During the early 1900s, nearly 37 million hectares of land in the Southern United States was under longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) relative to the current area of only 1.7 million hectares. Given the immense loss of acreage under the longleaf pine ecosystem, restoration has become a priority among multiple agencies. In this context, it is essential to understand the economics of longleaf pine at various scales for increasing the efficiency of longleaf restoration efforts. The first chapter compares the economics of loblolly (Pinus taeda), slash (Pinus elliottii), and longleaf pine by estimating land expectation values (LEVs) of forest products, net stored carbon, and water yield in the Lower Coastal Plain region of South Georgia. The second chapter ascertains the impact of the gradual adoption of longleaf pine on the total wood procurement cost at the landscape level using the hybrid simulation-optimization method. The interplay between the objectives of landowners (profit maximization) and wood mills (minimize wood procurement cost) is captured for ascertaining the changes in landscape characteristics over space and time. The third chapter develops a clustered point process model for determining the effects of socioeconomic, topographic, ecological, and distance variables on the spatial density of longleaf pine plantations under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in South Georgia. Chapter One shows that longleaf pine is not as profitable as other southern pines but has a lower financial risk. Income from pine straw was found significant in determining the profitability of longleaf pine plantation. The rotation age of longleaf pine reduces in the presence of income from pine straw. Chapter Two shows that once longleaf pine attains clearcut age, biomass is procured from those landscapes. Chapter

Three shows that the spatial density of longleaf pine plantations is negatively associated with the distance from cropland and pastureland and positively associated with land capability classes, and distance from the sawmills. Longleaf pine restoration efforts should focus on those croplands or pasture lands, which are closer to existing plantations, have lower soil capability, and are far from wood consuming mills. This dissertation directly feeds into current initiatives for restoring longleaf pine in the Southern United States. The research will help in customizing existing or designing better policy initiatives in the future for increasing the acreage under longleaf pine in the Southern United States.