I wrote my thesis on the historical ecology of Split Oak Forest. However, I did not ground-truth all of my land cover assumptions as my thesis was unfunded and time-restricted. Upon visiting the Castle Hill site in Clermont and the Warea Tract of the Seminole State Forest I was compelled to re-examine my maps of the historical sandhill in Split Oak Forest. I believe that I highly underestimated the historic sandhill in Split Oak. Split Oak Forest certainly has it's fair share of scrubby sandhill (scrubby flatwoods x sandhill = scrub oaks & sand pines) but there are many examples of very old-looking American Turkey Oaks surrounded by wiregrass in what the Cooperative Land Cover Layer v3.0 now calls Scrubby Flatwoods. That's not right. Sandhill is a G3 (Globally Vulnerable) and S2 (State Imperiled). It is critical that we identify all possible restorable sandhill and advocate for its full restoration.
FWC Sandhill Restoration Map: https://friendsofsplitoak.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/SOFWEA_FWC_sandhill-restoration-sites.jpg
FWC Historic Vegetation Communities: https://friendsofsplitoak.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Historic-Vegetative-Communities.jpg
My thesis 1947 Land Cover Map: https://friendsofsplitoak.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/1947.png
To this end, I am embarking on a project to map all sandhill-associated plant and animal species and document their occurrence in Split Oak Forest. This will tie-in to Friends of Split Oak Forest's Fall 2018 BioBlitz planned for October 26-28.
This first area I'm focusing on is the sandhill area in the Osceola County part of Split Oak Forest.
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Fantastic! Valerie, your maps are a wonderful representation of the habitats on Split Oak Forest. I can't wait to initiate a small scale Velpar treatment this spring in an effort to restore the sandhill footprint. Chemically targeting large Q. oaks canopies adjacent to areas with LLP, wiregrass, and turkey oaks will be my priority areas.
Bryan
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