Current River Pinery Virtual Tour

Take a virtual tour of the Current River Pinery with our podcasts and accompanying photos. You’ll hear how land managers in the Mark Twain National Forest in Carter County, Missouri, are using prescribed fire to restore shortleaf pine and oak woodlands. Our four “tour stops” describe the history, ecology, and social benefits of these pine woodlands.

Or, you can go there yourself – explore the pinery in a self-guided car tour! Map and directions are below.

Part 1: Welcome to the Current River Pinery. In this introductory  podcast, join a US Forest Service burn boss who’s conducting a prescribed fire deep in an Ozark pinery, then learn from an historian about the pinery’s former resilient, productive open woodlands, and find out about efforts to restore this well-adapted ecosystem.    Click to read more and hear podcast

Part 2: The Decline of Shortleaf Pine. In this segment,  a fire history researcher describes long-ago Ozark woodland conditions as revealed by fire scars in  ancient pine stumps, and a Missouri forest historian tells of the lasting impact of the early 1900s Ozark timber boom and subsequent fire suppression.  More coming soon

Part 3: Fire-adapted ecosystems falter without flames. In this segment, plant and wildlife biologists discuss the long-term ecological consequences of the timber boom and fire suppression, and they look at how bird and plant species are faring today in the Current River Pinery.  More coming soon

Part 4: Managed Woodlands Benefit Society. In this segment, fire-science professionals  and biologists tell how fire-adapted woodlands benefit human societies, past and present, both within the Current River Pinery and elsewhere in Missouri. More coming soon

Take the tour in person! Here’s how and where: