Long Pine Key - Everglades National Park

If you picture lush, dense overstory canopies when you think of old-growth forests, Long Pine Key will give you a very different experience. This unique Pine Rockland ecosystem is characterized by a sparse, open canopy of slash pine (Pinus elliottii), with most of the plant diversity growing within the understory of neotropical, temperate, and endemic species on exposed limestone with limited soil. Long Pine Key occurs on the southwestern most stretch of the Miami rock ridge, a limestone outcropping that forms the eastern boundary of the historic wetlands of the Everglades. The generally higher elevation of the 19,000 acre Long Pine Key area from the surrounding Everglades supports the largest remaining expanse of pine rockland habitat in the United States. Long Pine Key also features rockland hammock and transverse glade plant communities. Logging is reported to have occurred within pine rocklands during the 1930's or 1940's, prior to the establishment of the park. The area has since recovered and appears much as it would have prior to removal of timber. Long Pine Key has been managed by the National Park Service since the establishment of Everglades National Park in 1947.