page_title: Tate's Hell State Forest
section_title: Animals and plant life
hierarchical_section_title: Tate's Hell State Forest / Animals and plant life
caption_attribution_description: English: Macbridea alba USFWS photo
context_page_description: Tate's Hell State Forest is 202,000 acres of land in Franklin and Liberty counties in Florida. The forest is located near Carrabelle off US 98 along the Gulf coast and on St. James Island. At one time, Tate's Hell supported at least 12 major habitats including: wet flatwoods, wet prairie, seepage slope, baygall, floodplain forest, floodplain swamp, basin swamp, upland hardwood forest, sandhill, pine ridges, dense titi swamp thickets and scrub. Tate's Hell State Forest is an important hydrologic area and includes a section of the New River. The park's watershed provides fresh water into the Apalachicola Bay, the Carrabelle River and the Ochlockonee River.
  During a 40-year period of private ownership prior to the state's acquisition in 1994, over 800 miles of forest roads and ditches were constructed on the property to accommodate intensive commercial forest management operations. Most of the area was planted with pine monoculture and the drainage canals dried what had been previously wetlands. There was extensive loss of habitat and wildlife.
context_section_description: Many endangered or threatened animals live in Tate's Hell State Forest, including the gopher tortoise and red-cockaded woodpecker. Some rare plant species living in the forest include thick-leaved water-willow (Justicia crassifolia), white birds-in-a-nest (Macbridea alba), Florida bear grass (Nolina atopocarpa), Chapman's butterwort (Pinguicula planifolia), and small-flowered meadow beauty (Rhexia parviflora). Common animals such as alligators and wild cats are found in the area as well.
caption: White Birds-in-a-nest (Macbridea alba)
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