PANAMA CITY — There’s one tree that dominates much of northwest Florida that most are likely unaware of: the longleaf pine tree.
History
This southern pine once towered over most of the southeast, covering 90 million acres between Texas and Virginia. Old photos show impressively wide and tall old-growth tall trees dwarfing early pioneers, a far cry from the skinnier and shorter trees we see today.
A mature longleaf stands between 80 to 100 feet tall with a trunk 3 feet in diameter. They can grow to be up to 120 feet tall.
Wood from the longleaf pine was valuable because of its durability. In places like Bay County and across the southeast, naval stores for ship building were a large economic driver for local economies. Over 200 years, timbermen were able to reduce the range of the tree to just over 3 million acres.
Coastal towns such as Panama City and Port St Joe built up around the industry, with papermills processing all this timber into a fine pulp for other uses. Forestry at the time was a less-than-sustainable business. Before the 1930s, the “cut and get out,” method was common. Lumbermen would go from area to area clear-cutting forests.
The longleaf pine, for all its useful traits, can also take 150 years to reach its full maturity. In their place, faster growing species like slash and loblolly pines were replanted.
Turpentining
Turpentining, the act of extracting a sap resin from the trees, was also a big industry in Florida and Georgia particularly. Before European colonization, indigenous people would use the sap from the trees as insect repellent, antiseptic, and in the construction of canoes.
Early settlers set up stills where they would turn the sap into industrial products for use on boats and in other chemicals. Turpentine camps were known for harsh conditions and often used the enslaved and leased-convicts. This led to them gaining a reputation of being rowdy and dangerous places.
The mass scale of turpentining further led to the destruction of longleaf pine forests across the southeast and locally. Vanishing forests, the end of the convict-leasing system, and advancements in technology eventually resulted in the end of turpentining by the 1950s.
Aerial imagery from 1941 shows a largely barren and deforested landscape in Bay County. In the end, the longleaf was left with only 3% of their historical range.
Why should we care about a tree species?
Some readers might be wondering why they should care about a tree. There’s a few reasons:
Ecological importance
More than half of the 1,630 estimated plant species found in the southeast are only found within longleaf pine ecosystems. This biodiversity is second to a tropical rainforest.
The Florida Panhandle is one of five biodiversity hotspots in North America. The longleaf expanses and unique geography provide refuge for rare and endemic species to thrive.
Keystone species are plants or animals that can cause whole ecosystems to collapse without their presence. The longleaf pine is considered one of them.
One of the threatened species harbored within longleaf forests is the gopher tortoise, which is also classified as a keystone species. Some 350 other species rely on the tortoise and their burrows. Longleaf ecosystems provide sandy oils and plant diets that greatly benefit the animal.
The threatened red-cockaded woodpecker is an iconic and secondary keystone species within the longleaf habitat. They are very picky with nest-building locations and often opt to live in the sometimes softer-interior of older longleaf pine trees. Other small mammals and insects go on to use the burrows they’ve carved out of the pines.
Longleafs are also more resilient against natural disasters than other pines. Surveys found after Hurricanes Katrina and Michael showed that the trees were better-able to withstand high winds than other pines.
These trees can adjust their water uptake during droughts, are more pest-resistant than other species, and are evolved to survive wildfires.
Cultural heritage
Before European colonization, the longleaf pine was an essential part of life for tribes like the Choctaws and Creeks.
Every part of the tree down to the bark was used to build homes. Logs of larger pines were used to build canoes and their bark was used for paving village streets.
According to a USDA report, the Cherokee believed the pines to have eternal lives. When there was a death in a home they would use the smoke of cooked pine branches to purify the dwelling.
Parts of the trees were used in medicines and there’s a still-standing and deep-rooted indigenous craft of weaving baskets from the needles. Early settlers also took part in the craft.
The open and park-like understory of longleaf pine forests allowed early pioneers to graze their cattle beneath the pines. Although the deforestation largely brought this practice to an end, it is still practiced in some areas and is known as silvopasture.
The term “Florida cracker,” describing early white pioneers, is said to have come from the sound of ranch hands cracking whips trying to corral cattle roaming among the longleafs.
“It’s just a part of our core being of if you live in the south,” said Vernon Compton, director of the Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership for the Longleaf Alliance. “The longleaf pine forest built a lot of particularly southern cities, but you would have found it throughout the growth of our country when the longleaf forests were being clear cut in the late 1800s and early 1900s so it really built a lot of our houses, commercial buildings, furniture, doors, windows, and many of our historic cities in the south.”
Fire dependence
A healthy longleaf pine ecosystem relies on fire to survive. The flames snuff out invasive and competing species, allowing native plants and the longleaf tree to thrive. Part of the reason the understory of a healthy longleaf ecosystem is so open and non-crowded is because of fire-management.
In its natural state, periodic fires would occur naturally. Early indigenous groups understood the value of fire to the ecosystem and practiced controlled, managed burns.
Early Florida pioneers would use fire to to clear undergrowth and fields.
The artform was lost at some point, but today prescribed burns are used by entities to maintain these ecosystems.
Current threats
Compton pointed to urban development being one factor, adding that the lands where the pines are is typically attractive to people. Homes aren’t the only thing reducing habitat cover, conversion to agriculture and some types of forestry are also posing a threat.
Invasive species such as cogongrass are also creating challenges. This grass is described as a “novel fuel” that increases fire intensities. While longleafs are fire-adapted, enough heat can still kill them.
Increasing frequencies and intensities of hurricanes and droughts due to climate change are also taking their toll. Although they may be more resilient than other pines, a strong hurricane can still flatten a mature longleaf ecosystem.
As humans push further and further into longleaf territory, it can also constrain where and when perscribed burns occur. The lack of fire can do serious damage to the forests over time.
What are we doing to save the longleaf?
Multiple groups are leading the charge to conserve lands containing longleaf pine ecosystems.
Conservation groups have been able to bring the range of the pine up to 5 million acres from its historic 3 million acre low.
The environmental advocates are also making resources available for property owners who want to get involved in preservation of the longleaf pine. Organizations such as America’s Longleaf argue that landowners can make a profit off of creating the habitat through pine straw and timber.
Meanwhile, replanting efforts have been underway. The Northwest Florida Water Management District celebrated planting their 20 millionth longleaf in 2022. Florida State Parks bragged that the nearby Torreya State Park restore about 350 acres of the ecosystem yearly.
The state recently finalized plans to create the new Sandy Creek State Forest that will preserve 12,243 acres in Bay, Calhoun, and Gulf counties. Some of the acreage contains longleaf pine habitat.
Where can I find a longleaf?
If this read has inspired you to go out and see one of these iconic pines for yourself, there could be one in your back yard. Readers can see an interactive map of the longleafs created by the Florida Forest Service.
The largest concentration of the trees in Bay County is in Pine Log State Forest, (Florida’s oldest state forest,) and state owned lands along Econfina Creek.
The highest concentration in the Florida panhandle can be found on the range of Eglin Air Force Base, Blackwater State Forest, the Apalachicola National Forest, and the water management areas around Econfina Creek.