The East Gulf Coastal Plain (EGCP) geographic construct includes portions of five states
(Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky) and over 62 million
acres. This area is characterized by sandhills and rolling longleaf pine-dominated uplands to pine flatwoods and
savannas, seepage bogs, bottomland hardwood forests, barrier islands and dune
systems, and estuaries. This area has high biodiversity. The pineland ecosystem once
dominated from southeastern Virginia to eastern Texas.
This system has now been reduced to less than five percent of its former range,
making it one of the most endangered landscapes in North America (
GCPO LCC
).