The loud droning of trucks, heavy equipment, chainsaws, and wood chippers were heard yesterday morning, May 6th at the Chinsegut Wildlife and Environmental Area as dozens of healthy native laurel oak trees were logged from the property surrounding the conservation center. The cutting of the oaks surrounding the center began on Monday May 2, leaving many areas exposed to the impending summer heat including the historic Bishop home sight, conservation center building and parking area.
As you drive through the entrance “pine barrens” along either side of the road consist of longleaf pine charred at the base of their trunks from recent prescribed burns. Not too long ago, oaks and a healthy variety of flora grew among the longleaf pine. Much wildlife still abounds on the property, in areas that have not been subjected to prescribed burnings and oak tree removal.
Miller Tree Care out of Brooksville has been performing the service for FWC. A representative of Miller Tree Care stated that the oaks will be used for firewood.
Pat and Shirley Miketinac voiced their concerns about the prescribed burns and removal of the laurel oaks to the Chinsegut Wildlife and Conservation Director Matthew Koenig. They found out about the planned tree removal about 3 weeks ago.They asked for a stay of execution for the 66 remaining oaks, which are now being felled.
The property is owned and maintained by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). If you live in the area, you will have noticed that there have been prescribed burns in recent months. One purpose of these burns is to suppress the growth of native hardwood species such as laurel oaks within the longleaf pine tract. The manager of the wildlife area, Matthew Koenig explains,
“Recent scientific evidence strongly supports historical accounts from the late 18th and 19th centuries that described peninsular Florida as being dominated by open, park-like savannahs that regularly burned on a 2-3 year interval. Early naturalists called them pine barrens and claimed to be able to see for miles in any direction through the tall columns of widely spaced longleaf pines. Prior to European settlement, these diverse communities were maintained by lightning-caused fires. Once Europeans settled Florida, however, they began to suppress fire. Through a process called succession, hardwoods have encroached and in many cases overtaken the few undeveloped tracts that remain. Through the removal of select oaks and the safe reintroduction of prescribed fire, we hope to reverse this process and return the site to some semblance of its original condition.”
Prescribed burns at the Chinsegut Wildlife and Conservation Area have had negative repercussions to at least two yellow pine trees about 3 feet in diameter. Both sustained damages at the base, hollowing out a portion of the core of either tree. Many pines are scorched upwards of twenty feet off the ground. Saplings are also burned.
Koenig also explains that the fires ultimately benefit the wildlife within the forest. “Gopher tortoises, Florida mice, indigo snakes, and sandhill cranes are just a few of the rare species that benefit from our actions.”
In a statement to Koenig, Shirley Miketinac, a former gifted science teacher, refutes his position on the benefits to wildlife, “The very species you mention also thrive in hardwood hammocks. As a matter of fact, gopher tortoises can consume large amounts of acorns as a staple high-protein food. Those threatened mice who live in gopher tortoise burrows, also depend on acorns for nutrition. Deer and other foragers get quality protein from acorns not found in other forage. Add to that the scrub jay which in a single season consumes over 1000 acorns. Shirley Miketinac points to the great diversity of life found among the deciduous and conifer portion of the conservation area. The many longleaf pine living among laurel oaks, cedar, and dogwood in the conservation area are healthy and thriving.
Additionally, she argues that the removal of the deciduous trees expose the longleaf pines to potential harvesting. This isn’t so far fetched since Governor Scott’s administration is pursuing legislation that will allow logging in state parks. Logging on over a million acres of our state forests is already allowed since a mission of the state forest system is the harvesting of timber.
Her husband Pat Miketinac uses an interesting analogy for the situation in a written correspondence with Mr. Koenig. “Suppose you wanted to preserve a desert. With your logic, an oasis would be considered “invasive”, something to be destroyed to preserve “sandhills”. The day could very well come when your crusades through the sands would make you wish for an oasis.”
The pair also cite concerns over air quality in prescribed burning, pointing to a 2005 study in Georgia published in Environ. Sci. Technol. (2005, 39, 9049-9056). The study states, “Prescribed burning is a significant source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the southeastern United States.” Researchers determined that aromatic compounds and terpenes both precursors to secondary organic aerosol are much higher from active prescribed burnings than from “fireplace wood and open burning studies.”
“What harm could it do to save a small area of trees in the picnic area?” Shirley Miketinac asks.
The Miketinacs are working to save the remaining oaks in the forest area. They also worry that the county properties designated as environmentally sensitive are at risk of a similar fate.
Hernando Sun can verify that is accurate. Jim King is the Hernando County Conservation Lands Specialist, who oversees more than 1000 acres of Hernando County environmentally sensitive lands. On a trip to Cypress Lake Preserve, King stated in reference to the native laurel oak, “They don’t belong here. There should be a lot more longleaf pine,” He continued, “It is a beautiful shaded Oak Hammock; however it’s not biologically productive, which the native plants for this community and groundcovers struggle to survive. Wire grass should be the dominating ground cover in this community,” King explained.
King said that Cypress Lake Preserve is due for another prescribed burn. King explained that after the burn takes place, the preserve will grow stronger, and sometimes when walking through after a burn you will find things that may have been hidden for decades. “Every time you burn you find different things,” King said.
The Miketinacs have many more acres to worry about than those remaining at Chinsegut Wildlife and Environmental Area.