» Big Bend Scenic Highway Coastal

Coastal Trail Natural History
These are some of the types of habitat that you will see while visiting the Coastal Trail of the Big Bend Scenic Byway, from the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to Apalachicola.
Beaches
These are constantly reshaped by waves, winds, and tides. Waves and winds pick up sands and reshape the shoreline. Tides sweep sand, shells, and trash onto land and back out to
sea.
There's so much change in this zone that vegetation doesn't have a chance to get established. Both birds and sea turtles lay their eggs on beaches. Resident wading birds and migrating shorcbirds feed at the water's edge.

Coastal Strand
This long, narrow strip between the beach on one side (where plants can't grow) and the much more stable communities on the inland side may be dry oak scrub, pineland. or hardwood forest. After a storm wipes out the plants the coastal strand is recolonized (from seeds blown in on the wind or contributed in bird and animal droppings. Dunes can be formed when the wind hits plants such as sea oats. The plants slow the wind down just enough to drop Ihe sand it's carrying. Isn't it remarkable that these plants can withstand salt spray and strong winds but cannot survive human footsteps?

Salt Marsh
The marsh's boundaries are (luld, adjusting ihcmselves according to storms, erosion, sedimentation, the ebb and flow and meandering of tidal creeks, and sea level changes. A salt marsh may not be much to look at but what it does for us Is remarkable. These monotonous stretches of grasses produce an enormous amount of dead plant matter, which is quickly broken down by crabs and other creatures into tiny pieces, called detritus, which in turn feeds the young of many fish and shellfish species that end up on our tables. Blue Crabs, Shrimp, Mullet. Spotted Sea Trout, and Large-Mouth Bass spend part of their lives in the marshes of the Apalachicola estuary. No marsh? No seafood.

You can detect where the tide is strongest by which species of grass Is dominant. There's Smooth Cordgrass where the marsh is flooded by tides most frequently and Black Needlerush where the tides don't reach quite as far. In transition zones between the marsh grasses and the adjacent uplands you'll find Glasswort, Saltwort, and Marsh Elder.
Many of the salt marsh's inhabitants are seldom seen but are sometimes heard. Listen for the clack-clack-clacking of Clapper Rails and the piercingly loud song of the tiny Marsh Wren. If you're really and truly lucky you'll hear the Black Rail's "KEEE-KEEE-doo." For many birders the Black Rail is a Holy Grail of sorts because it is so seldom seen — and not often heard, either.

Scrub (Xeric Oak Scrub and Sand Pine Scrub) Scrub is miraculous. How can anything grow on old. deep sands that have practically no capacity for hanging onto water or nutrients? Yet trees, shrubs, lichens, and even flowering non-woody plants are found in scrub, along with a full list of animals. Along the corridor you'll find scrub near the coast on sandy ridges that used to be either dunes or sandbars. As more and more sand accumulated shoreward of these once-coastal features and the shoreline moved farther and farther away, the formerly coastal features became inland communities. At least scrub plants don't have to contend with the salt spray, windblown sand, and flooding that challenge coastal strand species.

Tidal Flats these are stretches of shoreline that are protected from the waves that pound the beaches.  Tidal flats are known as mud flats and intertidal zones.

Coasts and Estuaries - The Byway coastline spans two major estuaries: Apalachee and Apalachicola Bays, where fresh water from the land mixes with salt water from the ocean.

Animals, Birds and Plants and Trees to be found in this region.