Sandhill Habitat Credit Bank

Fire-maintained longleaf pine stands once covered 90 million acres in the Southeast but today have declined to roughly 3 million acres as a result of development, habitat conversion, and fire suppression. Lack of fire on the landscape has resulted in limited habitat for a variety of species dependent upon a more open canopy and diverse herbaceous ground cover. Consequently, many of the species dependent upon open, fire-maintained habitats have experienced population declines. With over 80% of land in private ownership in the Southeast, the greatest potential for restoration and management of pine habitat for declining species lies in the hands of family forest owners. Identifying and promoting opportunities that can provide economic and ecological benefits for active management on these forestlands, whether planted in loblolly, slash, or longleaf, will be critical to ensuring long-term habitat and species conservation.

The Center is working with partners to develop a sandhill habitat credit bank that operates using market-based incentives, and offers an innovative, cost-effective, and replicable approach to encourage landowners to manage for the gopher tortoise. Market-based approaches to habitat and species conservation are increasingly accepted as a viable approach to achieve conservation goals. However, most of the current systems focus on the recovery of endangered species. In contrast, this innovative and proactive approach encourages management for the gopher tortoise on private lands with the goal of helping to preclude the need to federally list.

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