Longleaf Pine Historic Range Map
The Longleaf Pine Ecosystem was once the dominant forest of the South, encompassing more than 90 million acres across nine states from Virginia to Texas. Despite such a vast range, fragmentation, unsustainable harvest, conversion to other land uses and vegetative types, invasive species, and exclusion of fire, longleaf pine forests were reduced to slightly more than 3% of its historic reach across the landscape - a higher rate of loss than most other threatened ecosystems, including wetlands in the southeast and rainforests worldwide. Outside of the tropics, one would be hard pressed to find a more biologically diverse system. According to the Range-Wide Conservation Plan for Longleaf Pine, more than 140 species of vascular plants can be found in a 1,000 square meter area with as many fifty different plant species in one square meter. Over 900 endemic plant species can be found only in this ecosystem. This system is home to over 170 of the 290 reptil...