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Jonathan Dickinson State Park's scrub community is a unique mixture of signature species, such as scrub oaks (Quercus spp.), Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides), and Ocala sand pine (Pinus clausa). All have a relationship with fire, whether they quickly resprout from underground rhizomes after a burn or are killed by the fire and must reestablish from seed. In this environment, the latter two have life histories relating to the fire return intervals and are in a critical feature in managing the sand pine scrub and community associations in the scrub ecosystem. The scrub oaks and saw palmettos are adapted to severe fire and are not significantly affected by the season or leaf litter of the burn. However, their heights are a definite factor for the federally threatened Florida scrub-jay, which will abandon an area if the oaks reach over three meters (USFS 2022). The control of scrub oak height and gap management is often a determining factor in the land management of scrub for this keystone species. Here, Roberts and Liller discuss the 1971 wildfire in Jonathan Dickinson State Park and the lessons learned from it in land management.