Dr. Alan Long is a forest operations specialist in the University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation. He says multiple use first was mandated in the early 1960s for our national forests when Congress passed the Multiple Use/Sustained Yield Act. "The national forests were established just for timber production and watersheds," he says. "Although they were being used for recreation long before the sixties, the purpose of this Act was to provide a mandate so the national forests could be managed for all resources rather than just timber production."

The Act specified that all national forest resources were to be managed for five objectives: timber, watershed protection, wildlife, recreation, and grazing. As Congress began to pass additional legislation such as the Endangered Species Act and the Wilderness Act, controversy arose about how the national forests would accommodate all these uses.

Parallel to the development of multiple use concepts, land managers have been concerned about what happens to forest types and forest communities when we break up large areas into small blocks. "There's been concern about maintaining some level of landscape or forest community continuity," Long says. "Another concern has been biodiversity and how to maintain that, however you define it." Yet a third issue has been what happens to natural ecosystems when management activities such as clearcuts are involved.

Ecosystem management gradually has become the framework within which managers accomplish multiple use. "Traditional forest use would compartmentalize a forest," Long says. "Those compartments were often done on the basis of roads and rivers, things like that. Now people are saying, 'Let's do it in terms of the whole ecosystem.'" It's become biological, rather than administrative, management.

From Public To Private

A lot of these landowners have small tracts on which they're growing trees, and they simply plant a few food plots and then lease the land for hunting.

At the other end of the spectrum are owners such as Robert Pitman, who find as many ways as possible to earn an income from their property while still preserving the forest values that drew them to the land in the first place.

Before establishing White Oak Plantation, Robert and his wife Hilda already owned a successful greenhouse and citrus operation in central Florida. But they dreamed of a place with tall pines and wildlife where they would care for the land and make a living from the bounty the land returned to them. They looked at land all over the Southeast, from Texas to the Carolinas. At last they found a 550-acre tract in central Alabama, located in the Black Belt region near Tuskegee.

As Robert and Hilda studied the property, they thought about running a hunting plantation, and at the same time using forestry to improve the land as well. Gradually they came to the notion of managing the tract as an entire forest ecosystem, based on what was best for the whole system.

"The property was 40 to 45 percent open land," Robert says. "The previous owner had grown all kinds of crops on it. At the time we acquired it, those areas were in either hay field or grazing."

The timber on the property was in blocks of various sizes, with no connecting corridors of vegetation. "We wanted to tie the woodland together across the open areas," he says. "So over a period of years we planted a large portion of the land back to pines. We left more area in fields than we would if we were just after timber. I needed both the aesthetics and a place for turkeys to raise their poults. So there's more open land than there would normally be on a timber operation."

Robert and his son Bo burned areas in which natural fires long had been suppressed. They clearcut inferior stands of pines and planted back the cut areas in native loblolly pines in blocks of five to 65 acres. Over time, they developed a mosaic of uneven-aged pine stands and fields planted in wildlife feed to meet the needs of different species at different times in their lives.

He plants various crops according to soil type and existing fertility. "You can't plant clover and expect it to take care of all the woes in the world," Robert says. "We have areas in which clover is planted, and others for grass crops such as Bahia and legumes such as joint vetch. In other areas we plant soybeans and corn."

Bo and Robert also leave weeds. Deer browse the morning glories that receive fertilizer when the corn does. In the late summer when almost everything else is parched from the heat, the deer rely heavily on fertilized kudzu with its high moisture and 20-plus percent protein content.

The property also contained some hardwood areas. "They were big, they were canopied over, and they looked good to me," he says. "But there were a lot of big, worthless trees. We clearcut parts of it and left all sorts of corridors. Some of it will come back in original hardwood species, and we planted the rest of it in pines. Along the right-of-way for the power line that runs through it, as we get the stumps out, we'll plant clovers and that sort of thing."

While Robert and Bo were developing their original 550 acres, they also were busy on the real estate front. They purchased additional tracts adjoining the original property, until they had a total of 3,800 acres in the family. They've taken additional land under lease, so they're now managing and hunting about 16,000 acres.

They manage all the property with the same concept of ecological forestry. Eventually, Robert says, Bo will begin cutting timber. Until then, hunting pays the bills on White Oak.

"Hunting has to support everything," Robert says. "And the hunting revenue is integrated back into the land. The land is divided into what will produce woods, wildlife habitat, and eventually, timber. But hunting has paid for it."

This approach has led to some unusual management decisions. For example, when replanting clearcut areas, Robert and Bo have left extra-wide fire lanes, resulting in what amounts to a "double edge" effect. On erosion-damaged hilltops, they've planted grasses to help stabilize and rebuild the soil, rather than return the land to trees.

Because of sophisticated wildlife management at White Oak, the plantation is producing some spectacular trophy bucks. Eleven years ago, White Oak was the first commercial lodge on the statewide Deer Management Program, and it operates under very stringent rules concerning numbers and sizes of deer harvested.

Hunters are allowed to take only bucks with a 16-inch spread or eight visible points, or does. Any substandard deer costs $500 extra.

Nor does the White Oak operation end with timber and hunting. At the lodge the Pitman family has hosted such diverse groups as Hunter Education courses, deer management seminars, Forestry Planning Committee banquets, international forestry seminars, and handgun, black powder, and archery seminars.

Robert Pitman has found ways to manage his forest land ecologically and make a profit doing so.

If the Pitmans have a philosophy of land management, it is contained in the welcome packet that visitors to the lodge receive on their arrival. "The message each person leaving the lodge will carry with them is this," the page reads. "White Oak Plantation is dedicated to the principles of respect for the land, the game, and the guests." It is a philosophy that has served White Oak Plantation well.

A Multitude Of Opportunities

A 200-yard rifle/handgun range is located a few hundred yards from the main lodge. This allows guests to check the sighting in of their guns, or do a little target shooting. On the other side of the lodge, a 15-acre, 16-station, state-of-the-art sporting clays course is open not only to lodge guests but to the public as well, though reservations are required. The range was planned by renowned course designer Mike Davy, the owner of the Shooting Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As if all that weren't enough, White Oak also has four 3-D archery ranges on the property. Each 10-target course is set up according to tournament requirements. White Oak holds one tournament a month, each of which is open to the public.

Robert and Bo Pitman go to great lengths to make the plantation hunting experience available to sportsmen and women who otherwise might not get an opportunity to do this kind of hunting. During the season they regularly host family and disabled hunts, and offer special rates for youth. Family specials always are scheduled during school vacation periods.

But White Oak's mainstay is that staple of the South--deer hunting. A typical deer hunt runs three or four days, and costs $825 to $1,800 per hunter. During each three-day hunt, a hunter may take one trophy buck and one doe per day. Quail hunting runs $400 and includes guides, meals, lodging, and the opportunity to take 15 quail per day.

The archery deer season runs from October 15 to the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Rifle deer season is from Thanksgiving to the end of January. Turkey can be hunted from March 20 to April 30, and quail season for wild and pen-raised birds is from October 1 to March 31.

For more information about White Oak Plantation, contact Robert, Hilda, or Bo Pitman at 5215 County Road, Route 10, Tuskegee, AL 36083. Their phone numbers are 334-727-9258 (voice) and 334-727-3411 (fax).