The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation has announced twenty-eight grants totaling $6.5 million in support of efforts to conserve the longleaf pine ecosystem in eight states.

Awarded through the Longleaf Stewardship Fund, the grants will generate $7.9 million in matching contributions and support conservation work in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. With the match, the funds will help protect more than seventeen thousand acres of longleaf pine forest and improve an additional three hundred and thirty-five thousand acres of habitat across the species' historical range.

Unique to the Southeastern United States, the longleaf pine ecosystem once encompassed more than ninety million acres and is home to rare species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, and indigo snake, as well as the bobwhite quail, wild turkey, white-tailed deer, and other important game species.

Now in its seventh year, the Longleaf Stewardship Fund is a public-private partnership that includes the U.S. Forest Service, the 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, the Altria Group, the American Forest Foundation's Southern Woods for At-Risk Wildlife initiative, and the Orton Foundation, the North Carolina-based affiliate of the Moore Charitable Foundation.

"The Longleaf Stewardship Fund exemplifies what can be achieved for conservation when the public and private sector work collaboratively on a landscape scale," said NFWF executive director and CEO Jeff Trandahl. "Through investing in critical restoration activities and educating landowners to become stronger stewards of their lands, the Longleaf Stewardship Fund is helping secure the future of one of the world's most biodiverse landscapes, and the species and communities that rely on it."

For a complete list of grant recipients, see the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation website.

(Photo credit: Christine Ambrose)