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Coastal
Cedar Hammock Ecosystem Restoration
By Dan Walton and Laurel Schiller |
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Longboat Key is a barrier
island lying off the Gulf Coast adjacent to Sarasota. During
the past 30 or 40 years the island has become heavily developed,
primarily with condominiums. In 1990, an application was made
to build a condominium, to be known as Water Club II,
that would occupy a portion of a cedar hammock, one of the
last natural sites on the island and the last relic coastal
cedar hammock left on the barrier islands south of Tampa Bay.
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Although this hammock
at one time covered more than 200 acres, it had been reduced
to only 2.5 acres by development. The village of Longboat
Key hired Dr. John Morrill, a faculty member in the biology
dept of USF New College, to study the hammock and the impact
of construction on the remaining few acres of hammock. In
addition, Dr. Morrill oversaw the removal of a variety of
exotics that had invaded the hammock.
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One of Dr. Morrill's
students, Richard Butgereit, wrote a detailed senior thesis
on the hammock titled, Restoration Ecology Applied to the
Preservation and Restoration of a Remnant Coastal Cedar Hammock,
Longboat Key. As a result of Dr. Morrill's recommendations,
the village required the developer to restore areas of the
hammock that had been disturbed by construction. These areas
included two construction roads and the site on which the
sales office was located. In 1999, as construction was coming
to an end, Dr. Morrill contacted Florida Native Plants, Inc
(FNP) about designing a restoration and installing the plants.
Laurel Schiller and Dan Walton of FNP ran transect lines near
the sites to be restored and determined the approximate composition
of the hammock in those areas. From these data they developed
planting plans for the three sites.
Mr. Tony Mione, a supervisor with the developer, ensured
that the road areas that had been raised in level were restored
to their original grades. The sales area was also graded to
its original level. The three areas, south road (7,000 ft²),
north road(15,000 ft²) and sales area (ca 25,000 ft²)
were planted by FNP in March 1999, December 1999, and October
2000, respectively.
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A total of 1750
plants were installed on the three sites which included all
of the trees and shrubs that had been observed in the hammock.
Also included were a few natives, which although not observed
on the site are found locally. Mr Mione had irrigation installed
prior to planting since the twelve-foot deep sand/shell substrate
was thought to be too porous to enable the larger plants to
survive.
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The sites were also
mulched after planting. The plants have been irrigated for
6 to 9 months after planting and those no longer being irrigated
seem to be holding their own with evidence of both growth
and reproduction.
The major difficulty in planting was breaking through the
shell surface where it had been compacted by heavy trucks
using the road. A power auger was used to prepare holes for
the larger plants, particularly. It was necessary to fertilize
these plants several months after planting since it was clear
that the plants were not able to obtain sufficient nutrients
from the substrate. The Water Club II condominium association
is now under contractual agreement with the Town of Longboat
Key for the maintenance of the hammock that will primarily
involve overseeing the elimination of any exotics that invade
the site as well as maintaining the irrigation on the newly
planted areas.
We believe that this project is a good example of how government,
developers, university faculty and a native plant nursery
can cooperate to restore a native area.
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