www.alachua-wild.app
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Featuring geospatial analyses based on data and/or input from:
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Links to launch web apps are below - Please use a computer internet browser with good internet connection to view. The app may take up to 5 minutes to fully load.
(1) App: Click here to launch the Alachua-Wild web app
(2) App: Click here to launch high-res imagery viewing of detected deforestation web app *note this app uses deforestation previously calculated by the app 1, and is designed for viewing deforestation and high-resolution airborne imagery (2005-2023 or most recent) and tree % (as is used for our deforestation detection) (2016-Present).
(3) App: Click here to launch the interactive viewer of pixel-resolution land cover % viewer and time-series analyses * Note: This is beta version and functionality has usage limitations, experiment with functionality to identify what works for you.
Tree % time-series: Oak forest -> Deforestation -> Development
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Tree % time-series: Oak forest -> Deforestation -> Pine plantation
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Tree % time-series: Pine forest -> intermittent prescribed fire
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(4) Downloads: Click here for Static downloads: KMLs (Oak forest and All forest priority conservation areas, ...) and Geotiff rasters (deforestation, ...) are available intermittently from the following folder, dynamic live files are also available through the web app itself. Annual average tree % cover at 10m resolution for Alachua County are available from 2016 to present full year.
Alachua County is home to some of the most ecologically and culturally significant ecosystems in the Southeastern United States, including its iconic oak forests—majestic stands that define the region’s landscape and identity. These forests support extraordinary biodiversity, provide critical habitat for wildlife and diverse ecosystem services, and embody the cultural and natural heritage of North Florida.
To help increase awareness of what we have in Alachua and how fast we are losing it, we've created the 'Alachua-Wild' web app, which features live and dynamic deforestation maps, automated identification of priority regions, and extensive outputs of spatial and statistical data.
To help increase awareness of what we have in Alachua and how fast we are losing it, we've created the 'Alachua-Wild' web app, which features live and dynamic deforestation maps, automated identification of priority regions, and extensive outputs of spatial and statistical data.
'zero-day' dates, as calculated on 10/16/25, for Oak forests located outside of protected and urban areas.
Total tree % of Alachua county and it's cities from 2016-25.
In January 2017, mixed-species forests, outside protected and urban areas, covered ~ 114,293 acres in Alachua County. Of this area, 101,536 acres were Oak forests. By October 2025, 2,937 acres of Oak forest had been cleared, at a rate of 334 acres/year, equivalent to a 3% decrease.
Of the 100 highest-priority oak forest conservation areas identified in January 2017, 3.5% were deforested by October 2025. The rates of deforestation were even higher within specific municipalities, reaching 18% in Gainesville and 33% in Archer. The #1 priority site, referred to as the “Kanapaha Forest,” located adjacent to West Paynes Prairie, experienced a single 20% deforestation event in 2019 and has since continued to fragment, losing connectivity and core area rapidly.
Based on these trends, projected “zero-days”—the estimated dates when Oak forest would disappear under current rates of loss—range from 11/3/2320 for Alachua County overall, to as soon as 7/31/2164 for Gainesville. Priority Oak forest areas were under extreme threat in some municipalities, with their zero-day in Gainesville being 3/13/2068.
Given the ecological importance and global rarity of our Oak forests, urgent collective action is needed to safeguard the remaining large trees and contiguous stands. The pace of loss is accelerating, leaving a narrow window for effective conservation. Learn more and explore local data at www.alachua-wild.app
Extensive and detailed results are provided in the Alachua-wild web app statistics view panel (on the right side, which you can slide down to view full outputs by county/city), as well as in data tables, shapefiles, and GeoTiffs available for download in the static downloads folder (link above and here).
Objectives: Our objective is to map and visualize recent forest-cover change across Alachua County, Florida using 10-m satellite data, and to identify and delineate key ecosystems. The resulting product is designed for rapid situational awareness, field planning, and clear communication with partners. Recent losses of forest cover and associated ecosystem degradation are occurring with limited community input and often contrary to the preferences of local stakeholders. By providing near–real-time, county-wide, and objective information, we aim to support informed decision-making that promotes appropriate and sustainable use of Alachua County’s unique natural resources—both for current residents and for future generations.
Of the 100 highest-priority oak forest conservation areas identified in January 2017, 3.5% were deforested by October 2025. The rates of deforestation were even higher within specific municipalities, reaching 18% in Gainesville and 33% in Archer. The #1 priority site, referred to as the “Kanapaha Forest,” located adjacent to West Paynes Prairie, experienced a single 20% deforestation event in 2019 and has since continued to fragment, losing connectivity and core area rapidly.
Based on these trends, projected “zero-days”—the estimated dates when Oak forest would disappear under current rates of loss—range from 11/3/2320 for Alachua County overall, to as soon as 7/31/2164 for Gainesville. Priority Oak forest areas were under extreme threat in some municipalities, with their zero-day in Gainesville being 3/13/2068.
Given the ecological importance and global rarity of our Oak forests, urgent collective action is needed to safeguard the remaining large trees and contiguous stands. The pace of loss is accelerating, leaving a narrow window for effective conservation. Learn more and explore local data at www.alachua-wild.app
Extensive and detailed results are provided in the Alachua-wild web app statistics view panel (on the right side, which you can slide down to view full outputs by county/city), as well as in data tables, shapefiles, and GeoTiffs available for download in the static downloads folder (link above and here).
Objectives: Our objective is to map and visualize recent forest-cover change across Alachua County, Florida using 10-m satellite data, and to identify and delineate key ecosystems. The resulting product is designed for rapid situational awareness, field planning, and clear communication with partners. Recent losses of forest cover and associated ecosystem degradation are occurring with limited community input and often contrary to the preferences of local stakeholders. By providing near–real-time, county-wide, and objective information, we aim to support informed decision-making that promotes appropriate and sustainable use of Alachua County’s unique natural resources—both for current residents and for future generations.
Newberry deforestation event, 2025
Actions: If you would like to sign our petition titled 'Save our remaining Oak Forests of Alachua County, Florida", that would be great, and here is a direct link to the online petition.
Priority areas: The highest-priority conservation area identified is the Kanapaha Forest - CORE, located adjacent to Paynes Prairie - highlighted in red in the map below. This area represents among the last remaining large, contiguous stand of oak forest outside of existing protected lands. In the figure below, we delineate the core area of the Kanapaha Forest, which contains exceptionally large oaks and is among the most extensive unprotected oak forests in the region. Its proximity to Paynes Prairie enhances water quality, biodiversity, and ecological connectivity between habitats. In addition to this core area, we highlight other high-priority zones surrounding the Kanapaha Forest that contain additional contiguous oak stands. These areas are ecologically significant not only because of their forest cover but also because they are located adjacent to important hydrological features, including Kanapaha Prairie. Protecting these areas collectively would help maintain ecosystem services, habitat continuity, and long-term resilience of the regional oak forest network. Please see a link here to view priority area polygons in the Alachua-Wild GIS static web map, and as are calculated using our automated prioritization algorithms in the Alachua Wild web app.
Priority areas: The highest-priority conservation area identified is the Kanapaha Forest - CORE, located adjacent to Paynes Prairie - highlighted in red in the map below. This area represents among the last remaining large, contiguous stand of oak forest outside of existing protected lands. In the figure below, we delineate the core area of the Kanapaha Forest, which contains exceptionally large oaks and is among the most extensive unprotected oak forests in the region. Its proximity to Paynes Prairie enhances water quality, biodiversity, and ecological connectivity between habitats. In addition to this core area, we highlight other high-priority zones surrounding the Kanapaha Forest that contain additional contiguous oak stands. These areas are ecologically significant not only because of their forest cover but also because they are located adjacent to important hydrological features, including Kanapaha Prairie. Protecting these areas collectively would help maintain ecosystem services, habitat continuity, and long-term resilience of the regional oak forest network. Please see a link here to view priority area polygons in the Alachua-Wild GIS static web map, and as are calculated using our automated prioritization algorithms in the Alachua Wild web app.
Kanapaha Forest core, the leading priority conservation area for Oak forest in Alachua
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Oak Forest conservation priority identification and mapping:
Alachua-wild contains an Automated near-real-time Oak Forest priority identification and mapping algorithm. This works by identifying all Oak forest areas in Alachua county, then using a multi-step spatial hierarchical approach to iteratively identify the largest contiguous remaining patches of Oak Forest - integrating our near real time high-resolution updated deforestation data. It then calculates the compactness, preferring dense intact stands, as well as the average height (m) of the trees within the stand. The final conservation priority index value is calculated as the weighted mean (weight multiplier) of the: area (Ha) (2), compactness (0.5), and mean tree height (0.5). The top priority area, as of 09/27/25, is the Kanapaha Forest core (priority index 2.43 - significantly greater than any other area, from area = 388, compactness = 0.053, height = 21.3). The second highest site we name X with priority index 2.0, from area = 300, compactness = 0.066, and height = 21.8). The full list is provided in the Alachua-wild.app |
Top 20 Oak forest priorities as identified (Oak Priority v27 algorithm)
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Deforestation priority events: Alachua-Wild identifies the highest-impact deforestation events (2015–present) using the same multi-scale scoring as conservation priorities. Shown: Oak Conservation Priority Rank #1, and just north, Deforestation Impact Rank #2. Top deforestation events (2015–present). Rank #1 marks the most impactful loss patch in Alachua since 2015; scoring weighs area, interior intactness (distance to edge), and canopy height.
#1 Oak Forest Conservation Priority (Kanapaha Forest; Red outline); with #2 most impactful deforestation event (pink)
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#3 Oak Forest Conservation Priority (Jonesville Forest; Red outline); with #5 most impactful deforestation event (pink)
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Oak Forest Conservation Priority (Red outlines); with most impactful deforestation events (pink) in Alachua County
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Significant deforestation events: (1; above/below) In mid-2019, the entire central portion of 'Kanapaha Forest - North' - a leading conservation priority Oak Forest at that time before the event, was fully cleared to soil and converted to a pine plantation. We are currently calculating the impact of this event, but it will likely be among the most significant ecological losses, including of Oak Forest, in the region since our monitoring started in 2015. (2; above) Rapid deforestation surrounding the remaining core of the Jonesville Forest, located adjacent to the soccer fields. Link to location on Google Earth here.
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2018 pre-clearing
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2019 post-clearing
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Methods: We use Google’s Dynamic World (DW, v1) “trees” probability at 10 m resolution over the Alachua County boundary (TIGER/2018). Two fixed 12-month windows are constructed: an early window covering the first 12 months of DW data available for the county, and a recent window covering the most recent 12 months up to the latest image. For each window, we create a mosaic that favors temporally appropriate pixels (early window prefers the earliest valid pixels; recent window prefers the newest). Pixels are retained for analysis only where both windows have at least one valid observation (complete-coverage mask). DW “trees” probabilities are scaled to percentages (0–100). Change is reported as recent minus early in percentage points. A binary deforestation layer flags pixels that meet both conditions: (a) the pixel was forest in the early window, defined as trees ≥ 60%, and (b) the pixel fell below 20% trees in the recent window. This rule emphasizes clear, substantial loss while avoiding ambiguous low-signal changes. For visual validation, we generate Sentinel-2 true-color (RGB) mosaics for the same early and recent 12-month periods using a combined cloud/shadow mask (S2-Cloudless probability and Scene Classification Layer). Mosaics are median composites to suppress residual clouds and haze. A 10 m canopy height layer (ETH Global Canopy Height 2020 v1) provides structural context, and an optional AlphaEarth spectral-textural clustering (default K = 30) summarizes morphological variability within areas with recent trees ≥ 70%, which is the first step to a detailed remote sensing tree species / functional group map.
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Deforestation (red), which are areas of permanent natural forest cover loss, and forest disturbances (orange), which are temporary and include areas of prescribed fire management and non-pine tree plantations (typically pecans in this area).
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Validation: Locations are being increasingly added, in which a validation of specific sites selected to stratify location, intensity and type of forest canopy loss is performed using high-resolution satellite imagery (3m) and field visits. A KML of the locations and a PPT showing the visual results of each assessment are provided at this link, with contents updated frequently as with a date_version nomenclature. Web tools for development, calibration and validation have been developed, and include interactive web app viewers (links embedded in following text) for (A) high-resolution airborne and satellite % cover and (B) time-series analyses.
University of Florida: At UF's Gainesville campus, the new student group and which was recently featured in the Gainesville Iguana. You can read more about them here as well as find a link to their online petition PETITION LINK HERE to save the trees of the University of Florida campus. News article LINK HERE. Their mission statement is: "The FL4EverGreen Team is a new [student] campus organization focused on saving the trees on UF’s campus. For more information, email them at [email protected]."
Future steps: We will look at area and % deforestation within smaller areas of interest, including city limits, water catchments, and riparian areas, as well as deforestation of specific forest types and of key tree species. We plan to also include an understanding of where are the tallest trees found and how deforestation is within the tallest areas and highest biomass areas of Oak Forests, with a goal to identify the groves of largest Oak trees to help prioritize for conservation if at a high risk of being lost.
Contact information: With any questions or suggestions, errors or corrections, clarifications or addition, please contact Eben Broadbent at [email protected], thanks!
Contact information: With any questions or suggestions, errors or corrections, clarifications or addition, please contact Eben Broadbent at [email protected], thanks!
