A long history of lightning- and human-caused fire in south Florida has resulted in fire-dependent ecosystems over most of the area. South Florida contains a large area of public lands subject to woodland fire, with the National Park Service (NPS) managing over 4,000 km² of such lands in Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. Fire management, both wildfire suppression and wildfire, is a major natural resource management activity throughout the area.

Some 65 vascular plant taxa are endemic to southern Florida, more than half are herbs and low shrubs restricted to pine forests. These species are quickly shaded out in the absence of fire. Because of the difficulty in determining the details of the pre-settlement fire regime from physical evidence in south Florida, it appears that the best way to learn about the natural fire regime is to analyze recent fire history and study fire effects, and from this make inferences about the pre-Columbian situation.

Back to Project Homepage