Integral to Virginia’s history, the pine once dominated most of the region. For decades, though, the longleaf has been struggling to survive in an environment no longer suited for it.

Up to 10 inches long, longleaf pine cones put our loblolly pine cones to shame. I had never seen such big cones around here, and as far as I knew, giant cones came from faraway, not Virginia.

SUSSEX COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Longleaf pine trees, a species native to the landscape in southeastern Virginia, are being restored in a nature preserve. As of now, the only pine trees that remain ...

The longleaf pine ecosystem once encompassed 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas. Today, it only adds up to 4.5 million acres— a 95 percent reduction from its original range.

The longleaf pine ecosystem spans just 3% of the 140,000 square miles (360,000 square kilometers) it encompassed before industrialization and urbanization. But some pockets remain, from Virginia ...

As the region warms up, longleaf pine is more resistant than other species to the fierce storms, droughts and pest infestations that will become more common, the Virginia-based National Wildlife ...

The early naturalists who explored the American South marveled at the longleaf-pine forests that covered vast stretches of the coastal plain. In his 1791 account of his travels, William Bartram ...

Longleaf-pine forest once covered more than 90 million acres from Virginia to East Texas. But as much as the evergreen conifer provided the Southeast with beauty and identity, the tree helped to ...

In all, a boundless longleaf pine forest once covered 90 million acres, or about 60% of the land, in a continuous 1,200-mile stretch across nine states from Virginia to East Texas. Some 98% of the ...

One is the 408-acre Conservation Center Tract. The other is the Big Pine Tract of 445 acres. Longleaf pine is the dominant species on both, but the aptly named Big Pine Tract is particularly special.