PINEMAP: Leveraging 50 Years of University-Corporate-Governmental Forestry Research Cooperation.

The Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation and Adaptation Project (“PINEMAP”) was funded by NIFA to produce outcomes of enhanced climate change mitigation and adaptation in planted southern pine ecosystems.  The PINEMAP project leverages a strong group of existing networks to produce unprecedented synergy and cooperation on applied forestry research in the region. Over the last 50 years, cooperative research on planted southern pine management among southeastern U.S. universities, government agencies, and corporate forest landowners has developed and facilitated the widespread implementation of improved genetic and silvicultural technology. The impact of these regional research cooperatives is difficult to overstate, with current members managing 55% of the privately owned planted pine forestland, and producing 95% of the pine seedlings planted each year.  The PINEMAP team includes the eight major forestry cooperative research programs, scientists from eleven land grant institutions (including three 1890s institutions), the US Forest Service, and climate modeling and adaptation specialists associated with the multi-state SE Climate Consortium and state climate offices. Our goal is to create and disseminate the knowledge that enables landowners to: harness planted pine forest productivity to mitigate atmospheric CO₂; more efficiently use nitrogen and other fertilizer inputs; and adapt their forest management to increase resilience in the face of changing climate.  We will integrate our team’s infrastructure and expertise to: 1) develop breeding, genetic deployment and innovative management systems to increase C sequestration and resilience to changing climate of planted southern pine forests ; 2) understand interactive effects of policy, biology, and climate change on sustainable management; 3) transfer new management and genetic technologies to private industrial and non-industrial landowners; and 4) educate a diverse cross-section of the public about the relevance of forests, forest management, and climate change.  These efforts will enable our stakeholders to enhance the productivity of southern pine forests, while maintaining social, economic, and ecological sustainability.