Northeast Florida Scrub Working Group 2018 Field Trip Notes

Field Trip to Lake Protocol Wilderness Area

Been doing scrub restoration and sandhill restoration in 2010 Mechanical treatments: mowing, not roller chopping

o Burn units after mechanical treatment Have overgrown sandhill, high pine scrub and scrub on the hill Overgrown, hard to get fire on Property is 474 acres with SR 46 nearby and residents as a concern for burning

First Spot:

Mowed, treated, showed signs of being part of sandhill o Want to get fire in o How to decrease oak stems?

Need access to the stem, take into account east of the applicators if you use herbicide. Mechanically treat before hitting it with chemicals to expose the stem

Wiregrass is present in the oaks, little saw palmetto, soils are orange Goal: make it more open and higher functioning

o Large Gopher Tortoise Population, want to open it for them

o Too small for FSJ

Second Spot:

50 acres of high pine scrub, recent burn, mechanically treated before Starting to look open

Third Spot:

Mechanical treatment plus recent burn Issues with leaving fuel to smolder to create open patches Have gopher tortoise data from 13 years back

o See the GT moving from the edges into the suitable, created habitat o Have a large population of tortoises, part of the motivation

Advice: Once step at a timeo Experiment with herbicide in small treatment areas, soil moisture can affect velpar, use

it sparingly o Sloppy chopping

Landscape goes on a scale of time that is large, needs several cycles (10years) to see results, this management may be effective as is but requires more time to see the desired results

Sandpines harvested, they were an issue Fire department is the burning crew and therefore good at catching any fires that jump and

doing the mop up o Do a press release when they burn to alert neighbors in advance