Before European’s settled in North America, there were an estimated 90 million acres of longleaf pines in the United States, primarily located in the Southeast.

Longleaf pines are a foundation species that sustain some of the most biodiverse, resilient, and economically valuable ecosystems in the southeastern United States. And today, that number stands at 5 million acres, up from 3 million in the 1990s.

In Florida, the decimation of longleaf pine forests has been less severe, down from a historic high of 7.5 million acres to approximately 2.4 million today. The Goethe Forest is home to one of the largest stands of longleaf pines in Florida. Animals that rely on the longleaf pine ecosystem to survive and flourish include the gopher tortoise, fox squirrel, bobcat, eastern indigo snake, frosted flatwoods salamander, black bear, Florida pine snake, red-cockaded woodpecker, Bachman’s sparrow and many more.