By Bruce Henderson
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com
Longleaf pine forests that once blanketed the Southeast but have been reduced to remnants could play a key role in combating climate change, conservationists and academics said today.
The weather-resistant pines could withstand the increasing droughts, wildfires and intense storms that climate models predict, they said, while giving landowners new sources of income.
The National Wildlife Federation and two southeastern conservation groups, America's Longleaf and the Longleaf Alliance, released the report.
Longleaf's decline has been as breathtaking as it was once dominant. The trees once covered 90 million acres from Virginia to eastern Texas, but now grow on less than 3 percent of their historic range.
The pines were valued for the high quality of their timber, which was used in building and ship construction, and in making turpentine. That led to over-cutting.
Longleaf forests could find new uses, advocates say, as the United States attempts to control the releases of carbon dioxide that are linked to global warming.
Forests, including trees, roots and soils, store vast amounts of carbon, keeping it out of the atmosphere in the form of a gas that traps Earth's heat. Longleaf pine forests retain more of that carbon than do the fast-growing loblolly pines now widely grown across the Southeast for use as pulpwood, experts say.
Owners of longleaf forests could benefit, the report says, by selling so-called offsets that help cancel the release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Restoring those forests would also benefit a wide range of rare species that rely on longleaf ecosystems, such as the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker found in the Carolinas.