The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced grants totaling $5.3 million to restore, enhance, and protect longleaf pine forests in nine southern states.

Twenty-one grants were awarded through the Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund in support of projects to advance longleaf pine habitat restoration across portions of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. Funding is expected to establish more than fifteen thousand new acres of longleaf pine and enhance an additional four hundred thousand acres of habitat through prescribed burning, invasive species removal, and other forest management practices. Projects will expand and improve habitat for several at-risk species, including the red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and northern bobwhite. Recipients will engage private landowners through workshops, trainings, and one-on-one technical assistance to restore and maintain longleaf pine habitat on their lands.

The fund is a public-private partnership between NFWF and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, International Paper's Forestland Stewards Partnership, the Southern Company, the Arbor Day Foundation, Altria Group, and the Orton Foundation, an affiliate of the Moore Charitable Foundation, with additional funding provided by AstraZeneca and the American Forest Foundation. Since its launch in 2012, the fund has invested nearly $50 million.

"Now in its tenth year of grantmaking, the Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund continues to expand and improve the longleaf pine ecosystem, benefiting numerous at-risk species," said NFWF executive director and CEO Jeff Trandahl. "This longstanding public-private partnership has enabled us to engage more project partners, reach more landowners, and support landscape-scale projects that will improve and maintain the iconic longleaf pine ecosystem."