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- Info
Habitat loss, Florida's changing landscapes: upland forests
| Author: |
Sprott, Patricia; Mazzotti, Frank J. |
| Date: |
2001 |
| Periodical: |
Gainesville, FL: Florida Cooperative Extension Service; Department of Wildlife and Ecology Conservation; WEC 151. 3 p |
| Link: |
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW160
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| Abstract: |
The wind whispers from the canopy overhead; the fragrance of pine needles wafts from underfoot; a woodpecker drums in the distance; a deer bolts through the underbrush. Florida's uplands once covered nearly half of the state with pine flatwoods and dry prairies, scrub and high pine, temperate hardwood forests, and South Florida rocklands. These uplands once provided habitat for an immense variety of wildlife. In recent years however, residential and agricultural development has caused the loss of most of the natural forests, while drainage (which alters the water table and hydro-period) and non-native species (which crowd out the natives) have decreased the value of much of the remaining wildlife habitat. The U.S. Forest Service, for example, has recorded an 88 percent decline in longleaf pine forests in just over 50 years. This forest type once covered 7.6 million acres-more than one-fifth of Florida's total area. Today these ecologically important pinelands cover less than one million acres. Without increased awareness and conservation efforts,we could witness the demise of Florida's upland forests in the very near future. |
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