[CPEO-MEF] HABITAT, REUSE: Ft. McClellan (AL) - Longleaf Pine National Wildlife Refuge

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Longleaf Pine National Wildlife Refuge, a glimpse into the past,

by Bill Garland
Alabama.Com/Keeping Alabama Forever Wild
April 2, 2011


Fort McClellan became a casualty of the "Defense Base Closure and  
Realignment Commission" in 1993, leading to one of the state's great  
conservation opportunities. Located north of Anniston along  
Choccolocco Mountain, the historic military installation trained our  
nation’s soldiers for almost a century. The fort was known throughout  
the Army as the "Military Showplace of the South" and contained  
spectacular mountain scenery and extensive forests of longleaf pine.  
So closure of the former fort provided an unexpected benefit:  
Conservationists were able to save one of the last remaining old- 
growth longleaf pine forests in the South. Biologists have long  
recognized that military bases contain some of the last vestiges of  
this landscape that needs fire to survive and once covered the  
southeastern United States. Twentieth century fire suppression  
programs and the emergent of Smokey Bear have in large part been  
responsible for the disappearance of 97 percent of longleaf pine  
forests across the Southeast. As rare as longleaf forests have  
become, those found in the mountain region of northern Alabama are  
the rarest.

...

For the entire article, see
http://blog.al.com/keeping-alabama-forever-wild/2011/04/post_13.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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