Southern Company - Corporate Responsibility Report: Ecosystems

Recreating a longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem requires fire, usually through prescribed burns, to create open savanna. During their first few years of growth, longleaf pines do not look like trees, but grass, until fire sparks their growth.

Longleaf Legacy

The Longleaf Legacy Program helps restore the South's stately longleaf pine ecosystem, with the added benefit of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. The program operates through a partnership between Southern Company—including its four operating companies—and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Longleaf pine forests once carpeted 95 million acres of the southern United States. Today, less than 3 percent remains. Longleaf forests provide important habitat for bobwhite quails, red-cockaded woodpeckers, wild turkeys, gopher tortoises, and a host of other plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Longleaf ecosystems contain a stunning diversity of plants—nearly 600 species, half of which are considered rare. Restoration of the ecosystem is a top priority for government agencies, conservation groups, and the public. Millions of people enjoy hunting, fishing, birding, and hiking in longleaf forests.

The Longleaf Legacy program was launched in 2004 and is the largest public agency-private corporation conservation funding effort for this ecosystem. Southern Company and NFWF each contribute $500,000 annually to this 10-year partnership. The combined $1 million is then made available through a competitive grant program for projects within the Southern Company service territory. Grantees are required to match all awards. In addition, Southern Company provides $100,000 annually to support the NFWF's own longleaf conservation efforts.

Fact Sheet (PDF 224KB) | More about NFWF | How to apply

Funding Priorities

The focus of Longleaf Legacy is reforestation of longleaf pine ecosystems on public and private land. The most competitive projects will address the priorities within these plans and places:

Open Pine Decision Support Tool - East Gulf Coastal Plain Joint Venture
Significant Landscapes for Longleaf Conservation – America's Longleaf Conservation Plan
National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative

Projects meeting the above criteria and implementing the following conservation actions will be considered:

Reforestation of existing or planned longleaf ecosystems
Conversion of loblolly or other non-native stands to longleaf
Restoration of secured properties is preferred, but requests including land acquisition to facilitate reforestation of significant properties transferred to a public agency will be considered

The Longleaf Legacy Program strives to restore viable ecosystems. Recipients are expected to maintain and manage longleaf forests in a sustainable fashion. Management activities such as thinning and burning that are considered necessary for healthy ecosystems are expected to be part of any restoration efforts.

Accomplishments

30 grants to 20 different conservation organizations
Grants totaling more than $5.6 million; with matching funds, total on-the-ground impact of more than $42 million
More than 29,000 acres directly replanted with about 8 million seedlings and an additional 20,000 replanted through support of organizations that link private landowners with other funding sources*

* Figures are approximate. Includes completed and anticipate results, estimated for funded projects through 2009.

Grant Recipients: 2009 | 2008 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004

Restoring Longleaf Pines

To support conservation and restoration of 8,430 acres of longleaf habitat, the Georgia DNR, in partnership with Longleaf Legacy, will plant more than 2 million trees in southwestern Georgia. The project will benefit species dependent on the longleaf ecosystem, like the gopher tortoise, as well as forested wetland habitats. The property will be protected in perpetuity as a State Heritage Preserve and managed as a Wildlife Management Area.

Official Georgia DNR Silver Lake Page