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Lori Greene’s land east of Charlotte has for 30 years teemed with trees planted to harvest longleaf pine needle straw.

The burns clear space for longleaf pine, a tree species whose seeds won’t sprout on undergrowth blocking bare soil.

But because the dusky gopher frog helps control insect populations and prevent pest outbreaks in longleaf pine forest ponds, its extinction would again trigger a number of negative effects that may become unstoppable.

Reichling said the characteristics of the area where the snakes were released — a high tree canopy dominated by longleaf pine, little mid-level vegetation, grassy ground and sandy soil — are all vital to the snakes’ survival.

The report also found old and mature stands in other open forest types, such as oak woodlands of the Southwest and longleaf pine savannas of the southeast.