About Oak-Hickory Savannas

 This habitat type, though natural to Virginia, has been extirpated except for occurrences at high impact areas on military bases. Other occurrences of this community type are in various states of renewal and are scattered throughout the region on relatively flat terrain at lower elevations. They are entirely dependent upon an adequate degree of disturbance management, their evolutionary history being tied to prehistoric mega-faunal herds, periodic and free-spreading wildfires, and eventually, Native American agri-forestry activities. This community type holds species that are extremely resilient, as they are adapted to a hot, dry, semi-shade and sun, and fire-impacted context. As with the piedmont prairie, the oak-hickory savanna offers a glimpse of what much of the Virginia Piedmont looked like before European contact greatly reduced Native American populations. Savannas, as well prairies and woodlands, were a dominant facet of the Virginia Piedmont Ecoregion for the last 12,000 years and during prior warm periods that fell between ice ages prior to the Pleistocene. Because the species they hold evolved under very harsh disturbance regimes and conditions, they offer us many solutions for ecological landscaping with native plants.

Thanks to Devin Floyd of Center for Urban Habitats for assistance with words.