East Central FloridaCISMA Workdays

Celebration of the 2011:

National Invasive

Species Awareness Week

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBicentennial ParkNorth Ormond BeachVolusia County, FLMarch 2, 2011

Target Plant Species:

Brazilian pepper

Herbicide:

Garlon 4

Method:

Hack and Squirt

Participants:

Volusia County

UF Ag Center, IFAS

FWC, IPMS

The weather was perfect for a day in the field. The objective of the day was to treat Brazilian pepper trees with the “hack and squirt” method around the inside perimeter of the park near the basketball and tennis courts. This park is heavily used by Volusia County residents as observed during the workday. Park guests stopped to ask who we were and what we were doing. It was the perfect opportunity to educate the public on the ECF- CISMA and invasive species.

Getting the job done with a smile:

Ed, Mike and Martin

Morning training session: Ed, Steve, Martin and Mike

David Griffis is ready to kill some

pepper trees!

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBicentennial ParkNorth Ormond BeachVolusia County, FLMarch 2, 2011

We had great help from the Volusia County “Special Task Force”: These three individuals, Martin Moran, Steven Kulchawick and Michael Cirillo, received a hands on training, on how to properly identify Brazilian peppers, how to score the trees and apply herbicide to the tree trunks for an effective kill. David Griffiths with the University of Florida, IFAS Agricultural Extension Office provided identification techniques along with safe machete handling.

Other invasive plant species identified:

Asparagus fern

Boston fern

Bamboo

The Crew: Kelli Gladding, Edward Northey, Steven Kulchawick, Michael Cirillo, Martin Moran & David Griffis

David Griffis is scoring

the tree trunks Tag Team- David Griffis and Edward Northey

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBicentennial ParkNorth Ormond BeachVolusia County, FLMarch 2, 2011

Target Plant Species:

Chinese tallow

Brazilian pepper

Cogon grass

Herbicide:

Garlon 4

Glyphosate

Method:

Hack and Squirt

Cut stump treatment

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBrevard County EELSCoastal Jewel SiteMalabar, FLMarch 3, 2011

Chinese tallow: Sapium sebiferum

Cooperative Participants:Brevard County, EELS

The Nature Conservancy

Florida Fish and Wildlife

Department of Defense

US Fish and Wildlife

Pro-Tech Natural Resources

About the Site:The 184 acre Coastal Jewel site, owned by Brevard County and the USAF has a conservation easement on 101 acres.

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBrevard County EELSCoastal Jewel SiteMalabar, FLMarch 3, 2011

Sign-in: Mike, Mark & DamionMable O’Quinn

Ken, Don & Mable

The “Mother Tallow” Tree

Chain-sawed by Ralph Lloyd &

Treated by Steven Troy

Treated Tallow stumps

Project:

The exotics are Cogon grass, Chinese tallow and Brazilian peppers. The trees were mid-sized that could be herbicided in place. The cogon grass is several patches no greater then about a quarter acre. There is some torpedo grass in wetland areas. The exotics are concentrated along the FPL power-line easement, which is within the conservation easement. It is a total of about 4.5 acres of exotics with about 40-50% coverage of exotics.

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBrevard County EELSCoastal Jewel SiteMalabar, FLMarch 3, 2011

Ken Burkett

Mike

Renda

Mark MercadanteBernadette

Gallagher

What makes this site special as a CISMA project:

The site is one of those lands that could more readily be “missed” during management, or it could be unclear who should manage it. A cooperative workday brings partners together to get this job done.

Wildlife observed during workday:

Florida Scrub- Jay

Indigo Snake

Educational Training:

TC CISMA (Treasure Coast) partners, Mike and Bernadette, learned to recognize smaller, defoliated tallow. Tallow is an EDRR species for TC CISMA.

Mike also added this site to EddMaps for Chinese tallow.

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBrevard County EELSCoastal Jewel SiteMalabar, FLMarch 3, 2011

Endangered, Florida Scrub- Jay

Protecting Habitat

It was a great day and we were able to treat all of the Chinese tallow along the power-line easement. Unfortunately the winds were too high and we could not treat the small patch of cogon grass and did not find the torpedo grass.

When everyone was leaving for the day, Ralph Lloyd spotted a Chinese tallow tree near a wetland and the remaining participants jumped out of their trucks and went to work. The tallow trees were beginning to rim the wetland along with Brazilian peppers starting to sprout. We treated as much as we could but this will be a great area to return to for another workday. This wetland is where the Indigo Snake was spotted as well, GREAT find Mark.

Everyone helped out and all had a great time doing so. We are looking forward to the next ECF- CISMA Workday!

The Crew (Left to right): Steven Troy, Chris O’Hara, Damion Keene, Mable O’Quinn,

Bernadette Gallagher (kneeling), Mathew Martin, Mark Mercadante, Ken Burkett,

Mike Renda, Kelli Gladding (kneeling), Ralph Lloyd & Don George

ECF- CISMA WorkdayBrevard County EELSCoastal Jewel SiteMalabar, FLMarch 3, 2011

Powerline Easement and location of the majority of invasive plant species