Accelerating and Sustaining Longleaf Conservation on Private Lands

The project will result in a number of benefits that will substantially increase the achievement of longleaf pine ecosystem restoration goals and objectives. Namely, this program will leverage private financing to increase the number of technical assistance providers on the ground and to establish a sustainable network of assistance providers that will advance private landowner stewardship initiatives that greatly benefit the Longleaf ecosystem. The network will provide a continuous loop of information from the field to policy makers and funders and back to the field at lessons, policies and investment strategies evolve based on progress on the ground.

Furthermore, the protocol for monitoring and evaluation will serve as a key foundational element to the long-term restoration and protection of the longleaf ecosystem. The protocol will serve as the long-term means by which progress of the restoration effort, at the parcel, landscape and regional scale, will be measured. A tool of this kind, and the knowledge developed to build it, has tremendous transferability to other large-scale restoration and protection initiatives that require significant involvement of private landowners. As such, it can be adapted to meet the needs of other ecosystems of similar scale.