Hurricane Charley Canopy Study
Under a grant from the Florida Division of Forestry, Wildlands Conservation has completed an assessment of the impact Hurricane Charley had to the tree canopy cover of forested areas of Charlotte County.  This project was funded by a grant from the Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program the Charlotte County Government, Information Technology-GIS Department.

The Urban and Community Forestry Program grant funds are provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and administered by the Florida Division of Forestry.  The purpose of the program is to provide assistance to local governments, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and volunteer groups to develop or enhance local urban and community forestry programs, and improve the urban environment.  The goal is not simply beautification through tree planting, but to develop and enhance forestry programs.  In 2005, an Emergency Hurricane Supplemental was issued by the program, and it was under a grant from this supplemental to the program that our project was completed.

Hurricane Charley struck Charlotte County in August 2004, causing widespread destruction in Port Charlotte and the City of Punta Gorda.  In our research study, we utilized photointerpretation of aerial photography, ground-truthing, and a geographic information system to assess and quantify canopy damage to forested areas throughout the County that resulted from the hurricane.

Our results revealed that an estimated 4,651 acres of forests were severely damaged (63% of which were mangrove forest) with 40-100% mortality, and 6,720 acres were moderately damaged (nearly 100% of which were mangrove forest).  An additional 15,172 acres (89% of which were upland forest types) received some discernable canopy damage; most of these forests have since recovered.  Mangrove forests along the eastern shoreline of Charlotte Harbor—subjected to the windward side of the hurricane—received the most widespread severe to moderate damage, extending inland by more than 1,000 meters from open water in some locations.  Conversely, mangrove forests along the western shoreline had severe to moderate damage for only 150 meters inland, on average. 

ANNUTTELIGA HAMMOCK ACQUISITION
Wildlands Conservation is working with landowners and the Southwest Florida Water Management Disrict to link the Chassahowitzka State Forest along the gulf coast of Hernando County to the Withlacoochee State Forest in Citrus County through the Annutteliga Hammock. This geologically and biotically unique region, which extends across northwest and central Hernando County, is characterized by a combination of rolling long-leaf pine and turkey oak sandhills and hardwood forest covering steep sided hills and small valleys. This region hosts many rare plants and animals, including the Florida black bear, Sherman’s fox squirrel, and gopher tortoise. This population of black bear is the smallest in Florida and is critically dependent on the maintenance and restoration of biological connections to other bear populations.

Much of the region known as the Annutteliga Hammock site has been platted out in single family lots that are collectively known as the Royal Highlands, which was subdivided into thousands of ½ acre lots in the 1950’s. Fortunately for our efforts, most of the Royal Highlands subdivision has remained undeveloped, with just a few rural residents dotting the landscape. Unfortunately, however, many of the 1000’s of lots are owned by individual owners worldwide. Ideally, when the linkage is completed there will be an 80,000 acre block of contiguous protected native lands that not only provide refuge for wide ranging species, but provide great passive recreation potential. We will continue to improve upon this new corridor and to protect the highest quality remaining native habitat in this fast developing and fragmenting area.

Brooker Creek Augmentation Study
Over the past 10 years, Pinellas County has been involved in the process of re-hydrating wetlands that were de-watered due to their close proximity to an active wellfield. The purpose was to see if wetlands that had been significantly degraded could be biotically restored with groundwater re-hydration. In conjunction with this re-hydration, we have been evaluating the response of the flora and fauna to this hydrological restoration in order to determine if surficially isolated wetlands could be effectively restored biotically. More specifically, we compared three sites augmented with ground water to two control wetlands outside the influence of groundwater withdrawal. We did this by evaluating:

Hydrology
Monthly water levels were collected in all of the augmented and control wetlands.

Vegetation
We quantitatively surveying the vegetation using point count intercepts and quadrats extending from the edge of each of the augmented and control wetlands to the center

Herpetofauna
We positioned several survey stations around each of the augmented sites and the control wetlands. Each survey station included:

• A drift fence with pit fall traps and funnel traps to collect, mark, and recapture reptiles and amphibians.
• Two widths of pvc positioned vertically. These are used as refuge by treefrogs. All treefrogs were marked.
• Traps were opened for four 8-day survey periods centered around the growing season.

Birds
Bi-monthly timed surveys were conducted at each of the study sites (the augmented sites) and the reference sites (the control sites).

We are in the process of evaluating the data; to date we have observed several changes that are encouraging. First, as water levels rise, vegetation has succeeded from a community dominated by upland transitional species to a community dominated by wetland species. We observed that wetland "obligate" birds, such as herons and their allies, were the first to re-colonize the sites. Their return was timed with the presence of standing water - visible aerially. Wetland herpetofauna returned with the presence of standing water coupled with the sheet flows that accompany summer storms.

Stay tuned for more information regarding this study when we publish our final results.