Fire Ecology and Management of Pond Pine

Pond pine (Pinus serotina) grows in the southeastern Coastal Plain from New Jersey southward through central Florida and west into southeast Alabama.

Pond pine often grows in places with a high water table and nutrient poor, acid soils such as pocosins, pond pine woodlands, wet flatwoods, shrub bogs savannas, bay forests and swamps. Pond pine often grows in association with a dense vine and shrub layer and very few herbs. Very little specific information is available on animal use of pond pine. Animals tend to be typical of the communities in which pond pine occurs.

Under the natural historical fire regime most pond pine sites burned infrequently often under drought conditions. Where there are high understory fuel loads fires are intense. There is, however, considerable variation in the frequency with which pond pine sites burn ranging from 3 to 150 years. This variation is related to the diversity of sites in which pond pine grows. After many years without fire many pond pine communities are thought to succeed to bay forests. Many pond pine sites have suffered from an altered fire regime with fire return frequencies lengthened and the season shifted from growing to dormant season.

Pond pine is well adapted to fires. It is perhaps the southern pine most tolerant of intense fires and unlike other southern pines, will reproduce vegetatively. Pond pine’s serotinous cones

Prescribed fire is used in pond pine communities for fuel management, ecological purposes such as maintenance of biodiversity, maintenance of plant and animal habitat, and for silvicultural purposes. Smoke management is often a concern in burning pond pine sites due to organic soils and high fuel loads. Some pond pine sites fall within jurisdictional wetlands thus some management activities associated with a fire management program may require wetland permits.