In October, I participated in the regional Longleaf Partnership Council meeting in Southern Pines, North Carolina. That meeting merged into the SERPPAS meeting. The Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability is revising its regional prescribed burn strategy. Some great work has been accomplished in the past few years to advance burning in the south, and the new strategy will further advance that effort. Many thanks go to Jennifer Fawcett, North Carolina State University Extension, for corralling many burn leaders for a few days to work on the strategy. I was out of the office onto Fort Bragg, home to a very large contingent of the U.S. Army and many red-cockaded woodpeckers. We also saw the oldest longleaf known on the planet at 465 years at Weymouth Woods, North Carolina (photo #1). We also met Jesse Wimberley, a local landowner/leader that helps train his neighbors and others to burn their own land (photo #2, Clay Ware, left, with Jesse, right). Jesse opened his home to our group outside Southern Pines, North Carolina (photo #3). Jesse lives in the same house consistently occupied since the early 1800's. Surrounded by ancestral longleaf stands, these lands have been burned for over 150 years by his family. Jesse was full of interesting stories including one about his 90+ year old mother. She was in the yard a few years before passing on and asked Jesse why was he letting that grass grow in the yard. Jesse had to explain that he didn't sweep the yard any more but kept fire safely away from the house. Jesse also told me one of his great uncles left this vicinity in the 1840s for Texas. He said he had never been to Texas and asked if I had ever been to Wimberley. Now that is a genuine North Carolina to Texas connection....
North Carolina to Texas Connection
