David H. Van Lear

TL;DR: In a more recent update (USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis, unpubl. data) puts the total remaining longleaf forests to about 3.2 million acres.

Abstract: Since vegetative associations stabilized about 4,000 years ago, the Appalachian mixed-oak forests have experienced three profoundly different fire regimes. Periodic, low-intensity surface fires lit by American Indians characterized the first regime, and this regime helped perpetuate oak as one of the dominant species groups. The Industrial Revolution led to high-intensity, stand-replacing fires, causing extensive damage to the forests. Modern fire protection created a “no-fire” regime that permitted the forests to recover but allowed mesophytic species to begin replacing the oaks. Today, research is under way to identify how to reintroduce fire to solve this oak replacement problem.

TL;DR: Overall, prescribed fires improved oak advance regeneration with spring burning providing the most benefit, and this approach of following a shelterwood harvest with prescribed fire may be a viable method of regenerating oak-dominated stands on productive upland sites.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors tested the hypothesis that a shelterwood harvest of an oak-dominated stand, followed several years later by a prescribed fire, would adequately regenerate the stand.