Caloosahatchee Forestry Center > Landowner and Fire Prevention Services
Lee, Collier, and Hendry Counties
Current Forestry Programs and Services
Caloosahatchee Forestry Center
The spring of 2007 was an extremely busy time for the Caloosahatchee Forestry Center. The emergence of extreme fire conditions meant that most of the district staff were committed full time to wildland firefighting whether on the front line driving tractor-plow units, directing wildfire suppression activities and home protection efforts, working with the media to communicate the fire danger and actions of Division of Forestry personnel, dispatching fire crews, up in the air spotting new fires or dropping water on hot-spots, or providing support to crews and repairs to equipment.
As the rains have started, we’re still watching fire conditions diminish and resuming normal operations to provide forest management, forest and fire prevention education, and fire mitigation such as prescribed burning in Lee, Collier, and Hendry counties.
Cooperative Forestry Assistance (CFA)
Starting in March, 2007 the Caloosahatchee District’s Cooperative Forestry Assistance Program will begin monitoring for invasive exotic ambrosia beetles. These beetles, often brought in through packing and other wood material from overseas, can have devastating effects on native plant communities by decimating shrubs and trees. The loss of species then creates holes in the interconnected web that supports and maintains each and every ecosystem.
Other CFA projects include:
1. Three Forest Stewardship plans finalized in the spring of 2007 in Lee, Collier, and Hendry Counties total over 200 acres. The goal is to have landowners with forested properties that wish to or are actively managing for forestry and other compatible uses (wildlife habitat, recreation, etc.) enter the program for management guidance and eventual certification as a Stewardship Forest. Also, a Lee County Conservation 20/20 property is slated for certification under the Forest Stewardship Program. Additional landowners are signing up every week.
2. A new program is underway that is a first for the state of Florida, and available for the time being in Lee, Collier, and Hendry counties only. The program, called “Community Forests” is aimed at home owner’s associations and other more urban/suburban properties that are below the 20 acre size threshold for forest stewardship. The goal is to implement sustainable forest management and provide up to date accepted land management practices on other natural lands for both the benefit of the owners in the immediate vicinity, the organisms living in the natural areas, and the surrounding community as a whole.
3. Cities that received grant money from the Urban and Community Forestry Program to retool their urban forests after the 2004 Hurricane Season continue to plant trees, make trees available to the public, and release educational materials about urban forest and tree management. The cities of Sanibel, Cape Coral, Naples, Town of Fort Myers Beach, and the Lee County government received funding from this grant opportunity.
Contact your County Forester for Hendry, Lee, and Collier County:
Mike Weston, Senior Forester
10941 Palm Beach Blvd.
Fort Myers, FL 33905
Telephone: 239/ 690-3500 ext 118
Email: westonm@doacs.state.fl.us |
Work Center Updates
East Work Area (Hendry County) and
Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest
Prescribed burn conducted by Division of Forestry Rangers on Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest in a young pine stand. |
Work in the east work area is now focused on prescribed burning on the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest. Prescribed burning is vital in the stewardship of pine forests when they are young. The fires, when conducted properly, burn off competing vegetation, help to safeguard young pines from wildfires later in the year, and create new growth that wildlife in the area can use for food. Areas that have experienced wildfire are actually necessary for many species of wildlife in southwest Florida such as turkeys and gopher tortoises.
North Work Area (Lee County)
In Lee County, the past few months have been consumed with either fighting wildfires, repairing equipment, or taking time-off to rest weary muscles and bones. The historically bad fire conditions that were experienced put all of the training that the wildland firefighters and other staff have taken fully to the test, and everyone performed in an excellent manner. The staff of the work area actually temporarily grew during the past fire season as crews from outside districts were called in to assist in the firefighting. Crews were called in from Jacksonville, Lakeland, Punta Gorda, Okeechobee, and Fort Lauderdale to supplement local forestry crews and provide adequate fire coverage.
House in Lehigh Acres that is much more likely to survive a wildfire now after treatment by the Florida Division of Forestry. |
Now that the worst of the fire season is past, the North Work Area will start to manage wildland fuels that are built up in the woods of southwest Florida, with an emphasis on roller chopping in Lehigh Acres. Without active forest management and the management of plants, shrubs, and small trees that grow low to the ground, an area of forest in southwest Florida can become a fire hazard in as little as two years in southwest Florida. To combat this, the Florida Division of Forestry provides advice to landowners to manage these fuels, as well as direct management in areas where lots of people live in close proximity to wildland fuels, such as Lehigh Acres. A tractor pulling a roller chopper is shown below. During this process, trees are given adequate room in order to limit root damage and the brush greens up in about two months. In areas where prescribed burning is possible, the Florida Division of Forestry uses this natural process to reduce wildland fuels and renew the land for new plant growth and animals to use.
South Work Area (Collier County) and Picayune Strand State Forest
Aerial view of fire in Picayune Strand State Forest taken by DOF pilot Bo Gilham as he monitors the fire’s activity. |
The South Work Area, based out of the Collier Forestry Station in Naples, had a very busy spring fire season. Not only were personnel and equipment involved in several large fires consuming over 21,000 acres on Picayune Strand State Forest, but Forest Rangers and supervisors also assisted with the massive, 50,000 plus acre fire on the Big Cypress National Preserve, along with the above normal number of fires caused by humans on private forest lands in the area. Work to mitigate the damage caused by suppression activities, mainly from the creation of firelines, will be completed by the end of July, on the largest of the fires. This fire season, again, shows the importance of active forest management in the whole region of Collier County to prevent serious wildfires from gaining headway and growing to sizes that can threaten homes.
The woods weren’t the only asset that was damaged by this season’s wildfires in Picayune Strand State Forest. The 20 mile long horse trail that has been a favorite of horse riders from all over south Florida, is located right in the middle of the large fires that burned over one-fifth of the area of Picayune Strand State Forest. Crews from the Collier Forestry Station and Picayune Strand State Forest are working to remove dead trees and smooth out any firelines that crossed the horse trail in order to open the trail up as soon as possible.
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