Sandhills Habitat

Characterized by sandy ridges of loose sand that starts in southern Virginia and runs through west Georgia at about 500 to 600 feet above sea level. A few isolated sandridges exist on the Florida panhandle and peninsula. Longleaf Pine sandhills are characterized as a forest of widely spaced pine trees with a fire-stunted understory of deciduous (scrub) oaks and a sparse ground cover of grasses and herbs. Today, sandhill longleaf sites make of some of the largest acreages of remaining longleaf pine habitat (despite comprising roughly 10% of the original landscape). Sandhills habitat depend on fire every 5-7 years to maintain a healthy ecosystem.