Ecological Importance: Located in southwest Georgia's Red Hills, the Greenwood Plantation contains a 1,000-acre old-growth section of longleaf pine known as the "Big Woods," with trees ranging in age from 200 to 500 years old. Once covering more than 90 million acres across the Southeast, less than 3 percent;of the original longleaf pine forests remain. This ecosystem support a diverse range of globally imperiled species. The plantation also contains river frontage along the Ochlockonee River, river slope forests, a longleaf pine sandhill, and ponds and fields. (Pictured above: Gopher tortoise.)

Photograph