In the southern United States, the chief influence of buming on landscapes is not how fire influences long-term pine yield but rather how fire influences overall stand structure and species composition. Without the continual use of fire, a forest canopy will develop with a basal area dominated by loblolly pine overstorytrees. Beneath this canopy, a well developed midstory and understory of woody plants and vines with draped and laddered fuels will evolve. The resulting deep shade and accumulation of litter will nearly eliminate herbaceous vegetation. We have become convinced that on most upland sites a series of pre harvest treatments are needed to ensure the restoration of long leaf pine plant communities and lessen the hazard of wildfires on these pyric landscapes. Our objective in this Joint Fire Science Program project is demonstrate changes in fuel load condition on uplands being restored to longleaf pine in the West Gulf Coastal Plain. First, we are evaluating two conversion treatments: (1) clearcutting and (2) harvesting to a longleafpine shelterwood. These treatments are being compared to (3) unharvested forest. Treatments 1 and 2 are planted with longleafpine seedlings. Second, each of the three treatments is subdivided for evaluating vegetation management practices: (a) untreated condition, (b) prescribed burning only, and (c) a combination of mechanical woody plant control and prescribed burning. Over time, this will allow us to evaluate how different combinations of treatments influence the management and development of forest fuels, vegetation, and structure on sites being restored to longleafpine.