Emma Witmer
Greene Publishing, Inc.
If you could travel back in time 500 years, what would the world look, smell and sound like? Before our area was settled and developed, what was here? Thousands of years before the European colonization of the Americas, ecosystems developed, adapted and thrived under their original conditions; without human interference. Once, the American southeast coast was primarily a sparse, long leaf pine and wiregrass system. Without modern human involvement, these pines grew extremely tall. Then, during a growing season storm, one of those tall pines would act like a lightning rod, lighting the underbrush on fire. This fire would spread until it eventually fizzled out in the natural Florida wetlands. These were the first “controlled burns,” and their failsafes were the season changes, weather and natural topography. Through these natural processes, many native Florida plant species in plant communities like uplands, flatwoods and even ephemeral wetlands within those flatwoods, adapted to become fire-resistant by regenerating from the root. That is why controlled burning is important to care for native Florida species, particularly herbaceous perennials. Because they have adapted to this natural “fire ecology,” explains native Florida plant expert and CEO of Southern Habitats, Joe Reams III, native plants thrive with annual burning. Native Florida animals, including game animals, adapted to these natural circumstances as well and do best when they have native plant species as food and cover. Upland and flatwood wildflowers live in careful ecological balance with pollinators like birds, bees and butterflies.
Because of native wetland grasses, natural fires would travel through some wetland areas before dying out. Under these circumstances, certain wetland species (pitcher plants, pipeworts and some asters) became fire-adapted like those from other native Florida ecosystems. Non-fire-adapted plants, such as hardwoods, were naturally confined to hammocks, strands and bottomland. Florida ecosystems like these were wetter areas where the fire did not reach. These ecosystems are in decline today due to clear cut timbering, urbanization, fire exclusion, wetland draining, introduction of exotic plants and feral hogs. As wetlands disappear, indigenous Florida wetland species disappear with them. This is more than a few plants dying. Florida wetlands, and the plants that they are made up of, create an environment that collects water runoff during flooding and gradually releases much needed water during drier periods. Native Florida wetland plants filter toxins out of the water that is collected and later released by wetland areas, proving some positive counter to human contamination of natural waterways. Wetland native plants, such as iris and pickerel weed, are major supporters of local pollinator species. These plants also deter erosive forces by slowing the flow of water that can be destructive to the topsoil surrounding river banks. Due to their critical roll in maintaining balance in our natural environment, the disappearance of Florida wetlands is something we should all be concerned about.
Unfortunately, the disappearance of natural Florida habitats has become all too frequent in modern times. Urban society and suburban communities build over and pollute nearby ecosystems and tend to have regulations against fire of any kind, including controlled burns. Even a large portion of rural regions of Florida have been farmed, cleared or altered in some way that has introduced harmful, foreign species, removed native species, and destroyed habitats in the process. This “habitat fragmentation” creates isolated pockets for species that used to have free reign over much of the state. As these environments become increasingly smaller and further apart, the plant and animal species that live there have no where to go and begin to die out. If we continue our current disregard for native Florida wildlife, there will be major consequences on air quality, water quality, flood hazard, crop production and much more. There does seem to be some hope, however. Entrepreneurs like Joe Reams III of Southern Habitats are seeking to turn the tide of habitat and fragmentation in Florida by researching original Florida conditions and finding out how to recreate some of these disappearing ecosystems. Southern Habitats attempts to regenerate environments in Florida's major land systems, sand hills, wet flat woods, dry flat woods and associated wetlands, just as they were hundreds of years ago.