Wharton Tract, New Jersey, USA Photograph by Tim Yahn   Eastern North America: Northeastern United States Temperate Coniferous Forests   3,500 square miles (9,000 square kilometers) -- about half the size of New Jersey Relatively Stable/Intact

· Haven for Pines
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Haven for Pines

Within the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens ecoregion, three major communities provide a home for an array of wildlife. The pine-oak forests dominated by post oak and blackjack oak are the tallest of the three forest types. At the other extreme, the dwarf pine plains contain short pitch pines and blackjack oaks that are often less than 9 feet (3 m) tall. Between these two extremes lie the pine-shrub oak forests, a rare community dominated by pitch pines.

Special Features

The sandy, nutrient-poor soils of this ecoregion support a stunted forest that consists mostly of pitch pine and blackjack oak and is maintained by frequent and severe fires. Also, maritime grasslands in Martha's Vineyard and the eastern tip of Long Island are the only sites in the eastern United States with these types of grasslands.

	The forests of this ecoregion thrive on fire. Pitch pines can easily resprout after a burning, while encroaching species are destroyed.

Wild Side

The New Jersey Pine Barrens are home to a number of plant communities specially adapted to the unusual conditions there. Here, the rich emerald-green Pine Barrens treefrog emits a chorus of nasal honks. Along coastal plain ponds, the endangered American burying beetle searches for carcasses to bury and feed its young. And the beaches adjacent to this ecoregion are critical breeding habitat for piping plovers and roseate terns.

Cause for Concern

People have disregarded the wildlife in much of the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens ecoregion. Ninety percent of the native habitat has been lost to urbanization and suburban sprawl on the East Coast, with the rapid expansion of housing developments, retirement communities, and vacation homes. Fire suppression is also a major problem for these fire-adapted ecosystems: some species will not regenerate or grow well without fires, while fuel build-up can lead to very hot fires that kill everything.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.