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Four Priority Areas for the Protection of Eastern Coastal Plain Ecosystems

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Four Priority Areas for the Protection of Eastern Coastal Plain Ecosystems

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This figure shows four priority areas east of the Mississippi River for protecting endangered coastal plain ecosystems, including long leaf pine forests and associated swamps and deciduous forests. These four areas all lie within the southern conifer forest ecoregion (NA0529) which extends over 236,600 square kilometers of southeastern North America.

More than 95 percent of the forests in this region are degraded or cleared, and there are few properly-protected core examples. There is nothing equivalent to the 2,109 square kilometers of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for example. Each of the four areas shown on this map, does, however, have one core protected area, along with associated or adjoining protected areas.

In each case, the core and adjoining areas should be managed as one ecological unit. All four areas have an urgent need for four actions (1) land acquisition to link the core and adjoining lands in order to enlarge the protected area, (2) land acquisition to establish ecologically meaningful boundaries, (3) restoration of natural fire regimes (summer burns), and (4) elimination of logging.

A
The Elgin Air Force Base was called Choctawhatchee National Forest before it was converted to military use in 1940. North of Elgin lies Blackwater River State Park, and north of that lies Conecuh National Forest. Together these comprise some 2,834 square kilometers.

B

Appalachicola National Forest is the biggest consolidated block of public land east of the Rocky Mountains according to Kane and Keeton (1993). Satellite sites include Tates Hell State Forest, Aucilla Wildlife Management Area and St Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Together these sites comprise some 2,834 square kilometers.

C

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia has protected an area of 1,603 square kilometers of swamp of which more than 1,417 square kilometers are designated a National Wilderness area. Osceola National Forest, just south of the Okefenokee, adds some 810 square kilometers of swamp and flatwoods. This area probably has the smallest area of longleaf pine forest among the four, but is included because of its sheer size. The web site maintained by 1000friendsofflorida.org describes steps required to better link the Osceola forests to the Okefenokee.

D

De Soto National Forest, the western most of the four areas, is probably the least well known of the four. It is fragmented into two separate parcels without ecologically meaningful boundaries. Land acquisition is vital to fill these gaps. It could be linked in the west to the Pearl River (e.g. the 243 square kilometer Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge) and in the south to the 77 square kilometer Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge.

References and links:

www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/terrestrial/na/na0529.html

www.1000friendsofflorida.org

Christensen, N.L. 1988. Vegetation of the southeastern coastal plain. pp. 317-363 In: M.G. Barbour and W.D. Billings (eds.). North American Terrestrial Vegetation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.