Caloosahatchee Forestry Center > Landowner and Fire Prevention Services
Challenges to Southwest Florida’s Forests
Invasive Exotic Plants
Mike Weston, Senior Forester
Closely spaced melaleuca trees in Fort Myers. Photo: M.Weston |
Southwest Florida is now home to nearly a million people, and the number is growing everyday. The continued inflow of people brings change to the landscape and there is less forest land and open space each year. The continued reduction in grassland, wetlands, and forest lands makes the remaining forests and open lands essential as last opportunities to provide local wood products, habitat for wildlife, pollution mitigation, temperature and wind reduction, and flood control. These ecosystem services can be recreated using urban trees and landscape plantings, but not at the high level that is present in well managed natural lands. Interestingly, an additional obstacle exists for the remaining lands to continue to provide these services in an efficient manner: invasive exotic plants. These plants continue to occupy greater portions of natural lands in Lee, Collier, and Hendry counties.
Invasive exotic plants are a problem because they create increased fire dangers, kill or weaken on-site native trees and vegetation, and several species break easily in storms and are costly to clean-up. The situation will not improve without action. Invasive exotic plants are classified as plants that are non-native to the region based on scientific consensus, and are documented to seed into and reproduce in natural areas. The mere presence of a plant in a yard in southwest Florida does not mean the plant is an invasive exotic plant. However, if a plant is first planted in a flower bed, and examples of this plant appear in the woods where none were before, then the plant could be considered an invasive exotic plant if it is not a native plant. Not all exotic plants will become invasive exotic plants that invade woodlands or other natural lands. The worst offenders in south Florida are melaleuca, Australian pine, Brazilian pepper, air potato,
and rosary pea. On the horizon, old world climbing fern may
prove to be worse than any invasive plant we have seen in south Florida because of its ability to spread via airborne spores.
On my visits with landowners in Collier, Lee, and Hendry counties, it is likely that I will find at least two species of invasive exotic plants that reduce the potential production (timber, habitat, or aesthetics) of the acreage. Several species of invasive exotic plants actually look very similar to beneficial native plants, and I would advise that a sample be taken to a knowledgeable resource professional for positive identification. The good news is that if a landowner invites me to tour their property then they are interested in managing their forest lands, and I will recommend a control program to bring the invasive exotic plants under control in five years or sooner. Invasive exotic plants will cost everyone in the long term if allowed to spread unchecked and reduce the ecosystem services that forest and other lands provide for the region as a whole. Control measures can range from less than a hundred dollars per acre using landowner labor and herbicide up to thousands of dollars per acre with equipment and herbicide.
Tens of thousands of acres in southwest Florida are home to invasive exotic plants. To learn more please visit the sites I have listed below, attend the workshops listed on this webpage, or contact me. As said before, invasive exotic plants are the number two threat to forested and other natural lands in southwest Florida, behind only the conversion of land for development. For information on services available for landowners please visit forest management section's Cooperative Forestry Assistance pages.
Resources for invasive exotic plants:
|
