How the Alabama-Coushatta Use Fire to Save the Longleaf Pine
In an ecosystem that needs fire to flourish, the actions of the tribe could decide the future of the longleaf pine.
Without the Alabama-Coushatta s prescribed burns, longleaf pine can be choked out by competing underbrush. William L. Farr/Wikimedia Commons
In an ecosystem that needs fire to flourish, the actions of the tribe could decide the future of the longleaf pine.
Without the Alabama-Coushatta s prescribed burns, longleaf pine can be choked out by competing underbrush. William L. Farr/Wikimedia Commons
Pauly Denetclaw
May 24, 2021, 8:00 am CST
On a Wednesday in March, a cool, northerly breeze rustled through the pines. It was a good day for a fire. Gesse Bullock, a 16-year woodlands firefighter and burn boss for the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, had prepared for weeks to run a controlled burn on 250 acres of forest just outside the town of Livingston, home to some of the last remaining longleaf pine trees