For generations, wildfire was treated as an enemy of the American forests. However, in the longleaf pine ecosystems of the southeastern United States, conservationists found that the opposite was often true: without regular fire, one of North America’s richest and most endangered forests struggled to survive. Notably, what began in 1989 with three carefully managed prescribed burns covering just 81 acres in North Carolina has now grown into one of the country’s largest ecological restoration efforts. According to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) , by 2025, restoration partners had restored more than 1.8 million acres of longleaf pine habitat across the southeastern United States, while the prescribed fire programme had surpassed 500,000 cumulative acres burned. It is worth noting that these figures measure different aspects of restoration and are not directly comparable.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
