Tate's Hell State Forest is 202,000 acres (819 km²) of land in Franklin and

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

counties in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The forest is located near Carrabelle off

US 98 U.S. Route 98 (US 98) is an east–west United States Highway in the Southeastern United States that runs from western Mississippi to southern Florida. It was established in 1933 as a route between Pensacola, Florida, Pensacola and Apalachicola, ...

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 Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

, seepage slope, baygall,

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

forest, floodplain

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, basin swamp, upland

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

forest,

sandhill A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and b ...

, pine ridges, dense titi swamp thickets and scrub. Tate's Hell State Forest is an important

hydrologic Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

area and includes a section of the New River (Florida Panhandle). 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 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 In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultur ...

and the drainage canals dried what had been previously wetlands. There was extensive

loss of habitat Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and wildlife. Apalachicola Bay suffered from the loss of the previously continuous fresh water flow into the bay provided by the wetlands, adding to the effect of loss of water flow into the bay from the

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately long, in the state of Florida. The river's large drainage basin, watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) River Basin, drains an area of approximately ...

. Causes include surface water use upstream of the

basin, such as supplying drinking water to the city of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, and agriculture use in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Debate over the use of water in this basin is the subject of a long-standing feud among the three southern states over which use or which user takes precedence over the others. A recent court ruling sets forth the history of water use in the upper reaches of the basin.

Name

Local legend attributes the forest's unusual name to Cebe Tate, a local homesteader who became lost in the woods in the mid 1870s. He had ventured into the woods with his hunting dog in order to shoot a panther that had attacked his livestock. The legend is often recounted with Tate becoming separated from his dogs and lost for seven days and seven nights before coming to a clearing near Carrabelle, where he lived only long enough to say to a passerby, "My name is Cebe Tate, and I just came from Hell", before collapsing.

Restoration

Since its acquisition by the State of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in 1994, 12 restoration projects have been undertaken to restore some of the natural drainage and natural communities. These projects include removal or planting of some road beds, restoring natural water flow, and alteration of planted species. As of 2007, eight of the 12 projects had been completed at a cost of $1.446 million and affecting of the State Forest. It will however, take a much longer time for the forest to return to a more natural state. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and North West Florida Water Management District continue to study and plan for future restoration of the Forest.

Animals and plant life

Many endangered or threatened animals live in Tate's Hell State Forest, including the

gopher tortoise The gopher tortoise (''Gopherus polyphemus'') is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide she ...

and

red-cockaded woodpecker The red-cockaded woodpecker (''Leuconotopicus borealis'') is a woodpecker endemic to the southeastern United States. It is a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Description The red-cockaded woodpecker is small- to mi ...

. 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

alligator An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus ''Alligator'' of the Family (biology), family Alligatoridae in the Order (biology), order Crocodilia. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the American alligator (''A. mis ...

s and wild

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

s are found in the area as well.

References

Recreation: Tate's Hell

FL-dof.com
{{coord, 29, 55, 13.52, N, 84, 49, 29.11, W, scale:200000_region:US, display=title Florida state forests Protected areas established in 1994 Protected areas of Franklin County, Florida Protected areas of Liberty County, Florida 1994 establishments in Florida