Karmactive Staff
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has named the Pine Rocklands Conservation Team as a 2024 Regional Recovery Champion for the southeastern United States. The award recognizes their work protecting one of Florida’s most endangered ecosystems.
Pine rocklands now cover less than 2% of their original area in urban Miami-Dade County outside Everglades National Park. Despite this dramatic loss, these rare forests still support more than 20 species protected under the Endangered Species Act and dozens more rare plants and animals found nowhere else.
The award-winning team combines public and nonprofit partners. Public members include Miami-Dade County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, Zoo Miami, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Florida Ecological Services Field Office. Nonprofit partners are Bat Conservation International, Center for Biological Diversity, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Institute for Regional Conservation, The Nature Conservancy, and Tropical Audubon Society.
The Fish and Wildlife Service praised the team’s “tireless efforts” in a “challenging, highly fragmented urban landscape” that has “changed the trajectory of this ecosystem and its rare species.”
The team’s on-the-ground work includes controlled burns in difficult urban settings, removing invasive plants, expanding endangered plant populations, enlarging pine rockland areas, developing restoration guides, and submitting critical data on threatened species.
Pine rocklands are forests with tall South Florida slash pines growing in sandy soils over limestone. Their diverse understory includes hundreds of native plants that depend on periodic fires to thrive. The ecosystem supports endangered wildlife like the Florida bonneted bat, Miami tiger beetle, Florida leafwing butterfly, and rare plants such as Deltoid spurge and Carter’s flax.
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“Working together towards the recovery of these species not only helps us fulfill our mission but it simultaneously helps the citizens of Miami-Dade County by conserving our natural resources, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and making progress towards delisting,” said Frank Ridgley from Zoo Miami.
Jennifer Possley of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden emphasized the unique value of each remaining fragment: “Each ‘island’ in the urban sea is completely unique, with its own suite of species; every square foot is a biodiversity treasure trove.”
The award highlights the efficiency of focusing on entire ecosystems rather than individual species. This approach is especially important in Miami-Dade County, where the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program and partners have brought more than 27,000 acres into public ownership since 1990.
Pine rocklands were once widespread across the Miami Rock Ridge, extending from north of downtown Miami into Everglades National Park and south to the Florida Keys. Today, beyond the small urban fragments in Miami-Dade, pine rocklands exist primarily on Big Pine Key and in small patches in Big Cypress National Preserve.
The award comes during a period of increasing attention to pine rocklands conservation. In December 2023, Miami-Dade County stalled and moved to rescind approval for the controversial Miami Wilds development project amid concerns about impacts to pine rockland habitat. In March 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical habitat for the Florida bonneted bat and other protection efforts for pine rockland species.
“The near obliteration of pine rocklands over the last 100 years can only be countered by a coalition of willing collaborators,” said George Gann from the Institute for Regional Conservation. “The restoration of ecosystems and the recovery of threatened species is not only possible, but imperative to achieve a sustainable future.”
