Department of Conservation and Recreation
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Department of Conservation and Recreation
Table of ContentsLoblolly Pine Savannas
These coniferous woodlands are now confined in Virginia to military base training areas ("impact areas") and natural area preserves that are managed by prescribed burning. Communities of this group cover hundreds of hectares at Fort A.P. Hill in the northern Coastal Plain (Caroline County) and Fort Pickett in the southern Piedmont (Dinwiddie and Nottoway Counties that have been subject to frequent incendiary fires for at least 75 years. Loblolly pine savannas are also being restored (as a temporary phase in longleaf pine restoration) through selective cutting and prescribed burning at The Nature Conservancy's Piney Grove Preserve in Sussex County. Habitats at all three sites are rolling uplands with sandy, oligotrophic soils. Stand structure is typically savanna-like, with open or semi-closed overstories, sparse understories, and dense graminoid-dominated herb layers. Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) is the overwhelmingly dominant tree, with only scattered oak (Quercus spp.) and hickory (Carya spp.) associates. Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), broomsedges (Andropogon virginicus var. virginicus, Andropogon ternarius, and Andropogon gyrans), and silver plume grass (Erianthus alopecuroides) are dominant grasses. A variety of tick-trefoils (Desmodium spp.), bushclovers (Lespedeza spp.), goldenrods (Solidago spp.), thoroughworts (Eupatorium spp.), asters (Symphyotrichum spp., = Aster spp.) and other composites are common forb associates.
Loblolly pine savannas at both military bases provide the only viable habitats in Virginia for the globally and state-rare Bachman's Sparrow (Aimophila aestivalis), while the Piney Grove Preserve supports the state's last viable population of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis). Although communities of this group are strongly influenced by an artificial disturbance regime and probably originated through successional processes, they might be comparable to successional vegetation that occurred more widely outside the range of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) under more natural pre-Columbian fire regimes. Despite their successional status in the contemporary landscape, loblolly pine savannas provides crucial habitat for rare species in the absence of longleaf pine, and are therefore worthy targets for conservation and management.
Reference: Fleming (2002a), Maxwell (1910).Click here for more photos of this ecological community group.
© DCR-DNH, Gary P. Fleming.
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