The Southeast Coastal Plain is a diverse region with many special habitats. These are delicate areas affected by choices we make each day. There are organizations working on conservation of these unique homes to our indigenous flora and fauna.

The coastal sand dunes, beaches, sandbars, and shoals comprise a vital natural resource system, known as the sand-sharing system, which acts as a buffer to protect personal property and natural resources from the damaging effects of floods, winds, tides, and erosion. The coastal sand dunes are the most inland portion of the sand-sharing system.

Dunes are the fragile product of shoreline evolution, easily disturbed by actions harming their vegetation or inhibiting their natural development. Offshore sandbars and shoals are the system's first line of defense against the potentially destructive energy generated by winds, tides, and storms. Bars help protect the onshore segment of the system by acting as reservoirs of sand for the beaches. Removal of sand from these bars and shoals can interrupt natural sand flows and can have unintended and undesirable effects on the entire sand-sharing system, particularly when the historical patterns of sand and water flows are not considered and accommodated.

The sand-sharing system is an integral part of Georgia's barrier islands, providing great protection to the state's marshlands, estuaries and uplands from Atlantic storm activity. Ocean beaches provide an unparalleled natural recreation resource which has become vitally linked to the economy of Georgia's coastal zone and to that of the entire state. This natural resource system is costly, if not impossible, to reconstruct or rehabilitate once adversely affected by man's related activities and is important to conserve for the present and future use and enjoyment of all.

A disappearing ecosystem...
The longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem once covered approximately 90 million acres in the Southeastern United States.

This unique ecosystem, shaped by thousands of years of natural fires that burned through every two to four years, has been reduced to fewer than two million acres, representing a 97 percent decline in this important ecosystem.

Today, only scattered patches of the longleaf pine/wiregrass ecosystem occur, primarily in the coastal plains of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas. About half of these surviving stands of longleaf pine exist on public lands.

Cypress swamps are found in the southern United States. They are named for the bald cypress tree. Bald cypress trees are deciduous trees with needle-like leaves. They have very wide bases and  "knees" that grow from their roots and stick up out of the water. Bald cypress trees can grow to 100 to 120 feet tall.

Fire plays an important role in the establishment of bald cypress swamps. Cypress trees grow very quickly after a fire and re-establish themselves before other trees have a chance to grow!  Many of the bald cypress trees in cypress swamps in the U.S. were cut down in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. The wood from the bald cypress is resistant to rot and was a popular wood for building. Other trees and shrubs like pond cypress, blackgum, red maple, wax myrtle, and buttonwood can also be found in cypress swamps. Animals like white-tailed deer, minks, raccoons, anhingas, pileated woodpeckers, purple gallinules, egrets, herons, alligators, frogs, turtles and snakes are often found in cypress swamps.