Helping habitat in Wabasso

Crews work to restore natural habitat of refuge in Wabasso

By Gabriel Margasak (Contact)
Thursday, September 6, 2007

Rhythmic whacks of a machete against Australian pine trees and Brazilian pepper plants echoed through the tangled thickets of Preacher's Island.

Workers here must sometimes toil by hand when their chain saws break on the notoriously hard trees. Heavy machinery is not allowed because it would destroy the very vegetation the crews are trying to save by killing the non-native plants.

But experts say the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project that began on Aug. 6 is worth it to restore the habitat for blue heron and wading birds, fish, turtles and wildlife in the historic Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. President Theodore Roosevelt named Pelican Island as the country's first national wildlife refuge on March 14, 1903.

"All you have to do is take a ride down the Indian River and you see all the houses and sea walls going up," Charles Mathis, the assistant refuge manager said while surveying the project. "The more we can save and restore back to its original state — it's not going to offset what we're losing — but at least we can keep what we have."

The problems here began back in the early 1950s, when dredge spoil from construction of the Intracoastal Waterway channel was dumped on the natural islands.

Covering up the native mangroves and other vegetation allowed "the exotics to take control and out compete the natives," Mathis said.

For decades, they choked out the natural landscape and wildlife.
As part of the refuge's 15-year conservation plan, federal wildlife agents determined the islands needed to be restored to benefit water birds and fisheries.
And refuge managers wanted to keep the exotics on the islands from creeping into other parts of the refuge.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service used $80,000 to begin the project.
Some of that money went to contractor, Riviera beach-based Aquatic Vegetation Control.
A crew of company men leave a little island on the Wabasso Causeway by boat four days a week for brutal 10-hour shifts.

They wade ashore through a foot of muck and disappear into the tangled thicket of mangroves.
The only clearing in sight is what the men have cut down.

"We cut it with chain saw, the peppers and the Austrian pine," said crew supervisor Jose Rivera, 40. "We drop it down, we put it in pieces and we stock it."
Once the exotics are all cut and piled high, federal fire crews will burn them down in a tightly controlled fire.

That work is scheduled to be finished by Sept. 21.
But wildlife officials still have to figure out how to replant the area and where to come up with the $200,000 it might cost to do that.

Pine needles are highly acidic and can regenerate quickly. So crews might have to bring in dirt or use chemicals to treat the area.
Mathis said the idea is then to plant more mangroves, palm trees and plants that would naturally be on the island.

"What we wanted to do here inside the refuge was remove these exotics, try to correct the damage that was done to them," he said, "and assist them in their natural process of restoring themselves back to a completely natural island with the unique characteristics and habitat and animal species that are associated with these natural islands."Australian pines and Brazilian peppers stifle natural Florida plants — on which wildlife depend for food and habitat — by taking sunlight and other nutrients.

Brazilian Pepper:

?Introduced in Florida in the 1890s as decorative landscaping
?Female trees have yellow to white flowers in the spring, and small red berries in the fall.
?The trees are also synonymous with poison ivy, oak and
sumac.
?Notorious for re-growing even after being cut down

Australian Pine:

?Australian pines were brought to the area to provide windbreaks for citrus groves and farms.
?Can flourish in a salt water
environment
?Can invade beach dunes
?May interfere with sea turtle nesting