Management
Alan Hallman
Prescribed Burn
|
Plant and animal communities at
Chassahowitzka WMA have been modified by past human activities.
These included logging (pines, cypress, and red cedar trees),
constructing associated roads and railroad trams, converting
native habitats to pine plantations, pasture, and citrus groves,
and suppressing fires. Through a contract with the Florida
Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI), the Commission mapped both the
current and the historic plant communities. This information
guides habitat management and restoration.
After decades of fire exclusion, several
species of oaks invaded the sandhills and flatwoods communities,
shading out longleaf pine saplings and choking out the diverse
wildflowers and shrubs on the forest floor. To restore these
areas, managers first use herbicides to kill undesired oaks that
would fuel dangerous fires. The following season, they light
prescribed fires to stimulate the growth of longleaf pine and
wiregrass. Thereafter, periodic fires maintain the habitat.
Commercial stands of planted slash and sand
pines are cleared or thinned and replanted with longleaf pine
seedlings. Pastures are treated with herbicide and reseeded with
native grasses and pines. When necessary, overgrown scrub
habitat is first chopped and then burned. Periodic fire will
replenish and maintain scrub habitat that may one day be home to
the threatened scrub-jay.
Thousands of acres of Chassahowitzka WMA
are covered by hardwood swamps and forests, and punctuated by
creeks, marshes, and springs. These wetlands work hard,
providing flood protection and storm buffering to nearby
communities; replenishing the drinking water aquifer below the
land’s surface; sheltering wildlife such as the Florida black
bear; and providing clean, fresh water to the productive coastal
marshes. To protect these functions, managers are working with
the Florida Springs Initiative to locate and map springs and
other sensitive wetlands and limit public access, when
necessary.
Invasive nonnative plants such as skunk vine, cogongrass, and
air potato are controlled through chemical or mechanical means.
Recreational hunting keeps the population of nonnative feral
hogs in check. They cause great harm when they uproot plants and
historical artifacts as they search for food.
Return
to Natural Communities
