Fuel "Reduction" Indeed

I finally got a response of sorts from the person in charge of managing the preserve regarding the massive chainsaw operations around the Scrub Lupine planting areas.

The answer and promise not to laugh. was that they were conducting a "fuels reduction" operation. As you can see from these photos nothing has been reduced: except the height of the fuels.

Now there is a mass of dead vegetation lying on the ground, and in some cases seeming to block any chance for lupine seedlings to sprout beneath the dense piles of chainsawed foliage. I searched what open areas still remained in the first planting area and did not find any sign of seedling emergence.

There has been a mild drought this year and that was probably a factor, too.

Nevertheless, I suspect this work is done by unsupervised contractors, My original suggestion that they clear around the planting areas to reduce shade and leaf litter was somehow misinterpreted to mean to cut down a bunch of trees and leave the debris lying across the landscape.  

Meanwhile, summer is coming. Maybe a lucky lightning strike or two will deal with the situation.

The visit did have some highlights. Scrub blazing star, scrub morning glory and Curtiss' milkweed are blooming along with some more common plant species. Also, I flushed a Common Nighhawk from  its spot along one of the trails on my way and out of the preserve, which leads ne to believe it may be nesting. I left quickly to avoid stressing it.further.

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The Lake Blue Chainsaw Massacre

 I went to the preserve yesterday to check on McFarlin's Lupine seedlings that had emerged this year..

It did not go well.

My first stop was the second planting area.

I was greeted with a wall of downed trees, but was finally able to find a way through by moving a couple of small trees that had been chainsawed. I found two seedlings.

I went to the third planting area and saw no entry point.

Finally, I headed to the east-west path and found it was blocked, too.

I found a way in farther west from the northern fire lane. but encountered another blockade.

I worked my way though it but there was so much chain sawed trees and brush it seemed the seedling areas I normally survey were covered in brush, so I left. 

I sent an email to the FWC volunteer coordinator  this morning to find out what was going on.

If I find out anything, I will provide an update.

Garberia Putting On A Show

 I spent some time today clearing the access to the south tract, which had become overgrown.

I noticed someone had mowed the area around the walk-through entrance to the north tract, which was welcome.  

Fron there I started clearing the previously opened path but need to come back when the weather moderates and I have more gear to get deeper into that tract.

I wanted to get far enough in to see if there has been any sprouting of Ghost Pipes,which have sometimes been numerous here, at least in wetter years (this was not one).

I did find a lovely patch of Garberia.

I also found and removed a small amount of trash.

Hardly A Seedling Anywhere; Second Plant Unexpectedly Blooms

 Thia is so far the worst season for seedlings I can recall. During a survey this week I found one more to bring the total barely into the double digits and it is almost April.

It has been somewhat drier than usual when I compared rainfall data at my home about a mile away between the two years.

There are no seedlings in the path so far.

Meanwhile, in the third planting area, a plant I though was dead has since my last visit sprouted leaves and flowers.

However the habitat around these plants is not hospitable to germination because it is overgrown and has a lot of leaf litter;

I may need to go out and do some temporary clearing and ask for a Ridge Rangers work day to follow up.

Still Few Lupine Seedlings; No Blooms On Possibly Declining Sole Mature Plant

 I visited the preserve today to see if there was any progress on this year's McFarlin's Lupine seedling season.

There was not. Two more in the second planting area and no more in the first planting area and only two more in the second planting area. There were none in the third planting area and the lone mature plant had a gray branch, making we wonder whether it will survive in time to bloom.

The bloom times have varied so I will just have to monitor. The issue through is that even if it blooms, it is growing in an overgrown area that is not optimal for seedling dispersal and emergence.

I have no control over that; it is up to FWC land managers to fix.

On the way out I checked the area where I usually find  Clitoria fragrans and found none. Not sure what that means.

I also collected a few pounds of broken glass and other debris.

 

The Fire Lane Becomes A Fire Lane Again

 I was pleasantly surprised  on New Year's Day to see the mowing crew had arrived recently to give the fire lane a haircut so that it becomes a fire lane again.

I was visiting to collect trash exposed in the sand after recent rains. I collected a bucketful of glass shards, cans, bottles and an old shoe. 

The mowing crew did leave the area around the first lupine planting area alone as agreed to previously.

I briefly checked on the lupines in the second planting area. A few are still surviving and appeared healthy.

I will begin checking on new seedlings  in a few weeks.

The north and south fire lanes are flanked by exotic trees. 

One thing to watch is whether they cause problems inside the preserve. These species become quite  large at maturity, so they could become an issue if they become established.

McFarlin's Lupine Gains Full Species Status; New Justification For Increased Protection, Improved Site Management

 

The pink-blossomed lupine that grows here is finally a full species again and this time it looks as though the designation will stick.

Although a local botanist named James Brigham McFarlin wrote in the early 1930s that this lupine was likely a separate species, he never formally described it.

That task fell to John Beckner, who published the first formal description in 1982 and named it Lupinus aridorum. However in 1986 another botanist named Duane Isley wrote that it was a variety of Lupinus westianus., a species found in the Florida Panhandle.

Now thanks to the recently published results of detailed genetic and morphological analysis of lupines throughout Florida  by Edwin Bridges and Steve Enzor, the plant has regained its full species status. 

According to an article  published in the latest issue of Sabal Minor, the Florida Native Plant Society's bimonthly newsletter, the reclassification provides greater justification for more efforts to protect the few remaining populations.

The article says that Bridges and Orzell have concluded that now that the uncertainty over whether this  was a separate species or merely a variety of another species found in the western Panhandle has been resolved, its status has changed from Globally Vulnerable to Globally Imperiled.

That, in turn, could help to attract state and federal resources to prevent its extinction.

Here at the preserve that would certainly mean opening up more of the terrain around the planting sites to provide better conditions for seed germination and pant survival.

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Seedlings Still Appearing; Open Gate

 I am still finding additional seedlings at the preserve.

All of them are in the first planting area.

Although the majority are in the path next to the first planting area, I finally found one seedling in one of the openings in the first planting area's western section.

The adult plants from later plantings and seedling survival from a couple of years ago are pretty much done blooming. They should start broadcasting seeds in a month or so.

Like others in this planting area, the seedlings are popping up amid the sand spike moss (Selaginella arenicola) that has re-established itself after being removed back when to make way for the initial planting.

In places where I have open sand, Sand Skink tracks are hard to miss, which is another sign of spring.

On the way back to my truck, I noticed the front gate was open. The chain and lock were intact, so I assumed someone just forgot to relock it when they left. Anyway,. it is locked now.

Additional Reasons To Keep Vehicles Away From Lupine Area

 During the ongoing monitoring of the emergence of this year's crop of Scrub Lupine seedlings I feel vindicated about making it a point to emphasize the need to keep vehicles out of the path near the original planting area.

That's because that seems to be where the bulk of this year's crop lies.

As you can see by the flags, they are spread all the across the path.

I also checked the volunteer area farther west. No seedlings were present. Probably needs its first burn. It is the only section of the north tract that has never been burned.

   

Lupines Still Popping Up; Cogon Grass Even More So

 

This afternoon I found more Scrub Lupine seedlings, all of the new ones in and around the first planting area.

I also found a second plant from last year's crop whose flag had faded so much I had not noticed it earlier.

One of the seedlings appeared to have died already, which is not unusual. The test will be to see how may survive until the summer rainy season.

Meanwhile the Cogon Grass patch at the southeastern corner of the northern tract continues to spread untreated. At last check it seemed to be spreading toward the eastern fire lane rather than westward toward a small patch of Clitoria fragrans that only inhabits that part of the preserve.

Many years ago there was a small patch of Cogon Grass in that section of the fire lane. I duck it up and bagged and then brought in some Natal Grass from elsewhere in the preserve to outcompete, which it did for many years.

This is no longer a small patch and if my friends from FWC are reading this, you might want to check out the situation.

  

Lupines Slowly Emerge

 I have been visiting the preserve more of less weekly to check on the emergence of Scrub Lupine seedlings in the various planting areas.

As of today, 21 seedlings have appeared and been flagged. There is also a single surviving seedling from 2023.

Most of them are in the older planting areas, portions of which are still more open and free of leaf litter than the third planting area. That area is badly overgrown and needs some serious management attention, though it is unclear how soon that will occur. It still contains some mature plants that appear to be healthy and should bloom again this spring if they survive.

I have visited the volunteer sights farther west a couple of times and so far have seen no seedlings.

That section has never been burned. It was not burned because the lupines were discovered there just before the planned landscape burn that occurred in 2008.

I was wondering whether fire would result in more seedlings popping up from the old seed bank in that section of the property. No Scrub Lupine emerged anywhere else on the property after the fire.

Blue Lupine did emerge a couple of times in the sandhill area where a relic population of Clitoria fragrans survives, but it was just a single plant and did not persist.

 

Lupine, Leaf Litter And More

 One of the most obvious failures of a work day several years ago involving Duke Energy at the preserve was the lack of a long-term plan to control  regrowth of the tree canopy.

As anyone who has a tree in their yard or a neighbor who has tree can attest, trees shed leaves annually and someone has to deal with the results.

In some habitats that is no big deal because the leaves have an ecological benefit and are better left where they fall.

In scrub habitat it can be a bit more challenging.

This is true here regarding the attempt to create a sustainable population of Scrub Lupine, which was recently once again described as a separate species from another lupine in the Florida Panhandle and is extremely rare.

It does not do well with a lot of tree canopy, which has overwhelmed the latest  planting area and created a lot of leaf litter and that is the challenge in the most recent planting area here.

Today I set out with a rake to deal with the leaf litter, but it seemed that stronger measures might be appropriate.

In the most recent planting area, I found one seedling after raking the leaves and another after checking the remains of a dead plant and still another amid the little bare ground amid some sprouting oaks.

I was still removing old flags from previous years and while I was at work found one survivor from last year's seedling emergence that will need some help to see the sun.

The earlier planting areas--especially the first one--are badly overgrown.

.I do not have any herbicide to treat the small stumps, but may use spray paint as an interim treatment I will report how that works out.

      

Old Milwaukee Old Trash

 

While I was wondering through the southern tract earlier this week in a fruitless search for the emergence of Ghost Pipes, I found something else.

\It was a faded aluminum beer can that bore the Old Milwaukee logo.

I find odd single cans like that occasionally.

I also found the head of doll. I have no idea of its origin or provenance.

Later on, I discovered someone had cut the fence on the northern boundary where land has been cleared but never developed a year or so ago.

I came out later to repair the fence and to put the FWC boundary sign on the right side of  the fence and picked some additional trash.

I will check again on the Ghost Pipes later. A wet winter is predicted and that seems to bring them out.

 

FWC Meeting Today Was Encouraging

 I had a cordial meeting today with some FWC staff folks to discuss management issues affecting the Scrub Lupine restoration project.

The takeaways I got was that they would no longer send equipment down the path next the first planting area, would agree to conduct some temporary trimming to reduce the canopy overgrowth in some of the planting areas and will plan a more extensive removal and herbiciding of overgrowth within the next year as the budget allows.

They also said they would like to burn the site again and asked how that would affect the lupines. I referred them to Cheryl Peterson at Bok Jack Stout at UCF, who are much better informed than I am.  

I also briefly mentioned the trash pile near the southwest gate and tree fall along the fence lines.

I also reported recent hog damage and told them that there was probably a lot of background info they might find useful on the site's chronology on this blog.

What We Got Heah Is A Failure To Coordinate

 

As I drove by the preserve this week, I noticed something disturbing,

The path around the endangered Scrub Lupine planting area had been disced. (see  Lupine  in taped area at right).

Some of the stakes at the boundary marking the plants had been ground up, but that wasn't the main concern.

One plant next to  this operation had bloomed this year. The seed pods had opened to disperse seeds onto the surrounding ground, The concern, which not be evident until next winter when a new crop of seedlings emerge, is whether this mechanical onslaught resulted in seeds buried so deep into the earth that they will never germinate.

I had discussed this issue with FWC staff and thought I had some understanding of efforts to keep vehicles out of that section of the preserve. 

For whatever reason things didn't work out that way. I put up signs to try to steer vehicles away from this area. The signs were ignored and removed.

Meanwhile, I was supposed to meet with FWC  staff this week to discuss management issues. The guy I was supposed to meet with bailed at the last minute and rescheduled for early June. 

If that meeting occurs, maybe I can make some inroads.in improving the situation out there.

Coordination to protect the lupine plant5ing areas would be at the top of my list, but there are other issues, such as dealing with the tree along  the north fence line and removing a pile of trash that has been sitting by one of the gates for a couple years.

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Cogon Grass Infestation Spreads

 

An infestation of Cogon Grass in a sandhill area at the southeast corner of the north tract seems to be expanding and may reach the eastern fire lane soon unless treatment begins.

Another section of this small sandhill patch contains the only population of Clitoria fragrans  on this site.

I once tried to occasionally dig up the grass to control it, but learned at a webinar I watched a couple of years ago that such an approach was futile and might encourage the spread. 

Maybe A New Sign Someday

 

The sign at the southeast corner of the preserve's north tract is showing its age and the inevitable effects of having a southern exposure even though there is some shade to moderate the effects on the suns's rays.

I was wondering whether a new sign might be considered in a future budget to make the place look a little less neglected.

I was out documenting a couple of patches of  mistletoe, checking to see whether lupine seedlings had begun popping up--they had not--though I moved some of the existing flags to be near unflagged surviving plants from last year's crop in the southern planting area.

I also checked a section of the south tract for Ghost Pipes, but found nothing but an old shoe and an older beer can and some spots along the fire lane for further excavation. 

I also found a place where someone may be setting up camp along the fence line in the south tract.

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.

Yikes! Lygodium arrives; attack plan under way

 I peeked into the small bayhead in one corner of the preserve to see whether the Habenaria floribunda were coming up. They were..

However, when I turned around to look at the fence line I spotted what I hope is only the beginning of a Lydodium  infestation.  I have plans to go back with some bags to see if I can collect it before it takes over.

This is the first time I've seen this pest plant here, though a couple of years ago I did observe a Lygodium Defoliator Moth  at my light in another section of the preserve and was wondering how far it had flown from its host plant.

Digging Into Another Trash Pile

 The winter rains have exposed more half-buried trash near the preserve's entrance and one of the Scrub Lupine planting sites.

I spent a few hours the other day digging and hauling  out debris. Most of it seemed to have involved a buried mattress and assorted household debris.

The non-metal debris filled a large trash bag. 

I also removed more pieces of concrete that I will move to the entrance along with the other similar debris.

Once the weather clears, I'll get back to resume work.