Scientific support for the Objectives-Based Vegetation Management program

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) manages pyrogenic terrestrial ecosystems, including longleaf pine sandhills and scrub, according to objectives set and monitored by the Objectives-Based Vegetation Management (OBVM) program.  OBVM is a large-scale land management initiative that aims to drive vegetation communities toward historical reference-based structural targets using prescribed fire and fire surrogates.  Using data collected by botanists from the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI), the OBVM program provides feedback to land managers and FWC administrators on the structural condition and species composition of fire-managed plant communities.  Upland Habitat plant ecologists serve as scientific advisors for the OBVM program, auditing the field data collected by FNAI, helping to address methodological issues, and assisting with data interpretation.