Contact: Phil Kloer, Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Office; (404) 679-7125, philip_kloer@fws.gov
NAPLES, FL - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded a $171,094 contract under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) to Wildland Services, Inc. of Moore Haven, Florida, to cut invading cabbage palms on the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge as a forest restoration project to benefit the Florida panther and other endangered species.
“This valuable project is one part of a multifaceted land management program on the refuge,” said Acting Refuge Manager Ben Nottingham. “Invasive cabbage palm removal, fire management, and non-native plant control are crucial to managing the refuge for panthers and the many other species of wildlife and native plants that depend upon a healthy and diverse environment.”
The Service hired Wildland Services to cut cabbage palms on more than 1,700 acres of pine forests that once consisted of slash pines with an understory of scattered saw palmetto, grasses, and low herbaceous plants.
“The construction of canals over the last century for flood control has altered the balance of nature,” said Larry Richardson, refuge wildlife biologist. “They channel water away from the refuge to the Gulf of Mexico and prevent the summer rains from recharging the aquifer.”
In the 20 years Richardson has been working on the refuge he has seen grassy prairies gradually taken over. Cabbage palms have formed dense, nearly impenetrable stands, shading out forage plants for deer. Thousands of acres of the refuge have been degraded by this cabbage palm invasion, which has adversely impacted the Refuge’s deer population. A healthy and abundant deer population is necessary to maintain the refuge’s resident panthers.
Additionally, thick stands of cabbage palms make the pinelands undesirable for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, a former resident of the lands now within the refuge.
Wildland Services will use crews and equipment to cut cabbage palms over six feet tall, dropping them in place to rot away or be consumed by prescribed fires, which the Service uses routinely to manage fuels that otherwise can promote catastrophic wildfires. Smaller palms will be eliminated with herbicides as more funding becomes available. Minimal ground disturbance is a requirement of the contract to prevent invasion by non-native plants such as Brazilian pepper and protect the native grasses and low growing plants.
“Cabbage palms produce volatile fuels that make for intense fires and spotting (where fires jump control lines into other areas), thus destroying desirable trees and cover for wildlife, particularly white-tailed deer,” said Billy Snyder, fire control officer for the refuge.
Darrel Land, Panther Section Leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is pleased with the restoration that has already occurred on 2,500 acres of pinelands along the eastern boundary of the refuge. “The restoration so far has greatly benefited panthers by improving habitat for deer, the panthers’ primary prey,” Land said.
Read more on the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge Website: http://www.fws.gov/floridapanther/
