Robert Bonnie Speaks to NCSAF about Longleaf Pine

On Tuesday, January 31st, NCSAF hosted a luncheon with Robert Bonnie, Secretary Vilsack’s Senior Advisor for Environment and Climate. Robert discussed USDA’s role in the nation’s longleaf pine restoration effort, particularly the new partnerships forged among the different Departments of the Executive branch.

Robert Bonnie’s grandfather fell in love with a piece of land in the South Carolina lowcountry –or possibly he fell in love with quail hunting there and the land grew on him. But it was a lucky piece of land, one where old longleaf, loblolly, and bottomland hardwoods were sold in 1910, but never cut, allowing a legacy of old growth to remain. By burning the uplands on the advice of early burning proponent Herbert Stoddard, Bonnie’s family encouraged quail,

and the longleaf thrived. Today, the land also supports red-cockaded woodpeckers. Bonnie discussed the fears southern pine plantation owners faced when the spotted owl controversy was in full swing. While at Environmental Defense Fund, Bonnie negotiated the first Safe Harbor Agreements allowing landowners with Red Cockaded Woodpeckers to manage their land to benefit themselves and red cockaded woodpeckers.

Of the 3 million acres of longleaf that remain, 90% are owned by private forest landowners. For this reason, Bonnie says it is critical to the success of longleaf conservation to refrain from calling it endangered. The markets must be allowed to support longleaf cultivation with pine straw, pole, and lumber sales, and it is the responsibility of governments to facilitate those markets. Partners in longleaf restoration have set a goal to support 8 million acres of longleaf in the next 15 years. This effort is confronted by wood’s exclusion from green building certification, the slump in markets for new housing and, paradoxically, by increased urbanization and housing density which makes it difficult to burn longleaf parcels across the south.

In further discussion of markets for conservation, Bonnie discussed options for endangered species banking, citing a gopher tortoise arrangement near Mobile, Alabama, that involves just 200 acres of habitat. He said carbon trading is coming along, and he expects water markets to be mostly about agriculture, not forestry.

—Paula Randler —