Ecosystem
Longleaf Pines, Aquifer Recharge, Springs and People
| HIKE THE TWO-MILE Pine Ridge Loop Trail at Ichetucknee Springs State Park, and you will see a longleaf pine ecosystem similar to what much of the Southeast looked like before the European colonists arrived. You’ll also be walking through a prime aquifer recharge area.
“Nothing is more beautiful, nothing more mysterious, nothing more breathtaking, nothing more surreal,” Janisse Ray wrote about longleaf pine forests in her book, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.
She explains:
“Miles and miles of longleaf and wiregrass, the ground cover that coevolved with the pine, once covered the left hip of North America—from Virginia to the Florida peninsula, west past the Mississippi River: longleaf as far in any direction as you could see…Forest historians estimate that longleaf covered 85 of the 156 million acres in its southeastern range.” (p. 14)
For more information, see:
Ichetucknee Springs State Park website
Founded in 1979, Four Rivers Audubon is one of 45 Florida affiliates of the National Audubon Society,
Longleaf pines thrive on the sandhills that occur on hilltops and slopes of gently rolling hills. Sandhills are important aquifer recharge areas because of their sandy, well-drained soils that enable rainwater to percolate swiftly downward into the groundwater within the aquifer. Here in Florida, that aquifer not only feeds the Ichetucknee’s springs but also provides drinking water for millions of people.
Because sandhills are high and well drained, they have historically been the first choice of housing and commercial developers as Florida’s population has continued to grow. Development has reduced the quantity and quality of aquifer recharge areas, meaning less water may be available to refill the aquifer that nourishes the Ichetucknee—and us.
As you hike the Pine Ridge Trail, please keep in mind these connections between rainfall-groundwater-aquifer-springs-people. The rain that falls on the sandhills today might be coming out of your kitchen tap or bubbling up in a spring along the Ichetucknee next week.
Here’s a tip from one who’s been there, done that: Spring and fall wildflower seasons are great times to hike the Pine Ridge Trail. Keep your eyes open and there among the longleafs and wiregrass you might see a gopher tortoise, fox squirrel, eastern indigo snake, kestrels or hawks. It’s a beautiful hike and a rare glimpse of old Florida.