longleaf pines it requires for roosting and nesting.

Other species of concern at Greenwood include the pine snake, the gopher tortoise, Bachman's sparrow, wire-leaf dropseed, the wood stork, yellow fringeless and snowy orchids, and Turk's cap lilies.

In addition to its longleaf pine grasslands, the Greenwood property contains a distinct longleaf pine sandhill community known as the Plateau, a slope forest along the Ochlocknee River, and Heard's Pond, a 700 acre wetland area critical for the wood stork.

The diverse landscape at Greenwood means that a wider variety of plant and animal species are found at the property - not just those species associated with longleaf pine habitat.

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The mansion on the Greenwood Plantation, one of the historic buildings on the property. (Photo © Keith Lazelle)
"We are extremely grateful to the Greentree Foundation for entrusting us with the care of Greenwood," said Tavia McCuean, vice president and state director of The Nature Conservancy's Georgia Chapter. "Coupled with its amazing cultural uniqueness, there is no other place in the world where one can see this type of landscape."

Greenwood Plantation retained its ecological value due to visionary management of the property by a series of owners. John Hay Whitney, who inherited the plantation in 1944, worked with Ed and Roy Komarek, Herbert Stoddard and Leon Neel to manage the forest while preserving the integrity of the ecosystem.

Based on the forest management work first started at Greenwood by the Komareks, Stoddard and Neel developed the "single tree selection method" - a conservative approach to logging that makes the health of the ecosystem the primary objective. Instead of the traditional system of removing the highest quality trees and leaving the inferior ones in the forest, this method requires cutting trees based on age, species, defects and crown size.

The technique retained old growth trees, spared longleaf pines in mixed pine stands, and eliminated trees with sparser crowns first.

Now known as the "Stoddard-Neel Method," the technique includes prescribed burning, which enhances wildlife habitat and maintains the open canopy and rich understory characteristic of the longleaf pine ecosystem. Neel, who is still the consulting forester at Greenwood, continues to use this single tree selection method.

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A gopher tortoise, one of the at risk species that finds a home at the Greenwood Plantation. (Photo © Keith Lazelle)
"The Nature Conservancy recognizes longleaf pine forests as a priority for conservation across its range," stated Randy Tate, director of science and stewardship for The Nature Conservancy, Georgia Chapter. "Managing these forests with fire is crucial. The unique diversity of a longleaf forest is in its understory. This grassy ground layer, like the longleaf pine itself, depends on frequent fire to persist. Unlike most southeastern forests, Greenwood has used prescribed burning for over 100 years, resulting in a diverse, healthy forest."

Dr. Lindsay Boring, director of the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway in Baker County, Georgia, called Greenwood's longleaf Big Woods "a unique treasure, representing a large old growth stand of longleaf pine that could be described as one of the 'best of the last' remaining in the southern United States."

"The beauty and ecological health of this privately owned woodland tract is evidence of the fine quality of land stewardship and management practiced over the decades by those who owned and worked with its forest and wildlife resources," Dr. Boring added.