Martin Lavoie,^1,2,*,** Leda Kobziar,^3,*** Alan Long,^3,**** Mark Hainds<sup>4,*****

1</sup>1Department of Biology University of Florida 220 Bartram Hall Gainesville, FL 32611
²5Current address: Earth Sciences, St. Francis Xavier University, P.O. Box 5000, Antigonish, NS, Cana
³2School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida 134 Newins-Ziegler Hall P.O.Box 1
⁴3The Longleaf Alliance, Inc. 12130 Dixon Center Rd. Andalusia, AL 36420

^*Corresponding author: martin21skifond@gmail.com; 352-215-2249
^**Martin Lavoie is a Post-Doctorate Fellow at St. Francis Xavier University He recently completed a Post-Doctorate in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida. His interests include fire dynamics, ecosystem restoration, soil nutrient availability, and spatial statistics.
^***Leda N. Kobziar is the Assistant Professor of Fire Science and Forest Conservation at the University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation. She joined the School after earning her PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 2006. Her research is focused on evaluating the ecological effects of prescribed burning and fuels treatments in flatwoods, upland pine, and sand pine forests. She is the Director of the Distance Education program in Ecological Restoration, and teaches courses in fire ecology, natural resource conservation, and restoration of longleaf pine ecosystems. She is actively engaged in the Association for Fire Ecology and the newly formed Southern Fire Exchange, a consortium designed to pave a two-way path between fire-use practitioners and researchers in southern states.
^****Alan Long is Professor Emeritus with the School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida. His teaching, extension, and research activities focused on fire ecology and management, forest operations, forest stewardship, and management opportunities for nonindustrial private forest landowners, and continuing education for professionals. Dr. Long is an active member of the Society of American Foresters, and was elected a Fellow in SAF in 2004. He currently works with Tall Timbers Research Station as Administrative Director of the Southern Fire Exchange, a Joint Fire Science Program regional consortium for fire science technology transfer.
^*****Mark J. Hainds is the Research Coordinator for The Longleaf Alliance and a Research Associate with Auburn University. He has held these dual positions for 16 years while working out of the Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center in south Alabama. His research and professional responsibilities have revolved around artificial regeneration of longleaf pine and the restoration and maintenance of native groundcover in the fire-evolved longleaf pine ecosystem.