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FWC Home : Wildlife & Habitats : Wildlife Legacy Initiative : Taking Action : Focal Habitat - Sandhill

Sandhill

 

habitat map
Click map to view larger image.   Some habitat distributions or locations may be misrepresented on this map due to size, resolution and insufficient data sources.

Prescribed fire - The Nature Conservancy
Prescribed fire is a key component of sandhill and scrub management

Wade Tract
Wade Tract

Hypotrichia spissipes female Photo by Dave Almquist.
Hypotrichia spissipes male Photo by Dave Almquist.
Hypotrichia spissipes, (female above, male below) a type of scarab beetle endemic to Florida that inhabits sandhill and scrub. Photo by Dave Almquist.

Red-cockaded Woodpecker banding
Red-cockaded Woodpecker banding

Gopher Tortoise
Gopher Tortoise

Status

Current condition: Poor and declining.
According to the best available GIS information at this time,

  • 753,547 acres (304,950 ha) of Sandhill habitat exist, of which
    • 46% (348,512 ac; 141,038 ha) are in conservation or managed areas.
    • 5% (35,052 ac; 14,185 ha) are in Florida Forever projects
    • 5% (34,517; 13,969 ha) are in SHCA-designated lands.
    • 45% (335,466; 135,758 ha) are other private lands.

Habitat Description

Sandhill
Sandhill
Sandhill communities occur only in north and central Florida in areas of gently rolling terrain on deep, well-drained, mostly yellow, sterile lands. This xeric community is dominated by an overstory of widely spaced, scattered longleaf pine, alone with an understory of turkey oak, sand post oak, and bluejack oak. The park-like ground cover consists of various grasses and herbs, including wiregrass, More...

lopsided Indian grass, bluestems, blazing star, partridge pea, beggars tick, milk pea, queen's delight, and others. Due to the poor water retention properties of the soils and open canopy, temperature and humidity fluctuate rapidly and frequently in this habitat compared to high moisture closed-canopy forests. However, many temporary wetlands are found throughout Sandhill landscapes and are an integral part of this habitat type, providing breeding and foraging habitat for many wildlife species. Sandhill is a community that is sustained by ground fires with short return intervals to reduce hardwood intrusion and to promote flowering of many grasses and herbs. In the absence of fire, Sandhill will eventually succeed into a xeric hammock. Sand pine can quickly invade Sandhills where seed sources are available and fires are suppressed.

Download the Sandhill chapter from the Strategy.

What is being done to conserve Sandhill?

Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative supports several projects designed to improve the quality of its 2 priority terrestrial habitats: scrub and sandhill.  These 2 habitats can be difficult to manage, especially when natural fires are suppressed and large quantities of fuel accumulate.  To safely manage these potentially dangerous areas and prevent wildfires, interagency groups formed ecosystem support teams (fire teams) to work in areas with needs for assistance during difficult burns.

Burrowing owlIn the Panhandle, the support team associated with the Gulf Coast Plain Ecosystem Partnership focuses on sandhill management, while the Lake Wales Ridge Prescribed Fire Strike Team is concerned mostly with scrub. A new team focusing on both scrub and sandhill formed in the summer of 2008 in Northeast Florida. These three ecosystem support teams are managed by The Nature Conservancy, an organization with an excellent reputation for land management.

Other Legacy-supported scrub and sandhill projects include the Common Species Common program within the FWC's Landowner Assistance Program, which provides incentives to private landowners to restore habitat focusing on key uplands around the state, and the cooperative Upland Ecosystem Restoration Project, which assists agencies with planning and funding ecosystem restoration projects.

The following current and recent projects are examples of the work being done by a variety of conservation partners to restore and maintain sandhill habitat:

For more information, please contact the FWLI Sandhill lead, Anna Liner Farmer.

What wildlife species will benefit?

Sandhill Species of Greatest Conservation Need

MammalsBirdsAmphibians
ReptilesInvertebratesView All

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