In this slide we see a protected gopher tortoise. These animals aren’t normally found in the islands but there are a few on larger islands. Maybe they were dropped off there by someone, who knows. In any case, they are not able to live under Australian pines. It prevents them from digging burrows and provides them no food. 

This is the six-lined racerunner, a once very abundant lizard on the barrier island. They prefer open habitat and are frequently seen on bare ground, using their running speed to avoid predators as they eat small insects. It’s completely eliminated by Australian pine. 

In the next slide we see something of a curiosity, a plant called whisk fern. Usually seen growing around the bases of cabbage palms these were until recently thought to be very primitive plants that had changed little since the Coal Age. They are now considered to be a type of true fern. They are eliminated by Australian pine. 

Next we see the erect prickly pear cactus, a listed species that helped justify the award of grant money to purchase the islands. Although it is locally abundant, its range is limited. It is severely limited by Australian pine.

The non-natives trees you’ve been reading about all have a serious limiting effect on the environment. They limit biological diversity, productivity, habitat structure, and various ecosystem process such as shoreline stabilization and the transfer of energy from terrestrial to aquatic/marine systems.. How can anyone want these pest plants around?

Restoration

When the Australian pine, Brazilian pepper, carrotwood, Melaleuca, and Schefflera are removed, what will the islands with upland dredge spoil areas look like? This is a great question. As seen below we have 35 years of ecological history to look back on to see which native species have naturally recruited in those areas where exotic invasive species have not prevented them from growing.

Some folks are worried that when the Australian pines are gone there will be nothing there but bare sand. No one need worry about this. In several areas with dredge spoil there is already a strong growth of laurel and live oaks (Quercus laurifolia and Q. virginiana respectively). 

Stand of naturally recruited oaks on dredge spoil, with person for scale.

Oak hammock on dredge spoil with good canopy coverage.

Together with red cedar, Florida privet, wax myrtle, sabal palm, palmetto, and the tropical hammock species, these oaks will provide a vastly superior habitat to the pines and peppers found on so many islands.

One issue some people have with restoration and removal of non-natives is the reliance by land managers on natural recruitment of plants, rather than planting. They also want to see some sort of trial areas to demonstrate how plants will grow back. EEL simply doesn’t have the personnel or budget to do this, but fortunately aerial photographs of Mosquito Control work done in the 1960’s show us how quickly native plants will recruit on bare sand when not out-competed by non-natives. Notice the well-developed mangrove edge in the bottom photo.

In this photo below from 1969, we see an area of the islands just west of Ramp Road. Notice all the white, which is bare sand on newly created dikes.

In the photo below, from the same area, taken during the summer of 1973, notice how the vegetation has completely covered the bare sand in the previous picture.

Just 4 years later and mangroves have densely colonized the edges and Australian pines have already invaded the central parts of the dikes.

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