biodiversity hotspot: the florida panhandle

784 BioScience • October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 www.biosciencemag.org

The reported recent sightings of theivory-billed woodpecker in the

Florida Panhandle spotlighted not onlythe reputedly extinct bird but also the

rich biodiversity of the ChoctawhatcheeRiver. The focus on the Florida Panhan-dle, one of two locales (the Big Woodsarea of Arkansas is the other) being

searched for the ivory-billedwoodpecker,has underscored the environmental con-text for species survival.As a free-flowingriver through protected, successional

Biodiversity Hotspot:Biodiversity Hotspot:The Florida PanhandleThe Florida Panhandle

Conservation in the Florida Panhandle, one of the richest

biodiversity hotspots in North America, improves through

major restoration efforts and new partnerships.

R I C H A R D J . B L A U S T E I N

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The Choctawhatchee River is one place where ivory-billed woodpeckers have reputedly been sighted. Though the river is incomparatively good condition, a recent report by the Nature Conservancy describes the main threats to panhandle river

biodiversity, from greatest to least: dams and water management and use, agricultural and forestry effluents,roads and railroads, housing and urban areas, and invasive species. Photograph: Marguerite Foxon.

http://www.biosciencemag.org

www.biosciencemag.org October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 • BioScience 785

forests, the Choctawhatchee River fig-ures large in the possible survival of thisiconic North American bird.The Florida Panhandle, considered

one of the five richest biodiversityhotspots inNorthAmerica, has been thecenter of regional and national attentionfor reasons other than the ivory-bill.Prominent developments in the pan-handle include the ongoing disagree-ment between Georgia, Alabama, andFlorida over diversion of waters in theApalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint Riversystem,which affects the biodiversity andcommercial fisheries of Apalachicola Bay;the establishment of the NorthwestFlorida Greenway, a protected corridorthrough the panhandle; the recent iden-tification of a second species of the rareflatwoods salamander; and the ground-breaking for the E. O. Wilson BiophiliaCenter, expected to open in the fall of2009. These join the ongoing recoveryefforts in the panhandle for species suchas the red-cockadedwoodpecker and theOkaloosa darter at Eglin Air Force Base,in the western panhandle, and substan-tial longleaf pine–wiregrass restoration,which makes use of refined fire applica-tions.Deborah Keller, senior policy repre-

sentative at the Nature Conservancy(TNC), clarifies why the panhandle is abiodiversity hotspot:“Its rivers run clean;its coastal estuaries and forests are pro-ductive. It has changedmore slowly thanpeninsular Florida, so species and naturalecosystems have survived.” Althoughpolitical choices and economic develop-ment pose pressing challenges for thearea, the Florida Panhandle is a biologi-cal wonder that presents scientific, pub-lic policy, and educational questions.

Natural historyEcologist Bruce Means, founder andexecutive director of the Coastal PlainsInstitute and Land Conservancy in Tal-lahassee and adjunct professor at FloridaState University, has been involved inconservation in the panhandle for morethan 40 years.He points out that no areaof its size in the United States or Canadahas more species of frogs (27) or snakes(42), and it ranks about third in theworldfor turtle species (18). The diversity of

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In May 2008 the E. O.Wilson Biophilia Center formally broke ground at its NokusePlantation site in the western panhandle. Named after Harvard biologist E. O.Wilson,who spent much of his youth in the Florida Panhandle and in nearby eastern Alabama,the center is scheduled to open in fall 2009. Local businessman and conservationistM. C. Davis is the driving force behind both the Nokuse Plantation and the E. O.Wilson Biophilia Center. He says the center will make use of the natural setting of the48,000-acre Nokuse Plantation to “give children an opportunity to learn and then tolove nature.” After completing the program, he expects, each one will be “at least a littlebit of a naturalist.”

The center’s director, Christy Scally, is already consulting with local school districts. Sheexplains that the Biophilia Center will have multifaceted programs demonstrating theimportance of a balanced ecosystem. The programs will include discovery trails,interactive exhibits, curricular materials in line with Florida’s state science standards,and a theater for showing science films and presentations from noted scientists andenvironmentalists.

The Nokuse Plantation, with its major longleaf-pine restoration program, isrepresentative of the larger conservation effort in the Florida Panhandle and haslinkages to the million-acre Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership and theprospective Northwest Florida Greenway. Ecologist Matt Aresco, director of NokusePlantation, points out that Nokuse comprises a diversity of habitat types that wereoriginally found in the region. “Much of the area has been impacted by silviculture andagriculture,” he says, “but all the pieces are there for restoration.” The goal at Nokuse isto restore natural communities to their pre-European settlement conditions, whichmeans a reemergent longleaf-pine dominance. Other habitats include herbaceousseepage bogs and blackwater streams.

Some of the state and federally listed rare species found there are the gopher tortoise,pine snake, and Cooley’s meadow rue. Aresco has been directing Nokuse’s gophertortoise rescue effort, which is the largest in the state, involving about 1500 gophertortoises. The aim, Aresco says, is “to save gopher tortoises from development andreestablish gopher tortoise populations on land where they were historicallyoverharvested by humans.”

Education and conservation objectives are intertwined at Nokuse Plantation andthe E. O.Wilson Biophilia Center. The education component is as important as landacquisition, Aresco says. The public needs to know why land is being acquired andwhat might be lost, in terms of natural communities, if property isn’t protected.

Davis says Nokuse Plantation is hiseffort “to save biodiversity on thelargest scale personally possible.”Much of the species loss is causedby our ignorance, he says, and theonly cure is knowledge, which isgained most efficiently throughformal education. E. O.Wilson hasnot only shared his name with thecenter but, through his researchand writing, has inspired people allover the world.Wilson’s writings,says Davis, “were the catalyst thatcaused my own dedication toconservation.”

E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center

Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson (right) spent much of his youth inthe panhandle and in nearby Mobile, Alabama. Also pictured areM. C. Davis (center), Nokuse Plantation’s developer, and Matt

Aresco (left), Nokuse’s director. Photograph: Margaret Gunzburger.



salamanders (28 species), birds (approx-imately 300 species), and plants (morethan 2500 species) is also very high. “Allthis is a reflection of the high habitat di-versity of the Florida Panhandle,”Meanssays.Steve Herrington, a senior aquatic

ecologist for TNC, explains that the nat-ural history of Florida Panhandle riversis linked to changes in sea level. “Unlikepeninsular Florida,”he says,“panhandlerivers remained connected to mainlandNorth America throughout the Pleis-tocene Epoch” (1.8 million to 12,000years ago), providing a refuge wheneverthe sea level rose. TheApalachicola Riverhas themost remarkable biodiversity ofthe large rivers of the panhandle, “sup-porting more primary freshwater fish[more than 90 species], mussels [morethan 30 species], and reptile and am-phibian species than the other rivers.”Although less diverse, other panhandleriver systems contain numerous endemicspecies, as well. Yet the hotspot forbiodiversity is the Apalachicola, wherenotable species include Apalachicolarosemary, Florida torreya trees, fat three-ridge mussels, Say’s spiketail dragon-flies, fireback crayfish, shoal bass, andApalachicola dusky salamanders. “Thereason for this high diversity and en-demism,” Herrington says, “is stronglyrelated to historical biogeographical pat-terns of colonization and recoloniza-tion during the Pleistocene Epoch untilpresent day.”

The Gulf Coast of the panhandle isalso uniquely varied, with the most bio-diversity in the eastern Big Bend, whereseagrass meadows thrive. Marine biolo-gist Anne Rudloe, managing director ofthe Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratoryin Panacea, Florida, says the Florida Pan-handle has one of the most biologicallydiverse coasts in the continental UnitedStates.“To the west, the wave energy cre-ated by deep water close to shore and

large rivers builds extensive barrierbeaches with endemic subspecies ofbeachmice among the fauna.To the east,”she continues, “shallow water for milesoffshore dampenswaves and allows hugesalt marshes and seagrass meadows tostretch for miles.” Its denizens includeattention-getting manatees, bald eagles,and sea turtles, but also tarpon, grouper,pink shrimp, and “all the thousands ofsmaller marine species that support thelarger headliners.”Florida’s Big Bend,which extends be-

yond the panhandle all the way south totheWithlacoochee River, has one of thelargest seagrass beds areas in the worldand is encompassed almost entirely bypublicly owned lands. Marine ecosys-tems aremore diverse at the phylum andclass levels than terrestrial ecosystems,explains Rudloe, “for the simple reasonthat most biological lineages are marineand never became established on land.”Like coral reefs, seagrass beds are espe-cially rich because they combine abun-dant food and shelter with a relativelystable physical environment.“The resultis an underwater meadow teeming withlife.”

Longleaf-pine savannasThe panhandle has many rich and dra-matic habitats. For example, seepage bogscontain colorful arrays of carnivorousplants in communities that rival rainforests in diversity, with more than 50species of plants per square meter, bysome estimates. The panhandle’s steep-head ravines, small canyons formed byspring water, are also known for theirendemism.However, it is the the longleaf-pine habitat that is the most extensiveand broadly supportive habitat for whichthe panhandle is best known.“Longleaf-pine ecosystems may be

North America’s least appreciated re-

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The flatwoods salamander is a noted example of the species diversity and endemismof the panhandle. Hundreds of thousands of salamanders and frogs emerge everyyear from small, temporary ponds and migrate into the longleaf forests, Bruce

Means says. They transport nutrients upslope from their natal pond, they feed on ahost of invertebrates, and their bodies are abundant food for predators.

Photograph: D. Bruce Means.

Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas, top), along with manatees, are the dominantlarge herbivores in the panhandle’s seagrass habitat. Their populations were

decimated by centuries of overharvesting, says Anne Rudloe, of the Gulf SpecimenMarine Laboratory, so the ecosysytem today is probably significantly different fromwhat it was when they were more common. The pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus

duorarum, bottom), which supports the most valuable fishery in the Gulf ofMexico, uses seagrass as its juvenile habitat. Without seagrasses, Rudloe says, there

would be no pink shrimp. Photograph courtesy of Gulf Specimen MarineLaboratory, Panacea, Florida.


positories of biodiversity,” Means ex-plains. Longleaf-pine habitats once ac-counted for 60 percent of the landscape,spanning a 2000-mile swath of land fromVirginia to Texas, but now they are re-duced to less than 2 percent of their orig-inal expanse.What remains is protectedon publicly owned lands of the FloridaPanhandle: Eglin Air Force Base, Apa-lachicola National Forest, BlackwaterRiver State Forest, St. Marks NationalWildlife Refuge, and state parks. Mostold-growth longleaf-pine timber wasremoved between 1880 and 1930; whatlongleaf acreage is left is second growth.“An ancient plant community withorigins in the Miocene,” Means says,“longleaf-pine savannas support up to150 species of plants per hectare. Suchplant species richness is mirrored inanimal life. Of 212 resident species ofvertebrate animals, 38 are specialistsoccurring exclusively or primarily inlongleaf-pine savannahs.” Adds JamesFurman,wildland fire programmanagerat Eglin Air Force Base: “With predomi-nantly open, park-like stands that were

maintained by frequent fire,many animaland plant species evolved in this fire-dependent ecosystem and are foundnowhere else.”In fact, fire is central to longleaf-

pine habitat, facilitating faunal andfloral succession and clearing out lessbiodiversity-supportive hardwoods.Restoration ecologist David Printiss,director of TNC’sNorthwest Florida pro-gram,which includesApalachicola BluffsandRavines Preserve, says that for south-ern pine forests, and not just long-leafpine, “the most important ecologicalprocess by far is fire.” It is carried acrossthe landscape by a blanket of grassyground cover, and although pine treesdo play an integral part, the ground cover,dominated by Aristida stricta, defines it.The red-cockadedwoodpecker and otherrare fire-dependent species, Furman adds,such as the gopher tortoise and indigosnake, thrive in the open savannalikeforests that frequent fires produce.Among the panhandle’s other bio-

diverse habitats are theApalachicola Low-lands biotic region, the many natural

springs, and Apalachicola Bay, which is,Herrington observes,“arguably themostbiologically productive bay in theNorth-ernHemisphere.”Drought and upstreamwater diversions have had amajor impacton the bay, and as with all panhandlehabitats, its future depends on publicpolicy, development agendas, and con-servation and restoration efforts.

21st century conservation:Restoration, partnerships,and policyRestoration of longleaf-pine habitat ismaking great strides, in terms of bothscientific advances and major commit-ments (see the box on p. 785). Printiss’srestoration work at Apalachicola BluffsandRavines Preserve emphasizes the ap-plication of prescribed fire. To addresshabitat damage frommid-20th-centurytimber harvesting, which noticeablyuprooted the forest floor as part of sitepreparation, his program focused earlyon the need to restore wiregrass, the crit-ical ground cover. It was not knownhow wiregrass reproduced before the

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The Florida Panhandle contains vital remnants of old growth and regrown longleaf-pine habitat, which once coveredover 60 percent of southeastern land from Virginia to Texas. “The vast majority of the diversity in southern pine forests

occurs from the knees down,” says David Printiss. “At least 40 plant species have been documentedper square meter.” Photograph: D. Bruce Means.


late 1980s, but his research has sinceshown (a) how to stimulate flowering bygrowing-season fire, (b) when to collectthe seed, and (c) how to successfullypropagate the seed for both sowing inthe nursery and direct seeding in restora-tion sites. “Through the continued re-finement of techniques and equipment,”he says, “we have reduced ground coverrestoration costs from over $10,000 peracre to hundreds of dollars per acre.”Eglin Air Force Base, whose 464,000

acres are a prime focus of panhandleconservation, is comparable in size toRhode Island; 11 federally listed threat-ened and endangered species persistthere. “Eglin Air Force Base,” Furmansays,“includes the largest remaining long-leaf-pine forest under single ownership,as well as the largest tract of old-growthlongleaf-pine forest,making it extremelyimportant from a conservation stand-point.” The base made taxonomic newsin 2007 when a new species of flatwoodssalamander at Eglin (Ambystoma bish-opi) was identified, distinguishing it fromits sister species (Ambystoma cingula-tum) east of the Apalachicola River.

Partnerships play a large role in con-servation at Eglin. Steve Seiber, chief ofnatural resources at the base, says thatwithout them, the principles of ecosystemmanagement and biodiversity conserva-tion at Eglin could not have been devel-oped. Fromworkshopswithmilitary testand training range planners to TNC’ssite conservation planning process, part-ners have played a vital role in improvingthe natural resources management ofthe base. Keller, who leads TNC’s workat Eglin, says the Northwest Florida–Conservancy–military partnershipworkswell because all members embrace thelong-termbenefits of protecting a healthyecosystem.“It is truly a win-win arrange-ment,” she says. The protection plan forhigh-priority conservation areas that is inplace in the panhandle preserves theecosystem services forwildlife andhumanpopulations, as well as provides a bufferbetween residential areas and militaryoperations and training missions.The entire population of Okaloosa

darter (Etheostoma okaloosae) is endemicto the Florida Panhandle, and Eglin hasmanagement responsibility for 95 percent

of the endangered species’habitat, Seiberexplains. The fish live in only six smallstreams, and the main threat has beensedimentation from borrow pits (exca-vated holes) and fromnonpoint sources,such as roadways and rights-of-way.From1994 to 2007, he says, a total of 324 sitestotaling 495 acres have been rehabilitatedand maintained. As a result of Eglin’srestoration efforts, the US Fish andWildlife Service is proposing downlistingtheOkaloosa darter from endangered tothreatened.The red-cockadedwoodpecker (Picoides

borealis) is perhaps the most famousspecies drawing attention to Eglin. Thewoodpecker constructs its highly craftednest in the older longleaf-pine trees foundat Eglin, as these trees are prone to theheart rot fungus that makes the treeamenable to deep nest excavation. “Wehave been implementing a comprehen-sive management program for the red-cockaded woodpecker on Eglin for18 years and have made great stridestowards the recovery of the species,”explains Bruce Hagerdon, wildlife pro-grammanager at Eglin. Starting from an

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Fire has always been integral to the longleaf-pine habitat; the unique species assemblage of longleaf-pine areas evolved in thecontext of recurrent fires. Lightning strikes were once the most common cause, but Native Americans also instigated fires for

hunting, land clearing, and pest control. Today, prescribed fire is necessary for maintaining the remaining and restoredlongleaf-pine habitat. Photograph: D. Bruce Means.


estimated 184 potential breeding groupsin 1994 to the latest, but still unofficial,2008 count of 335 groups,“we have doc-umentedwhat I think is an impressive 55percent increase in our population,” hesays. The recovery goal, as established inthe species recovery plan, is 350 potentialbreeding groups.Hagerdon credits theirrecovery to artificial cavity/nest drillingand translocation of juvenile birds, aswell as to good ecosystemmanagement.Conservation efforts in the panhandle

owe a great deal to existing governmentsupport and overarching initiatives. Forexample, notwithstanding significant en-vironmental problems, such as invasivespecies and agricultural waste in some lo-cations,“The overall status of panhandlerivers is generally good,”Herrington says,owingmuch to the relatively low humanpopulation density of the panhandle.The State of Florida, particularly in thepast 15 years, has been purchasing landsto protect and restore natural areas forconservation purposes. The federal gov-ernment has also been protecting largeareas. The result, he says, is “a compara-tively extensive amount of land protec-tion [that] helps protect riverine resourcesfrom problems resulting from develop-ment and human land practices.”The purchasing of land for conserva-

tion is often a part of the popular FloridaForever program,which received fundinginMay 2008 for the fiscal year, notwith-standing a budgetary crisis, and whichwas extended until 2020 by the state leg-islature.Yet themost ambitious initiativeis theNorthwest FloridaGreenway,whichis a plan for an extended biodiversitycorridor linking EglinAir Force Base andthe Apalachicola National Forest 100miles to the east, andwhich sprang froma cooperative understanding among var-ious state and federal offices, TNC, andothers. The proposed greenway fromApalachicola to Eglin Air Force Base,Keller says, will create a corridor ofwilderness and conservation lands thatstretches from Florida’s Big Bend toAlabama. These lands harbor species,protect future water resources, providestormbuffers, and allow ecological adap-tations to shifts in sea level and rainfall,she explains, “and they are the places ofour cultural and natural heritage.”

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Located alongside fire-replenished areas of longleaf pine, seepage bogs areexceptionally diverse. These water-permeated habitats contain colorful

carnivorous plants, including 6 species of butterworts, 12 species of bladderworts,and 6 species of pitcher plants. These plants, which have been around formillions of years, devour insects that become trapped in their intricate

and alluring flowers. Photograph: D. Bruce Means.

The biodiversity and endemism of steephead ravines are accentuated by the uniqueprogression of plant life down the steep slopes. Steepheads are small canyons, BruceMeans explains, formed by the sapping action of springwater emerging from the toeof sandy slopes. Over time, the slopes migrated headward as sand was removed,creating the “steep heads.” Steephead springwater is buffered thermally and

chemically, making a very stable wetland habitat. Photograph: D. Bruce Means.


The futureAs the greenway plan moves forward,other efforts for major highway exten-sions across the panhandle are beingadvanced by a different group of stake-holders. This extension plan raises con-cerns about undercutting the scope ofthe greenway and undermining sensitivespecies recoveries. Even though theNorthwest FloridaGreenway is viewed asa serious Florida initiative, with bearingfor the future, how these contravening

agendas will interface remains to be seenin the time ahead.Significant business, development,

and environmental pressures weigh onthe future of the Florida Panhandle andits natural springs, seagrass meadows,estuaries, and forest savannas. The di-minished productivity of ApalachicolaBay, the invasive species and nutrientproblems at Wakulla Springs, and de-velopment threats to seagrass beds, toname a few difficulties, are causing some

concern as towhether development forcescan be kept in balance.At the same time,conservation and education efforts are asubstantial influence in the panhandle.The elusive ivory-billedwoodpecker is

perhaps emblematic of biodiversity inthe panhandle, Keller reflects, in that “itevokes the hope and the promise thatnature, given the opportunity to survive,can and oftenwill.”In a placewhere riversrun fresh and forests cycle naturally, long-lost treasures like the ivory-billed wood-pecker or longleaf-pine habitatsmay yetbe recovered.

Richard J. Blaustein (e-mail:

[email protected]) is an

environmental lawyer and freelance

writer based in Washington, DC.

doi:10.1641/B580904Include this information when citing this material.

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For more information, visit these sites:

www.nature.org/florida

www.eowilsoncenter.org

www.cooperativeconservationamerica.org/viewproject.asp?pid=544

www.coastalplains.org

www.gulfspecimen.org

www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/index.html


biodiversity hotspot: the florida panhandle

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