The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced grants totaling $4.3 million in support of efforts to restore longleaf pine forests in the southeastern United States and advance the Range-Wide Conservation Plan for Longleaf Pine.

To be administered by NFWF's Longleaf Stewardship Fund, a public-private partnership that includes the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Southern Company, International Paper's Forestland Stewards Initiative, and Altria Group, the grants will leverage more than $5.3 million in additional funds from NFWF partners in support of twenty-one projects aimed at restoring more than 14,800 acres and enhancing an additional 230,000 acres of longleaf pine habitat. The funds also will help provide more than eighteen hundred private landowners with educational and technical assistance related to longleaf restoration and cost-share programs, with two hundred landowners expected to enter into stewardship programs.

Unique to the southeastern United States, the longleaf pine ecosystem once encompassed more than ninety million acres stretching from Virginia to Texas.

"The $4.3 million in Longleaf Stewardship Fund grants announced today will build on the successes achieved through this powerful, longstanding public-private partnership," said NFWF executive director and CEO Jeff Trandahl. "The grants will support a range of critical conservation actions, including longleaf plantings, invasive species control, and the use of prescribed fire for longleaf restoration. These projects will benefit a wide array of wildlife, including rare species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, indigo snake, and dusky gopher frog."

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the NFWF website.