Tree Fall On The Fenceline

 I was out looking for butterflies today when I noticed what appeared to be a Cherry Laurel tree had fallen onto the fence from adjoining property into the northern fire lane.

I plan to go out in the near future and deal with it.

I also noticed today that the Cogongrass infestation at the southeast corner of the north tract has grown. It has never been treated to my knowledge even though other infestations have.

As I was passing the original Scrub Lupine planting area, I noticed a plant that appeared to be about a year old just west of an area that had been roped off to protect a mature plant from overmanagement  by contractors.

It was not flagged but it is hard to believe it was overlooked in the annual survey.

The number of Scrub Liatris along the north-south path seem to be increasing slightly.

Fire lane open again

I stopped by this afternoon for the first time in a week or so to find the fire lanes had been disked again.

I spent about an hour picking up exposed trash along the first 100 yards or so. I filled three trash bags and two 5-gallon buckets.

i was thinking of coming through with a strong rake and seeing what other trash near the surface I could churn up to clean up the area while it is still open.

The fact that the work was done so quickly after I mentioned it to Bill Parken at FWC was also encouraging. This site really needsa good fire lane because the homes are so close and most of them are mobile homes that would go up pretty quick if the flames reached them.

Fire lane going too green

The effects of herbiciding of the fire lane were short-lived. The same vegetation emerged as before as well as some unwanted pioneers.

I'm trying to keep the Guinea grass under control because it makes the lane impassable.

I'm trying to control the Natal grass on the west side because that's the only section where there are some neat native flatwoods herbaceous plants.

My success is a matter of personal speculation at the moment.

Is it time to expand?

I've been thinking about connections and corridors. I mean more places for lupines, more places for newly discovered potential endangered species. That kind of thing.

What I envision is a corridor of sorts from the two tracts, a kind of L-shaped affair. There are two tracts of land involved. One is privately owned. The other is owned by Winter Haven, but has a CSX easement on it, though that may not matter if there's no railroad line to expand (they ought to spend their money on fixing the Hobbs Road crossing,; it's the one of worst in Polk County).

This will not be cheap, but there isn't much intact scrub left on the Winter Haven Ridge. Maybe they should take anolher look at the Lake Fannie property and maybe they should look at the property on both sides of the tracks in south Winter Haven east of Pollard Road.

Maybe they should look on the south end of Gerber Dairy Road.

Time is running out. The recession will be over some day and the property will be bulldozed forever.