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4.3.1 Canopy Density .........................................................................................................................................31

4.3.2 Understory Density ...................................................................................................................................32

4.3.3 Herb Layer ................................................................................................................................................32

4.3.4 Edges.........................................................................................................................................................33

4.4 RARE ORGANISMS .............................................................................................................................................33

4.4.1 Plants ........................................................................................................................................................33

4.4.2 Animals .....................................................................................................................................................34

4.5 EXOTIC ORGANISMS ..........................................................................................................................................35

4.5.1 Plants ........................................................................................................................................................35

4.5.2 Animals .....................................................................................................................................................36

4.6 FIRE MANAGEMENT...........................................................................................................................................37

4.6.1 Hardwood Control ....................................................................................................................................37

4.6.2 Fire Breaks................................................................................................................................................37

4.6.3 Prescribed Burning ...................................................................................................................................38

4.6.4 Alternatives to Prescribed Burning...........................................................................................................39

4.7 MANAGEMENT AFTER TROPICAL CYCLONES .....................................................................................................39

4.8 HYDROLOGICAL RESTORATION .........................................................................................................................40

4.9 SOIL MANAGEMENT ..........................................................................................................................................40

4.10 CULTURAL RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................................41

4.11 POLLUTION CONTROL......................................................................................................................................41

4.12 LANDSCAPING CONSIDERATIONS.....................................................................................................................41

4.13 OFF-SITE EXOTIC PLANT AND ANIMAL SOURCES ............................................................................................42

4.14 RESTORATION OF PINE ROCKLAND ON DEGRADED SOILS ...............................................................................42

4.15 SECURITY ........................................................................................................................................................43

4.16 PARTNERSHIPS.................................................................................................................................................43

5.0 PUBLIC USE OF THE PINE ROCKLAND EEL PROPERTIES..................................................................44

6.0 MONITORING, RESEARCH, AND INFORMATION NEEDS ....................................................................45

7.0 LITERATURE CITED .......................................................................................................................................46

APPENDIX A: SCIENTIFIC NAMES TABLE

APPENDIX B: HISTORICAL PICTURES OF PINE ROCKLANDS

APPENDIX C: LIST OF FLORIDA INVASIVE PLANTS

EEL Program, Management Plan, Part II – Pine Rockland (DRAFT) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page iv

List of Tables

Table 1: Seedling pine plantings on Miami-Dade County preserves

Table 2: Rare plant species which occur in Miami-Dade County EEL preserves

Table 3: Rare animal species that utilize pine rockland in Miami-Dade County

Table 4: Exotic animals commonly present in pine rocklands in Miami-Dade County

Table 5: Pine rockland fragments suitable for acquisition in Miami-Dade County

List of Figures

Figure 1: Historical pine rockland habitat distribution in Miami-Dade County.

Figure 2: Current versus historical pine rockland habitat distribution in Miami-Dade

County.

List of Acronyms

DERM Department of Environmental Resources Management

EEL Environmentally Endangered Lands

ENP Everglades National Park

FLEPPC Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council

FNAI Florida Natural Areas Inventory

FTBG Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

FWCC Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

GIS Geographic Information System

IRC The Institute for Regional Conservation

MDC Miami-Dade County

NAM Natural Areas Management

NFC Natural Forest Community

RIFA Red Imported Fire Any

SSC Species of Special Concern

USFWS United States Fish and Wildlife Service

EEL Program, Management Plan, Part II – Pine Rockland (DRAFT) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Page 1

1.0 Introduction

Pine rocklands are one of the priority ecosystems for conservation efforts in the Miami-Dade

County (MDC) Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program. As settlers arrived in the

area that is now Miami-Dade County, they found that rocklands in the Miami Rock Ridge, in

general, were the most suitable areas for settlement. The relatively high elevation of the pine

rocklands in the landscape provided reasonable protection against flooding, while allowing the

people to remain close to valuable natural resources such as agricultural soils, timber, and

fisheries.

Unfortunately, this ecosystem has now been almost entirely destroyed by agricultural, urban, and

suburban development. Current estimates suggest that less than 1.8% of the original 126,500

acres of pine rockland ecosystem outside of Everglades National Park (ENP) remains today in

Miami-Dade County. These approximately 2,273 acres of pine rocklands exist in scattered, small

parcels. Furthermore, the pine rockland fragments that do remain have suffered from impacts of

forest fragmentation, fire suppression, exotic pest invasions, and other forms of disturbance.

Therefore, pine rockland fragments that have been acquired by the EEL program must be

managed to ensure their long term viability.

1.1 Overview of the Pine Rockland Ecosystem

The pine rockland ecosystem is the most diverse ecosystem in the EEL program. This ecosystem

contains a wide-ranging assemblage of rare plants and animals. Many organisms restricted to the

habitat are endemic, occurring nowhere else in the world. These organisms are part of a diverse

system that is influenced by a number of natural stressors, such as fires, the regular occurrence of

tropical cyclones, and the rather sporadic incidence of frosts. These natural processes shape the

structure and composition of pine rocklands and determine the ecological characteristics of the

ecosystem.

The pine rockland ecosystem is a pine woodland growing in a thin layer of sand or loam in a

matrix of exposed oolitic limestone substrate. Pre-drainage hydrology of pine rocklands varied

greatly depending upon elevation, with some pine rocklands probably never flooding and others

probably flooding annually for short periods during the summer wet season. Typically pine

rocklands consist of three vegetation layers – a canopy, a subcanopy, and an herb layer. The

canopy of pine rocklands is dominated by a single species, South Florida slash pine1

. The

subcanopy of pine rocklands consists of an array of temperate and tropical hardwoods and palms.

Palms in this layer include saw palmetto, cabbage palm, and silver palm, with saw palmetto

being the most common and typically a dominant species in all pine rockland areas. The herb

layer consists of temperate and tropical forbs, grasses, ferns, and sedges. At present, examples of

the common herbs in pine rocklands are the pine fern, low rattlebox, and Florida five-petalled

leafflower (Bradley, unpublished data).

Pine rockland occurs in South Florida and on several islands in the Bahamian archipelago. In

southern Florida, it is found in Miami-Dade County, Monroe County in the lower Florida Keys,