“Longleaf pine’s domain was vast. By all accounts, the longleaf pine forest dominated the southern landscape. Starting in southeast Virginia, the longleaf pine forest stretched southward through nine states eventually stopping in east Texas (over 140,000 square miles).

For countless generations, cultures were both transformed by and helped to transform the longleaf piney woods. However, starting about 150 years ago, over-exploitation of the longleaf pine forest accelerated tremendously and the face of the southern landscape changed radically.”