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We assessed natural regeneration of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) using the data collected from the Escambia Experimental Forest in southern Alabama. Fifteen years after the regeneration control, natural regeneration of longleaf pine remained patchy across a wide range of site and stand conditions; slightly more than half of all plots contained regeneration, but the density of seedlings and saplings varied significantly. The abundance of seedlings ≤1-year-old was positively related to stand age and time since last fire, but negatively related to overstory basal area. The abundance of seedlings and saplings was positively related to stand age, but negatively related to time since last fire and overstory basal area. The probability of achieving at least 15 000 seedlings·ha–1 that are older than 1 year but less than 1 m tall and at least 1250 saplings·ha–1 that are over 1 m tall was, respectively, positively related to the ratio of time since last fire to overstory basal area and the ratio of quadratic mean diameter to site index. A longer fire interval (> 2 to 3 years) should be adopted to naturally regenerate longleaf. We did not find clear zones of exclusion present in natural regeneration even though overstory trees, seedlings, and saplings tended to be repulsive spatially and >80% grass stage seedlings and saplings occurred outside tree crowns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest fires are a disturbance where the effects can range from benign to extreme devastation within a given ecosystem. The stage of stand development coupled with prior management dictates the amount and composition of potential fuels. Thus, fire policy exerts a strong influence on fire effects. Changes in cultural acceptance and use of fire typically drive fire policy. This linkage is perhaps exemplified by America's 300 year love/hate relationship with this powerful natural force. This article uses the four stages of stand development (stand initiation, stem exclusion, understory reinitiation and old-growth), as described by Oliver and Larson (1996), to present opportunities and constraints to fire use, and management options are suggested. Using a selective review of research in the USA that emphasizes the longleaf pine ecosystem in the south-east, the focus is on three themes presented from the viewpoint of a resource manager trying to attain a specific result. First, some high points in the history of fire in America and its ecological ramifications on the landscape are outlined, using examples to illustrate key concepts of behavior, intensity and periodicity. Secondly, examples are given of how people have sought to exclude fire from the landscape, often with disastrous consequences. Thirdly, the topic of prescribed fire in an ecosystem maintenance and restoration role is touched on. Some challenges associated with reintroducing fire into areas where past fire policy dictated its exclusion are also related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]