Natural Resource Management
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Florida State Park Resource Management Philosophy
The Florida State Parks system was created in 1935 to preserve
representative portions of the state’s original natural lands for all
time, and to make them accessible for public enjoyment and recreation.
The state park system has grown to encompass over half a million acres
of diverse conservation lands - a substantial and irreplaceable part of
the public’s natural heritage. However, simply acquiring land does not
ensure preservation of its resources - the lands must be actively
managed to retain the values for which they were acquired.
The health of Florida’s ecosystems depends on dynamic natural
processes associated with fire, hydrology, and a delicate ecological
balance between native species. Our resource management goal is to
restore and maintain the original landscapes of Florida State Parks by
reestablishing these processes. In this way we insure that citizens and
visitors experience healthy old-growth forests, wildflower-blanketed
prairies, free-flowing springs, and an abundance of diverse native
wildlife in The Real Florida.
Natural resource management on the 441,824 upland acres in the
Florida State Parks involves four major activities:
prescribed burning, invasive exotic species
control, hydrological restoration, and
other kinds of habitat restoration. Most of this
work is done by park staff as a part of their day to day activities,
which also include the many other aspects of providing recreational
facilities and opportunities to about 16 million park visitors annually.
The Florida Park Service manages 227,797 acres that are in
"fire-dependant" natural communities requiring prescribed burning on
different fire-return intervals (ranging from 2 to 50 years).
Historical Role of Fire in Florida
The critical role that fire plays in maintaining many of the earth’s
ecosystems is now widely recognized. Largely because more lightning
strikes occur per square mile in Florida than any other place in North
America, fire is one of the primary natural forces under which Florida's
land ecosystems have evolved. Before there were roads, canals, modern
agriculture, or big cities, lightning-set fires frequently swept almost
unimpeded across Florida’s landscape. Over thousands of years, many
natural habitats have evolved under the influence of periodic fire - and
are dependent on fire today.
Restoration and maintenance of such fire-dependent habitats now
requires prescribed burning - the mimicking of lightning fires by
carefully introducing fire according to detailed control plans called
"prescriptions."
Maintaining Our Natural and Cultural Heritage
As the human population of the state has grown and fire has been
increasingly excluded from natural lands, fire-dependent habitats have
drastically declined. As a result, many unique plants and animals
needing these habitats are disappearing.
The open piney woods, ever-blooming prairies, and aromatic scrubs of
Florida and the unique species they support are an irreplaceable part of
Florida’s natural and cultural heritage. They not only provide a source
of enjoyment and inspiration, but continue to play a vital role in
shaping the character and spirit of the people of Florida. If our native
fire-dependent habitats and species were lost, we would not only lose a
critical link to our past, but our quality of life would be diminished.
Biodiversity Conservation
Of Florida’s 44 land-based natural community types, 17 depend on
periodic fire for their continued existence and 16 more benefit from an
occasional fire. Without fire, applied at appropriate frequencies and
intensities, many of Florida’s fire-dependent natural communities and
the species that depend on them would gradually disappear - forever.
With prolonged fire exclusion, fire-resistant hardwood species begin
to invade and dominate many fire-dependent communities. Over time, the
entire structure and species composition of such areas change, often
with much less species diversity.
Rare Species Conservation
Many of Florida’s rare and endangered species of animals and plants
are dependent on periodic fire for their continued existence. Without
periodic fire, species such as the Florida scrub jay, Sherman’s fox
squirrel, red-cockaded woodpecker, and white-top pitcher-plant would
disappear forever.
Increased Wildlife Abundance
Prescribed burning of natural lands is known to increase abundance
and health of many wildlife species, including native game species such
as deer, turkey, and quail.
Hazard Reduction
Fire-dependent natural communities contain pyrogenic vegetation. In
other words, species produce vegetation that promotes the spread of
fire. Over time these fuels gradually accumulate, making the occurrence
of fire increasingly likely. So for much of Florida’s wildlands, it is
not a question of whether an area will burn or not, but WHEN.
With prolonged fire exclusion, fuel levels can become dangerously
high. Under such conditions, a single lightning strike or an ember from
a backyard grill can cause a raging wildfire. With prescribed burning,
we are able to reduce fuel levels in natural communities under
controlled conditions.
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Invasive Exotic Species Control
It’s A Small World
The ability of humans to transport plants and animals around the
world has never been greater. This ability is a double-edge sword –
allowing ready access to many useful and beautiful plants and animals
from around the world, but also occasionally resulting in unruly and
unwanted guests.
Invasive exotic species are now recognized to not only be a major
agricultural problem (e.g., Mediterranean fruit fly and Argentine fire
ant), but are now seen as major factors worldwide in degradation of the
environment. Invasion and disruption of native habitats by certain
rapidly spreading non-native plant species is now recognized as one of
the greatest threats to maintaining healthy and diverse ecosystems in
Florida.
What Makes a Species Invasive?
When a species is moved into a region in which it is not native, it
is often released from the natural controls of its homeland – such as
diseases and predatory insects. With few or no natural controls, some
exotic species are able to out-compete, displace, or destroy native
species and their habitats.
Florida, a Land in Balance
Florida’s native species have coexisted for thousands of years,
gradually developing a relationship known as "the balance of nature."
Humans have introduced many exotic plant and animal species to Florida,
some of which are heavily invading our remaining natural habitats. In
the worst cases, invasive exotic plants displace diverse native
communities and leave impenetrable single-species stands, and exotic
animals impact vast areas of diverse native groundcover and directly
consume rare native species. The worst invasive exotic plants, about 125
species, are tracked and listed by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council
(EPPC). The most troublesome include Brazilian pepper, Australian pine,
Chinese tallow, cogon grass, air-potato, Japanese climbing fern, Old
World Climbing fern, and hydrilla. The most troublesome animal by far is
the feral hog (from Eurasia).
Restoring Balance
If left unchecked, invasive exotic plants and animals would
eventually completely alter the character, productivity, and
conservation values of the natural areas in Florida’s State Parks. The
Florida Park Service actively removes invasive exotic species from state
parks, with priority being given to those causing the most ecological
damage. In the case of plants, most removal involves selectively
applying herbicides that are carefully chosen to have very low toxicity
to wildlife and humans, and very short environmental persistence.
Animals are removed according to established guidelines that insure
humane treatment.
Learn more about invasive species
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Changes in Attitudes
For most of its history as a state, much of Florida was thought to
have too much water. In earlier times, citizens were anxious to modify
nature on a grand scale by draining the state’s "swamps and overflowed
lands, " channelizing streams and rivers, and holding back floodwaters
with major engineering projects.
Today, with over 50% of the original wetlands drained, lakes and
springs often polluted and drying up, and frequent critical water
shortages, the finite nature of Florida’s freshwater resources is clear.
Likewise, the values of intact functioning natural systems for water
resource conservation, native wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation
are now widely recognized.
A Land Shaped by Water
Most of Florida’s native habitats are precisely adapted to natural
drainage patterns and seasonal water fluctuations. Depth to water table
and the timing and length of flooding frequently determine what type of
natural community occurs on a site. Even minor changes to natural
hydrology can result in the loss of plant and animal species from a
site.
It is now recognized that ditches, berms, roads, stabilized lake
levels, and excessive water use can have severe and unwanted impacts on
natural lands by altering both the amount of water present and the
timing of its availability.
Restoring Hydrology
The Florida Park Service is charge by statute to restore, maintain,
and protect the original character of representative portions of the
state’s natural lands. However, it is now realized that the natural
hydrology of many state parks is impaired to some degree. This is often
especially the case on park lands recently acquired for conservation and
recreation.
To the extent possible, we are actively restoring the original
hydrology in state parks. We do this primarily by filling or plugging
ditches, removing obstructions to surface water "sheet flow," installing
culverts under roads, and installing water control structures to manage
water levels.
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Habitat restoration is a complex process often involving a
combination of several activities, often including the removal of
invading species (loblolly pines, slash pines, pasture grass),
reintroducing missing species (wiregrass, longleaf pine), beach
rebuilding (sand renourishment and planting sea oats and other beach
species), as well as the other management techniques discussed in the
sections above.
Dedicated park staff also locate, identify, and manage endangered and
threatened species such as scrub jays, gopher tortoises, sea turtles,
and beach mice. Such activities are an integral part of sensitive
development and providing public access while maintaining the delicate
ecological balance.
Oversight, consultation and coordination for the above Natural
Resource Management activities is provided by the Bureau Of Natural And
Cultural Resources. For more information, contact the bureau office in
Tallahassee.
Due to disruption of natural processes, invasions by nonnative
species, and large-scale disturbances associated with past land uses,
many of the natural lands now within Florida State Park boundaries are
in an impaired condition. We are identifying restoration needs and costs
for these lands, and estimate the current statewide park restoration
need to be at least $60 million.
Please visit the Florida Ecological Restoration Inventory to learn more about restoration needs on all of Florida's public lands.
To learn about some of the state parks' restoration success stories,
view our "Restoration Success
Stories" web page.
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