Pine Rockland Composition is a documentary produced, shot and edited by Jennifer Brown, who is a staff media expert at Everglades National Park. The subject of Pine Rockland Composition is the human and nonhuman interrelationships within the pine rockland natural community.
Pine Rockland Composition begins at night during the wet season in the pine rock lands within Everglades National Park. The subtropical and globally imperiled pine rock lands occur exclusively on the Miami Rock Ridge limestone6 in South Florida and predominantly within Everglades National Park. The pine rock lands underwent rapid agricultural and urban development with the advent of the rock plow in the mid to late 20th century. Today, the pine rock lands consist of fragmented remnants as a result of habitat development and degradation, fire suppression, nonnative species, and alterations to hydrology. At the same time, there exists multiple cooperative human relationships including beneficial prescribed burning, the reintroduction of extirpated birds like Eastern bluebirds, and the restoration of the pine rock land by landowners. Pine rock lands host the highest plant diversity of any natural community in Florida with a rich herb, palm, shrub under story and a Slash pine over story. Pine rock lands require prescribed or lightning-ignited fires to control the growth of under story hardwood shrubs and to facilitate nutrient cycling in a nutrient-poor environment.