a forest administrator in 

 Florida, I.F. Eldridge, also 

 broke with convention by 

 using fire to reduce 

 harzardous fuels in longleaf 

 pine stands. Roland Hayes, 

 a botanist at Alabama 

 Polytechnic Institute, ob- 

 served that selective period- 

 ic fire served to forestall 

 hardwood succession. And 

 in Louisiana, lumberman 

 Henry Hardtner began to 

 use what he called con- 

 trolled burning in the regen- 

 eration and management of 

 longleaf pine. 3 



The issue of fire exclusion 

 versus controlled burning 

 in southern forests neces- 

 sarily became a subject for 

 forest researchers as well 

 as forest administrators. 

 Fire was a central problem 

 in the regeneration of 



3 The differing viewpoints and 

 extensive conflicts over use of fire 

 in southern forests have been 

 described in considerable detail 

 (Pyne 1982). 



4 These have been enumerated in 

 an unusually interesting bibliogra- 

 phy and commentary on fire 

 ecology and fire use in the pine 

 forests of the South by A. Bigler 

 Crow (1982). Another bibliography 

 by Cushwa (1 968) also covered 

 the period 1920-66. 



cut-over stands, in protec- 

 tion of plantations and 

 young natural stands, and 

 in control of unwanted 

 vegetation, as well as a 

 means of enhancing live- 

 stock grazing and wildlife 

 habitat. In the past five or 

 six decades, a large number 

 of studies of different as- 

 pects of wildlife and pre- 

 scribed burning conse- 

 quently were undertaken 

 through the South. 4 



Early studies by H.H. Chap- 

 man in the 1920's and 

 subsequently by Forest 

 Service researchers such 

 as Phil Wakeley, Paul 

 Siggers, and W.G. Wahlen- 

 berg demonstrated that in 

 longleaf pine forests, con- 

 trolled fires not only help 

 avoid destructive wildfires 

 but also retard the 

 brownspot needle disease. 

 Trees in burned areas 

 showed earlier height 

 growth and better stand 

 development than trees in 

 unburned stands. Fungici- 

 dal control of brownspot 

 also was found to be 

 effective but has been 

 considered useful primarily 

 in tree nurseries. Studies 

 by Heyward and Barrette 

 (1 934) determined that 

 prescribed fires do not 



