Northeast Coastal Plain FLN (Emerging)

The Northeast Coastal Plain FLN is an emerging network that has grown from decades of momentum around fire in the Northeast. We facilitate peer learning around Northeast coastal plain fire-adapted landscapes. We strive to be a catalyst for restoration by bringing partners together to promote good fire in our landscape, facilitate learning, and share regionally-relevant scientific research.

From the pitch pine-scrub oak forest and blueberry barrens of New England to the loblolly and shortleaf pine savannas, oak woodlands, and marshes of the Chesapeake Bay, the Northeast Coastal Plain is home to fire-adapted natural communities characterized by sandy soils and pyrophilic plant and animal species. Many of these are rare and depend on periodic fire for survival, including the frosted elfin butterfly, Karner blue butterfly, northern blazing star flower, sundial lupine, and bobwhite quail. The Northeast Coastal Plain landscape also encompasses major metro areas (Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston) and the resulting fragmentation of habitat, management jurisdictions, and views on what is best for the land.

The Northeast has undergone centuries of fire suppression since European settlement, which has severely disrupted the natural relationship between fire, Indigenous peoples, and their ancestral homelands. Across this FLN region, opportunities abound for enhancing the ecological integrity of fire-adapted natural communities while reducing hazardous fuels and protecting life and property. Collaborations between private landowners, conservation organizations, academic institutions, Indigenous communities, and state and federal agencies – in other words, networks and partnerships – address these needs across the Northeast Coastal Plain landscape.