Using Prescribed Fire in the Silviculture of Sand Pine

Sand pine is native to the droughty, acid, infertile, marine deposited sandhills of Florida and Baldwin County, Alabama. It is represented by two varieties, the Ocala variety (Pinus clausa var. clausa D. B. Ward) found in central Florida, and the Choctawhatchee variety (P. clausa var. immuginata D. B. Ward) which is found along the Gulf Coast of northwest Florida from the Apalachicola River westward into Alabama.

Considerable differences exist between the two varieties and how prescribed fire can be used with each. Because of its thin bark, sand pine is relatively susceptible to fire-caused damage and mortality. The Choctawhatchee variety, however, with its typical sparse understory can be prescribed burned under proper conditions. The evergreen shrub understory of Ocala stands is usually dense enough to shade out grass and low herbaceous cover. Because of this lack of low base fuels, headfires are necessary to burn the understory, but these are too explosive to use without high risk of losing the entire stand. Thus, prescribed burning is impractical in the Ocala type.

For additional information on the use of prescribed fire in the silviculture of sand pine, see:

• Managing Sand Pine, from the manual Silvicultural Systems for the Major Forest Types of the United States (Burns 1983), provides information on how prescribed fire can be used in combination with different silvicultural systems to manage sand pine.
• Silvics of Sand Pine, from the on-line Silvics of North America (Burns and Honkala 1990), provides information on sand pines habitat (range, climate, soils, topography, associations), life history (reproduction and early growth, sapling and pole stages to maturity); special uses; and genetics.
• Fire Ecology and Management of Florida Scrub, from the Fire Ecology section of this encyclopedia, contains information on historical fire regimes in the Florida sand pine range, fire effects, and the use of fire for ecological restoration and maintenance in Florida sand pine.
• BROKEN-LINK Pinus clausa, from the on-line Fire Effects Information System, provides a review of the fire ecology, fire effects and management considerations of sand pine.