Bounded by Tallahassee on the south and Thomasville on the north, the 300,000 acres of rolling hills, lakes and wetlands that make up the Red Hills region have been inhabited for 10,000 years. Native Americans first settled the area to hunt and gather in its fields and forests, and then farmed its rich soils. This agricultural legacy was carried on by Spanish missions in the 17th century and cotton plantations in the 19th century. The Red Hills' many historic sites, buildings and roads are reminders of the traditional lifestyle that still characterizes much of the area today.

The region's reddish sandy loam and rich clay soils help retain moisture, allowing plants that would normally be confined to valleys and low areas to grow in upland pine forests. The plantations of the Red Hills have some of the best remaining examples of the natural upland longleaf pine and wiregrass forest that once covered the southern United States from Virginia to Texas. In large part, the areas natural qualities have been retained because most of these lands are owned by fewer than 100 individuals whose historical land stewardship has limited development. These lands are managed primarily as plantations for hunting quail and for limited agricultural and silvicultural production. Many landowners are restoring the native longleaf pine forests.

Most of the land in the Red Hills area is privately owned. However, lands in public ownership offer some of the region's best passive and active recreational opportunities. The largest public recreation area is the new Phipps -Overstreet-Maclay Greenway. This 1,300 acre greenway north of Tallahassee protects a five-mile-long corridor between Lake Jackson and Maclay State Gardens. Visitors can hike, bicycle, and horseback ride on extensive trail systems, fish, swim, canoe, observe wildlife, visit formal gardens, and use athletic fields and courts. Other natural, historic and recreational sites in the Red Hills area include the membership-supported Birdsong Nature Center, Lake Jackson Mounds State Archaeological Site and Tallahassee's community parks.

Careful stewardship by plantation owners has limited development and help retain the Red Hills' natural qualities.

The Red Hills' public waterways and roads provide excellent opportunities for residents and visitors to enjoy and appreciate this scenic and historical area. Canoeing, boating and fishing are popular activities on the Ochlockonee River, Lake Lafayette, Lake lamonia, Lake Talquin, Lake Miccosukee, Lake Hall, and Lake Jackson. Lake Jackson has been designated an Aquatic Preserve and Outstanding Florida Water, and is renowned as a largemouth bass fishery.

Nearly 300 miles of tree-canopied roads provide scenic drives and routes for bicycle tours. Many existing canopy roads trace historic regional trade routes and look much the same as they did 100 years ago. A 1993 study commissioned by Tall Timbers Research, Inc. looked at 18 roads in the Red Hills area, ranking them on four criteria: historic significance; historic integrity; visual preference; and interpretive value. The roads receiving the highest rank are:

New Hope Road in Thomas County runs northeast from Metcalf;

Twelve Mae Post Road in Thomas County,to the southeast of Metcalf,

Sunnyhill Road in Leon County runs parallel to the state line between Thomasville Road and Centerville Road; and

Magnolia Road in Leon County runs north from U.S. Highway 90 just west of Lake Miccosukee.


Those that received the next highest rank are:

Meridian Road in Leon County;
Thomasville Road (U.S. Highway 319) in Leon and Thomas counties;
Mill Pond Road in Thomas County,
Miccosukee Road in Leon County;
Centerville Road in Leon County;
Springhill Road in Thomas County;
Florida Highway 59 in Leon County; and
Beachton-Metcalf Road in Thomas County.

The study recommended that four roads be used initially to form a historic and scenic byway system for the Red Hills area Thomasville Road, Meridian, Beachton-Metcalf Road and New Hope Road. Two additional studies by the Apalachee Land Conservancy and Leon County have highlighted the value of the region's canopy roads and spurred efforts to protect them, especially in Leon County. The county has protected five roads by designating them as "Canopy Roads" - Old Bainbridge, Old St. Augustine, Miccosukee, Centerville and Meridian. This designation protects the massive live oak trees fining the roads by managing development within 100 feet of the roads.

Growth and Development

Urban encroachment from the rapidly expanding Tallahassee metropolitan area is the biggest threat to retaining the natural and cultural heritage of the Red Hills area and the Apalachee region. The character of the landscape and the traditional lifestyle of its residents can be preserved by reducing fragmentation.

Fragmentation of plantation lands by residential development, construction of linear transmission lines, and highway and road improvements, threatens the ecological systems of the Red Hills. Fragmentation disrupts natural processes, such as surface drainage, that occur over large areas. It his decreased the biological diversity of the area, especially for wide-ranging animals such as the Florida black bear, and threatens rare and endemic species, such as the red-cockaded woodpecker.

Recommendations

These recommendations are adapted from A Comprehensive Study of the Red Hills Region, published by Thomas College in 1994.

Limit the amount of land available for development by very low density rural or silvicultural zoning and other comprehensive planning techniques.

Acquire conservation easements which remove the development potential.

Educate the public and create awareness and appreciation of the historic and ecological significance of the area to reduce its vulnerability when threats are posed.

Provide incentives to landowners to protect old growth longleaf pine forests, which are critical habitats for red-cockaded woodpeckers.

Water Quality

Because it is a critical aquifer recharge area and headwaters for many rivers and lakes, activities in the Red Hills affect ground and surface water throughout the Apalachee region. Additional development in the Red Hills will almost certainly worsen existing pollution problems in the region's lakes, rivers and groundwater. Regional water quality problems have worsened over time due to new developments, poorly sited land uses, inadequate attention to and funding for stormwater treatment and maintenance of facilities, and poor regulation and water management decisions such as filling wetlands and altering natural drainage. The region's large lakes are especially susceptible to pollution because they act as sinks, trapping sediments, nutrients, and other pollutants transported by stormwater.


Recommendations

These recommendations am adapted from the Lake Jackson Management Plan, but are applicable to the entire region.

Improve stormwater quality by instituting strong stormwater controls.

Limit the use of and control the siting of septic tanks and, in areas especially prone to pollution, limit land uses with high potential for water pollution.

Restore aquatic systems by removing polluting sediments from lake bottoms, and allow natural fluctuation of the water levels.

Protect tributaries, wetlands, floodplains and sinkhole-prone areas from development.

Educate users and decision makers about the lakes' natural and recreational values.

Conserving Historic and
Scenic Roads

The regions historic and scenic roads will be lost unless users and landowners understand and appreciate their historical and aesthetic values and their importance in creating a distinctive sense of place. The primary threats to these roads, most of which are "canopy roads," are adjacent development and pressure to allow more access points, and pave, widen, straighten or add lanes to allow faster commutes between Tallahassee and suburban northeastern Leon County. While Georgia's scenic roads are not subject to the same magnitude of development pressure, the historic and scenic qualities of these roads are still at risk because they have less formal recognition and protection from local and state governments.

Recommendations

Invite the public to learn about the Red Hills' outstanding natural and historic qualities and develop an appreciation and respect for the area by promoting interpretive driving and riding tours.

Protect historic and scenic roads by adopting canopy road protection ordinances or designating them as heritage corridors or canopy roads.

Do not pave canopy roads which remain today as clay roads, and do not widen, straighten or add lanes to the other canopy roads.

Provide mechanisms in local comprehensive plans and land development regulations for nonprofit organizations and land trusts to help protect and enhance open space and greenways, especially along canopy roads.

Rare and Endangered Species of the Red Hills

The Red Hills area provides important habitat to 43 species of animals that are endangered or are of special concern. The old growth longleaf pines of the Red Hills provide critical habitat to the largest population (100 clans) of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker found on privately owned lands in the United States. Other rare uplands species include:

Animals:
southeastern shrew
Cooper's hawk
Florida pine snake
American swallow-tailed kite
southern bald eagle
striped newt
mud sunfish

Plants:
Florida mountain-mint
turk's cap lily
Mexican tear-thumb
Miccosukee gooseberry
karst pond xyris