Pinelands Menu Rocklands Menu Home Fire Ecology Fire is required for maintenance of rockland pine forests and partially controls the relative dominance of upland habitats by pinelands or hammocks. Fire in rockland pine forests are surface fires that consume only litter and some understory vegetation. Pine canopies are usually too open to support a crown fire. Fires usually extinguish when they reach hammock margins, but soil fires can occur in hammocks during severe droughts. It also has a thick, insulating bark that protects the living inner bark and cambium.
Seedlings have thicker stems and are more fire-resistant than typical slash pine seedlings.
As the time between fires lengthens, the development of larger hardwoods and the accumulation of litter shift the balance in favor of hardwoods. Within 2 to 3 decades of fire exclusion, rockland pinelands become tropical hammocks with a relict overstory of pines.