**Escambia Field Days: Dr. Bill Boyer and Longleaf Pine Regeneration**

by John S. Kush

*Excerpted from the Longleaf Leader, Volume 1, Issue 3, Winter 2008*

What does one say about **Dr. William (Bill) D. Boyer** and his long
distinguished career dedicated to longleaf pine management? Simply put,
there is ***NO ONE*** *more experienced, more knowledgeable or more
professional* than Bill when it comes to longleaf pine management.

Where to begin? Bill is a native Ohioan who received a B.S degree in
nautical science from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1950. He
followed this up with another B.S. in Forestry from the State University
of New York, Syracuse, in 1951. In 1954 he received his M.S. degree from
Syracuse in Wildlife Management. In 1955 he went to work for the U.S.
Forest Service, Southern Experiment Station, in Brewton, AL, which is
the location of the **Escambia Experimental Forest** (the Escambia), as
a wildlife biologist. Until then, he had never laid eyes on a longleaf
pine. His initial appointment involved working with grazing issues for
cattle on the Escambia. Over time, he worked on his doctorate, getting a
Ph.D. from Duke University in 1970.

Bill assisted in and/or installed numerous studies across the Southeast
and especially at the Escambia. He was implementing longleaf research in
the 1970s and 80s, when most others had written the species off,
including the Forest Service. It is a fact that from the 1920s through
the 1960s, one of the Forest Service\'s priorities was longleaf pine
research. Some incredible research was completed during that time, much
of which could not be replicated today. Longleaf research was believed
to be so important that the Forest Service established the Escambia on a
3,000-acre tract in Brewton, AL owned by T.R. Miller Mill Company. The
company, interested in the higher prices longleaf timber commanded,
leased the property to the Forest Service in 1947 as a laboratory with
the hope that Forest Service scientists could find ways to provide for
longleaf's restoration, since its regeneration was being ignored as the
forests of the South were being harvested.

In the mid-1970s research related to longleaf pine was deemphasized and
the need for the 3,000-acre Escambia was questioned. The Forest Service
was thinking of giving up the lease on the Escambia. Bill and **Bob
Farrar**, a fellow research scientist at the Escambia, thought the
research efforts there were too important to give up. They drafted a
letter to support the continuance of the experimental forest. Instead of
emphasizing the merits of longleaf research, they argued that the
long-term studies of prescribed burning in the experimental forest were
too valuable to abandon. Much of their research was showing that
regular, supervised burns were necessary for good forest management,
despite many efforts to limit prescribed burning in the South. Their
arguments were successful and the lease with T.R. Miller continued. And
so did Bill's research on longleaf. Bill puts it this way, \"we just
continued to do the longleaf research on the side, under the radar."
Bill has authored or co-authored more than 120 articles, most of them
dealing with some aspect of longleaf pine management. In fact, since
1966 he has had at least one publication a year for all but for 3 years.

**Dr. Tom Croker** and Bill were instrumental in providing the "how to"
guide for the shelterwood method for regenerating longleaf pine. The
1975 publication, \"Regenerating longleaf pine naturally,\" provides
landowners with all the knowledge they need to mange longleaf pine. A
copy of this can be downloaded from:
<http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/pubs/616>.

Bill\'s contributions are numerous, but the following are his most
prominent.

-   His longleaf pine cone crop counts go back to the mid-1960s.

-   He became an advocate of growing season burns in the 1980s at a time
    when most burning, if it was occurring at all, was occurring during
    the dormant season.

-   He installed studies examining the impacts of the season of fire on
    longleaf pine as well as the understory and followed this up by
    examining different frequencies of fire on the same.

-   In the mid-1960s Bill helped to put in studies looking at
    uneven-aged management; here we are today thinking about doing that
    on many of the national forests.

-   He was instrumental in keeping the \"Farm 40\" going, which is now
    in its 60th year. The \"Farm 40\" was set up to show small-scale
    land owners how they could manage longleaf pine with little to no
    cost and, yet manage to receive an income stream.

Bill has received numerous honors and awards in his distinguished
career. Among these was a citation signed by former President Herbert
Hoover for his contribution to the Commission on Organization of the
Executive Branch of Government in 1955; USDA National Honor Award for
personal and professional excellence; numerous certificates of merit
from the U.S. Forest Service; induction into the Alabama Forester's Hall
of Fame; and elected Fellow in the Society of American Foresters.

I have known Bill since 1984 and have been fortunate that he has readily
shared his knowledge with me. In addition to sharing his knowledge, Bill
has shared his several file cabinets filled with data that have never
been analyzed. When opportunities have presented themselves in the way
of dollars or a graduate student stipend I have gone to Bill\'s file
cabinet, pulled out a data set and given it to a graduate student to
work on. Those file cabinets could keep on giving knowledge for years to
come whenever money becomes available to work with the data.

If you have ever traveled with Bill then you are aware of his gray
briefcase. He never travels without his "longleaf pine briefcase." Ask
Bill a question about some aspect of longleaf pine management and he
will open his briefcase and give you a response. He has always been
observing, always been studying, and to this day he continues to make
the case for longleaf pine in his quiet and unassuming way.

Bill is now in his 54th year of being involved in longleaf pine
research. If it was not for the research results he provided, there
probably would not be a Longleaf Alliance. It was Bill\'s information
about naturally regenerating longleaf that may have saved the species.
It was well-known through the first half of the 20th century how to
manage longleaf pine. But as we entered the 1970s the desire was to
manage it as if it were loblolly. The species was being lost from the
landscape at an alarming rate and to a certain extent, still is today.
Those stands still being lost are what Bill has been an advocate of all
these years---*naturally-regenerated stands*.

Bill retired from the Forest Service in 1998 but continues to come into
the office a few times a week. He has stayed active in research as much
as time and health allow it. Earlier this year, several of us had the
pleasure of working on a video at the Escambia Experimental Forest.
Despite being in his 80s and having recently had eye surgery, Bill stood
out in the June heat and sun in south Alabama to tell the story of the
Escambia and the \"Farm40.\" To this day he continues to promote
longleaf pine, his belief never wavering. During the filming on the
Escambia, Bill made the statement, "Anytime you get out here there is
always something new you pick up. I'm finding something new all the time
when I get myself exposed to it."

Thank you Bill for all you have done for me and for all you have done
for the longleaf community.

*Dr. John Kush is research fellow at the Auburn University Longleaf Pine
Stand Dynamics Laboratory in Auburn, AL*

View the video, "60 Years on the Farm 40," produced by Dr. John Kush and
Dr. Becky Barlow, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at Auburn
University.

Read more about the Escambia Experimental Forest in *Compass* magazine.