Discovering the Sandhill
By Grace Howell and Eleanor Sommer
A New Place to Explore
Juliet Anderson and her father, Travis Anderson, spent most Sunday afternoons exploring natural areas. Juliet had just recently moved to Keystone Heights, Florida, with her mom and younger brother at the beginning of the school year and she felt like they had moved to another planet. She missed her old school and friends, her old neighborhood, and life in a big city. She was at a new school and living down a dirt road in the country just outside of a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It made her feel better to see her dad when he drove down from Jacksonville to visit her on the weekends. “Don’t worry, Sweet Pea, I know you’ll find something you like about this place. Let’s explore the area and see if we can’t come up with an adventure or two!”
One cool Sunday in November they made an exciting discovery: Juliet lived only two miles from Goldhead Branch State Park! Her father bought an annual state park pass that allowed them to visit whenever they wanted to. They began to explore the park a little more each weekend, and every time they visited, they saw or learned something new. Their favorite hiking trail started in a ravine along a beautiful creek and meandered through a shady forest before opening into a sunny, sandy trail with tall pines and grasses. This was a sandhill ecosystem, according to a sign that also had a short explanation. Juliet was fascinated with the plants and creatures that lived there.
The first curious thing they came upon was a mysterious oval-shaped hole in the sand. It looked like a burrow, but Juliet couldn’t imagine why it was shaped like that or who could have made it. It seemed too small for a fox or coyote den, but why would a rabbit make it so wide? As they walked along the trail they saw several other burrows like it. Juliet felt very puzzled. “Look!” her dad said. “Maybe that’s our little digger!”
A hard rounded shell crept through the tall grass ahead of them.
“What is that turtle doing out here in the sandy forest?” she asked. “I thought turtles lived near water.”
“Honey,
that’s not exactly a turtle,” said Juliet’s father. “That’s a tortoise!
Tortoises are in the turtle family, but they live on dry land. I have heard that
gopher tortoises live around here, but I’ve never seen one before. Did you know
that they are a threatened species in Florida? That means that their habitat is
disappearing and they are becoming endangered! Wow, aren’t we lucky to see
one!”
Juliet took one look at the tortoise’s shell and realized it would fit like a puzzle piece in one of the burrows they had just seen. Just then, the tortoise noticed the intruders and picked up its crawling pace to a swift scurry. And sure enough, it made a beeline for the closest burrow and quickly disappeared into the sandy hole. This was an amazing discovery for Juliet. She couldn’t wait to go home and read more about these gopher tortoises. It was only the beginning of many discoveries she would make about this unique place!
Juliet and her father continued their walk, on the lookout for tortoises and their burrows.
“Wow, Dad, look! There’s a cactus growing in the sand. This sandhill is such a strange place. If it weren’t for all these pine trees, I might think we were in the desert!”
“Yeah, I see what you mean,” he said. “It is like a desert. But look at all this grass, too! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many kinds of grass in one place. I am so used to seeing boring old lawn grass. These are beautiful!”
A Young Naturalist Emerges
The next week, she presented her father with some facts about their discoveries. “Dad, did you know that the gopher tortoise is a “keystone species”? And we live in Keystone Heights! Isn’t that cool?”
“If you say so… but what is a keystone species?” he asked her.
Juliet felt so smart, getting to teach her dad something new and interesting.
“A
keystone species is an animal --or plant, I guess--that the rest of the
ecosystem depends on. Gopher tortoises make burrows way down in the sand and
lots of different animals use them for shelter or protection from forest fires.
There are even some animals that live in the burrows with the tortoises, like
sand skinks and beetles. And when a tortoise dies or goes to live in a new
burrow, other kinds of animals will live in the old one. AND, I read that
gopher tortoises like to eat the cactus we saw. They’re called prickly pears
and they get big red fruits on them that even people can eat. I read that you
can make jelly out of them. If we find them somewhere besides a state park, I’d
like to collect some fruit to make jelly.”
“Okay, that sounds fun,” her Dad replied. “But we will have to be really careful not to eat any spines—that could be disastrous!”
“Yeah, and painful! We’ll have to find a recipe that tells us how to prepare them,” Juliet added.
As they entered the park for their Sunday hike, they stopped at the ranger’s station to see if they could get any more information about the park. They told him about their discovery of the sandhill.
“Oh, I’m so glad you discovered that trail!” said the ranger, whose nametag read James Kittle. “That is the most special thing about this park. Did you know that a healthy sandhill ecosystem is actually kind of rare these days? There used to be a whole lot more, but many have been converted to neighborhoods and parking lots. On others, the large longleaf pines were all harvested and replaced by different kinds of trees. I am so glad that this little bit will always be protected. And I’m proud to help protect it! Are you interested in helping too?”
“Sure I am!” said Juliet excitedly. “But what can I do? How can I help, Mr. Kittle?”
“Well,
most importantly you can help by staying on the trail when you’re out there.
There are many delicate plants that live in the sandhill and we even have some
baby longleaf pine trees that look just like grass! Also, you can help by
learning as much as possible about the sandhill. Maybe you will even think
about becoming a scientist, resource manager, or landowner one day and
protect sandhills that way!”
“I am already learning about it!” she said. “We saw a gopher tortoise last week and I went home and read all about them on the Internet.”
“Alright then!” said Mr. Kittle. “You are already becoming a naturalist! Would you like to take some information about the sandhill with you? We have a brochure about wildflowers, a guide to plants and trees, and a wildlife list. Y’all have fun out there, ya hear? ”
“Thank you!” said Juliet and her dad at the same time. They were excited to get back out and see new plants and animals.
Plant Discovery
As they walked down the trail towards the sandhill, Mr. Anderson skimmed over the handouts.
“This pamphlet lists the most common plants and trees in the forest. Let’s try to identify some of them!”
The tall longleaf pines that Mr. Kittle had mentioned were visible before they even got to the sandhill sign.
“Look at those round puffs of long needles. I can see where they get their name!” said Juliet. “They seem like the kings of the sandhill. There are definitely more of them than any other trees.”
As they turned and walked into the sandhill, they immediately saw beautiful wildflowers blooming among the tall grasses. Some were as tall as Juliet and they were purple, her favorite color! She wanted to know what they were so she looked at the wildflower pamphlet.
“Oh,
look! It’s right here. This tall purple spike must be the blazing star. It has
these little flowers bursting out all along the top of the stalk. How pretty
they are!” Mr. Anderson was looking at some flowers that were just as tall,
but that had more of a flat head of purple flowers. A black swallowtail
butterfly was sitting on top of it as if it was a plate of nectar!
“These must be the deer tongue,” he said as he looked at the description. “They have small rounded leaves at the base of the stalk. Maybe that’s where their name comes from.”
A Very Strange Creature
Over the next few months, they walked nearly every weekend. During the coldest months, the sandhill stayed active with little birds hopping around. One chilly day they saw the strangest thing.
“Dad, look! Is that a monkey over there?”
“What? A monkey? You silly, there aren’t any monkeys out here!” he said as he looked to where she was pointing. “Oh my goodness!!! That DOES look like a monkey!”
A black furry creature was sitting on the ground under an oak tree eating acorns. It had a long bushy tail and loped along the ground in the strangest manner. It had a silver face and looked kind of like a giant squirrel or monkey.
“Hey!
What a minute. I think I remember reading about a fox squirrel in the pamphlet
that Mr. Kittle gave us,” said Juliet. “Maybe that’s what it is. It does kind
of look like a squirrel, but it’s so BIG!”
Just then the fox squirrel noticed them and bounded off in the opposite direction. It reached a big pine tree and scampered up the trunk. Juliet and her dad walked carefully over to the place where they had first seen it.
“Wow, look at the size of these acorns, Dad!” The squirrel had hit a jackpot under this particular tree. At the base of the tree dried leaves provided a clue to its identity. They each picked one up and wondered what it was. The acorns made it an oak. Their pamphlet only listed a few oaks that lived in the sandhill. It definitely wasn’t a live oak. They both knew those canoe-shaped curled leaves. So it was a post oak, a red oak or a turkey oak. Staring at the deeply lobed leaf, Mr. Anderson was reminded of the shape of a turkey footprint.
“Hey,
maybe these are called turkey oaks because of the shape of their leaves! Let’s
check the field guide when we get home.”
He had checked out a tree and plant identification book from the library to help him and Juliet learn more about the sandhill. He pulled out his camera and took a picture of the leaf. They examined and took pictures of the bark of the tree, too, which was rough and knobby and had a dark, blotchy coloring. This was their next challenge!
Pines or Grasses?
The winter included many exciting visits to the sandhill. Before they knew it, it was springtime! The grasses sprouted back, the oaks started flowering, wildflowers appeared in the grasses, and the strangest thing was happening with the pine trees. Big fuzzy white plumes were starting to rise from the center of the tufts of needles. Juliet was so curious. When she saw Mr. Kittle at the entrance booth, she asked about them.
“What are those big white things coming out of the pine trees? They look like aliens or something!”
“Oh, yes. Isn’t it a beautiful sight? Well, it’s springtime, the beginning of the growing season for all of the plants and trees. That is the new growth on longleaf pines. We call them candles and we say that they are candling. Those buds are full of wax that protects the new growth until it is ready to come out.”
That day in the sandhill it seemed all of the creatures were celebrating warmer weather. Brilliant red-headed woodpeckers flew from tree to tree and a pair of bald eagles soared overhead calling to each other with a screeching sound that reminded Juliet of the way her Granny laughs.
On the ground, Juliet saw the immature longleaf pines that were candling.
“Dad, I thought those were tufts of grass before! They look just like this other grass over here, but now that I know about candling, I can tell the difference.”
They walked with alert eyes and suddenly came upon a snake laying on the sand, soaking up some sunshine. It had a black head, but about halfway down its very long and slender body it started to get lighter and was a creamy whitish color toward the tip of its tail. Its scales were well defined, making it look almost like a rope. When it became aware of Juliet and Mr. Anderson, it lifted its head off the ground and looked at them for a moment. Then it slithered quickly to the side and darted away as quick as lightning through the low bushes.
“Wow!” exclaimed Juliet. “That was the fastest snake I’ve ever seen!”
When she got home that day, Juliet looked up the snake to identify it. It was very clear that they had seen a coachwhip! She couldn’t wait to go back and tell Mr. Kittle about this!
Mysterious Smoke
The next Friday, Juliet was happy to be done with school for the weekend. When she got off the bus in front of her house, the smell of smoke was alarming. Everything in her neighborhood looked OK, but the smoke seemed to be coming from the direction of Goldhead. Immediately she ran in the house and yelled for her Mother. She needed to go see what was happening to her special sandhill forest!
“Shhhhh!” said her mother. “The baby is sleeping!”
“Mom, can you please take me to Goldhead?” Juliet whispered frantically, not even stopping to explain why.
I’m sorry, but I can’t take you right now. You can take the bike trail if you promise to be very careful.”
“OK, I will!” She promised over her shoulder as she jumped down the steps and swung onto her bike. She carefully crossed the road, got onto the trail that led all the way to the park, and started peddling as fast as she could.
Her heart raced with fear. Was the forest burning down? What would happen to the animals? What about all of the plants and trees? Would this place be destroyed forever? Visions of death and destruction clouded her thoughts.
As she
approached the park, she could see that the forest floor was covered in ashes,
completely blackened. Her eyes filled with tears as she rode forward. A big
yellow sign blocked her path on the trail ahead, and she rode up to look at it.
“Prescribed Fire” it said. Beyond it, yellow caution tape was drawn across the
path with a smaller sign which said “PARK CLOSED temporarily due to prescribed
burn.” She wondered what that could possibly mean. She knew that the doctor
prescribed medicine when she was sick, but she had never heard of prescribed fire!
Looking
around at the burned forest, she tried to get some clues. It seemed that the
fire had been kept within certain boundaries. She
couldn’t see any flames anywhere. There were some smoking logs on the ground.
Pine warblers chirped and flitted around through the charred brush. Juliet
wondered what they were so chipper about. Didn’t they see that their home was a
wasteland now? Then she looked up at the tall pines—most of the needles were
still green! The trunks of the trees had black marks that were about as tall as
she was, but above that, they seemed mostly just like they had last weekend!
Fire for the Forest
“Well, this is just weird,” she muttered to herself. Just then she noticed a person walking through the smoking debris, dressed in green pants, a bright yellow shirt, gloves, and a hardhat. As she got closer, Juliet could hear the cinders crunching under her boots and see that there was soot all over her pants. She waved to her and shouted, “Excuse me, Ma’am! Excuse me, but what happened here? How terrible that there was a forest fire! This used to be my favorite place and now it’s ruined!”
“Oh, don’t you worry! Everything is just as it should be,” she said with a big smile. “Hi, I’m LaToya. I am the natural resource manager here at Goldhead. It’s my job to make sure we are taking good care of this sandhill ecosystem. There aren’t many of them left, you know.” She explained that the sandhill was a pyrogenic ecosystem and that it needed frequent fires to stay healthy.
“Many of the plants and trees of the sandhill need fire in order to make seeds or reduce competition from other plants so that they can grow. The animals benefit, too, because many feed on the seeds produced. Fire keeps the shrubs growing low to the ground so gopher tortoises can reach their food. I sure have never seen one climb a tree to get the leaves!”
She explained that many plants, such as palmettos, grasses, and wildflowers grow back from their roots. “There also will be more sunny spaces for seeds to grow, and the ashes will help nourish these young plants,” she told Juliet. She assured Juliet that the fire was not a wildfire, but a prescribed burn.
“As the natural resource manager, I have to prescribe treatments to keep the forest healthy, like these controlled fires when the conditions are just right. We burn this part of the park often enough so there is never too much fuel built up to make a really big, hot fire. That way when we do burn, it doesn’t kill very many of the trees. The trees which are adapted to frequent fires, like the longleaf pines, have thick flakey bark to protect them. Some of the smaller oaks get burned back, but they usually re-sprout from their roots.”
Juliet was a little relieved, but she still wasn’t quite sure. “What about the animals?” she asked. “I mean, I know about the tortoise holes being a good place for some animals to hide during a fire, but what about other animals?”
“Yes, that’s right. Many small animals like snakes, frogs, lizards, mice, and rabbits go down into gopher tortoise holes to wait out the fire. Bugs hide under bark or fly up into the tops of trees where they won’t get cooked. Big things like deer can easily outrun a slow-moving prescribed fire. There are very few critters that get caught in the flames. This is their home and they are used to fires! I tell you what, why don’t you come back in a few weeks and see for yourself. I bet you will be surprised at what you see!”
“Okay. Thank you for explaining all this. I was really worried!” said Juliet. She had had enough excitement for one day and she turned her bike around and headed home.
Rest and Reassurance
When she got home, she was very tired and plopped on the couch next to her mom.
Her mom sniffed the air in Juliet’s direction. “Phew! What have you been up to? You smell like a campfire!”
Juliet laughed and told her mother all about her afternoon adventure. Then she went to bed and fell quickly into a deep sleep.
It was two weeks before Mr. Anderson could come to visit again. Juliet couldn’t wait to tell him all about the fire and what she had learned from LaToya. She hoped that everything really was OK, but knew that she’d have to see for herself.
“Dad, I sure do hope she’s right and our special place isn’t ruined!”
They returned to the park and Mr. Anderson couldn’t believe how different everything looked. To Juliet, it seemed like forever since she’d been there. She was eager to see if her special spot was really going to recover from the fire.
When she and her Dad arrived, she ran down the main trail. When they turned onto the sandhill trail, her heart was pounding. But what she saw made her relax and smile.
Around the bases of the blackened saw palmetto leaves, there was green. Greenleaves sprouted from branches of trees. Everywhere she looked she saw bits of green grass poking up and little bracken ferns uncurling from the blackened ground. Just like always, little sparrows and warblers flitted about merrily. They saw a kestrel perched on a limb of a pine tree and a gopher tortoise ambling about in the newly cleared forest. She knew that everything would be okay.
During the next few months, she and her dad watched the leaves sprout and grow and the animals continue with their business as if nothing had ever happened. Even the baby pines, whose green needles had burned off, sprouted new growth from those funny white protective buds. Juliet came to understand the importance of fire in the sandhill ecosystem, and that her special place was a wonderful remnant of a natural ecosystem, forever protected by the park.
You can visit other sandhill forests in the Ocala National Forest, Blackwater River State Forest, Eglin Air Force Base, Wekiwa Springs State Park, Torreya State Park, San Felasco Hammock, Morningside Nature Center, the Ordway Preserve, and the Janet Butterfield Brooks Preserve.
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Dominant Trees of the Sandhill:
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VOCABULARY
annual- for a period of one year
threatened- a species which is in danger of becoming extinct
habitat- the natural conditions and environment in which a plant or animal lives
convert- to change something from one form or function to another
resource manager- someone who oversees the healthy interactions of the soil, water, plants and animals in a given area
naturalist- somebody studying natural history, plants or animals.
pamphlet- a small leaflet or paper booklet that gives information
identity- the name or essential character that identifies somebody or something
frantically- excited, hurried and confused
boundaries- the official line that divides one area of land from another
cinder- a small piece of charred wood
frequent- happening often
protective- preventing somebody or something from being harmed or damaged
remnant- a small part of something that remains after the rest has gone