History for Little Talbot Island State Park

Additional Information for Little Talbot Island State Park

Plant Life

Plant communities on Little Talbot Island State Park include: estuarine tidal marsh, maritime hammock, coastal grasslands, and beach dune. Moving from west to east, the landscape changes from forest to ocean, older dunes merge into younger ones. The seaward dunes are vegetated by sea oats, morning glories and other low-growing, salt-tolerant plants. Cabbage palms, red cedars, slash pines, and thickets of pond willows are found along the moister, more protected inner dunes swales. The fall blooming Muhlenbergia (muhly grass) provides a vibrant, velvety cover of purple hues in the grassland areas and along park drive.

The maritime hammock is located on the northwest part of the island and is dominated by live oaks with bowed limbs covered with resurrection fern, Devil’s walking stick, southern magnolia, and redbay are also common. In the drier areas of the hammock, laurel oak and scrub live oak are seen with blueberries, sweetleaf, and scrub lyonias. Needle rush (Juncus), salt marsh cord grass, Sea Oxeye daisy, and saltworts and glassworts are some of the plants that have adapted to the high salt content, intense sunlight, and tidal fluctuations experienced in the estuarine marsh.

Wildlife

Area Geography

Big Talbot Island and Little Talbot Island are barrier islands within an estuarine tidal system, bounded to the North by Nassau Sound, to the East by the Atlantic Ocean and to the South by Fort George Inlet. Long Island lies between Big and Little Talbot Island. These three islands are at the southern end of a larger barrier island complex stretching from South Carolina south to the Northeast portion of Florida.

Big and Little Talbot Island, and Amelia Island, have been further described as sea islands. Sea islands are short, curved barrier islands separated from each other by inlets and waterways, and divided from the mainland by well developed marshes or estuaries. Sea islands consist of both a recent Holocene geologic component on the outer edges and an older, or Pleistocene core at the center.

Barrier islands are dynamic systems formed by the interaction of wave, wind, and tidal energies that erode, transport, and deposit sediments (Leatherman, 1982). They are special places, constantly undergoing change both due to erosion and accretion (build up) of sediment. The shorelines of both Big and Little Talbot have changed dramatically, so much so that at present, Big Talbot Island is actually smaller than Little Talbot Island (2003).

The southern end of Little Talbot Island has been retreating due to the capping of the St. John’s River north jetty in 1934. The southern tip has continued to recede dramatically since that time. The sand spit on the northeastern tip of Little Talbot Island continues to accrete, creating large sand flats and intertidal salt marsh. The dramatic recession of the Southern end of Little Talbot Island together with the seasonal changes in sediment along the shoreline make the Little Talbot Island an interesting place to visit and provides a window into the dynamic nature of sea islands.

Both Big and Little Talbot Islands consist of parallel dunes and swales, shaped by the forces of littoral currents, violent storms, and constant winds. Change by winds is slowed only by the protective covering of grasses and other vegetation growing on the dunes. This covering is essential to the survival of the dunes; disturbance and removal of vegetation is prohibited. The islands shrink, grow and change, but in doing so they help to reduce the destructive force of violent storms and create quiet inland habitats that are vital to a wide array of plants and animals. The bluffs at Big Talbot Island and the eroding dunes on Little Talbot Island are unique, protected, and easily viewed examples of the geologic processes of erosion and accretion involved in the formation of sea islands.

Resources

The island has five miles of wide, sandy beach as well as undisturbed salt marshes on the inland side. Two trails are available to explore the natural communities on the island. The rising and falling four-mile hiking trail allows one to discover the features and characteristics of the hardwood hammock and the old dune structures in the interior of the island. The trail opens to a pristine beach habitat where sea turtles have nested for thousands of years.

The estuarine marsh on the west side of the island can be viewed from the campground nature trail. The nature trail illustrates niche and transition plant communities, as well as old parallel dune structures that show what the island was like when occupied by the Timucuan people thousands of years ago.

The tidal creeks that flow between and around the islands are a wonderful way to explore the flora and fauna of the Talbot Islands. Don’t forget your fishing pole! Take only pictures and leave only footprints.

Pets

Please see our General Parks Pet Policy for more information.

Links

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