Longleaf Pine Savanna

Before European settlement, longleaf pine savannas covered nearly 90 million acres across the southeastern United States — from Virginia to Texas, from the coast to the piedmont. Today, less than 3% of that original extent survives. What remains is considered among the most biodiverse ecosystems in North America, comparable to the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest in terms of species richness per square foot.

The parcels accessible near Burgaw give a genuine sense of what this landscape feels like: widely spaced pines, 60 to 80 feet tall and arrow-straight, over a dense understory of wiregrass that lights up gold in fall and winter. The openness is the first thing you notice — it doesn't feel like typical Southern forest. It feels like a different kind of place entirely.

Fire maintains this ecosystem, and the managed areas around Pender County receive periodic prescribed burns. After a burn, the new growth comes in vivid and fast, and the wildflower diversity peaks. Spring burns are followed by an extraordinary flush of orchids, pitcher plants, and other species that depend on the open, fire-maintained ground.