Mississippi Wet Pine Savannas

Download the full publication by selecting the publication image in the right column.

Wet pine savannas make up most of the natural vegetation in southern Mississippi. These savannas, which lie within 10 to 20 miles of the Gulf Coast, are biodiversity hot spots. They harbor a wealth of plants and animals—some of them, such as the Mississippi Sandhill Crane, are rare and only found in this area. Although much of the region has undergone development, wet pine savannas can still be found at the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge, the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge, each in Jackson County. These wet pine savannas are wetlands that are briefly and shallowly flooded after heavy rainfall events, and their loamy soils remain saturated or nearly so for much of the year. Clay strata beneath the topsoil prevent the infiltration of rainfall and groundwater runoff from more elevated inland regions.

Wet pine savannas historically occupied land near the coast from the Apalachicola River in Florida westward to the Mississippi River embayment. Sands underlay the savannas in Florida and Alabama rather than the loamy soils in Mississippi. Some Florida sites are treeless wet prairies. Over the past two centuries, fire suppression, road construction, pine harvest, agricultural practices, and urban development have degraded or destroyed almost all the original wet pine savannas.

For answers to specific questions, please contact state Extension specialists or your local Extension office.

Publication 4183 (POD-03-26)

By Andre Clewell, PhD, Plant Ecologist, and Jonathan Pitchford, PhD, Assistant Extension Professor, Coastal Research and Extension Center.