Manatee County officials call prescribed burns necessary to maintaining habitats
MANATEE -- Standing atop Robinson Preserve's observation tower, Mike Elswick watched ibis and other wildlife return to an area where the county conducted a prescribed fire just 72 hours before.
Manatee County's natural resources division, which Elswick manages, burned the 16 acres at Robinson Preserve as a land management technique. But Monday's fire also claimed the life of a gopher tortoise, which county officials say had been released in the preserve by a visitor prior to the fire.
"This area holds a lot of water and it is not suitable for gopher tortoises," Elswick said. "I stand by action of staff 100 percent. They didn't make a mistake. This isn't the kind of place tortoises would seek out to live."
Since it isn't a habitat for the gopher tortoise, the tortoise didn't have a refuge to go into and hide from the burn, Elswick said.
"Unlike birds and rabbits that simply fly away or run away, the gopher tortoise relies on burrows to get into to hide," he said.
The prescribed burn at Robinson Preserve was done "to reduce the buildup of hazardous fuels and promote the growth flowering and seed set of native grasses and wildflowers," Elswick said.
After the death of the gopher tortoise, which is considered as threatened by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the agency conducted an investigation, which found that the county didn't do anything wrong. Elswick said, adding that FWC recognizes this area of Robinson Preserve is not a suitable habitat for gopher tortoises.
"We just made sure the county did everything they should do when do prescribed burns," FWC investigator Bob O'Horo said. "There is no violation there. In the end, prescribed burning is absolutely necessary for gopher tortoises and other species. In the end, it is a helpful process."
This was the first time this area of Robinson Preserve was burned, according to the county.
"The main reason you haven't seen them at Robinson before is that it hasn't been ready," said Damon Moore, the county's environmental program manager. "It is just now starting to mature to that point where it can start to really be that habitat and be fire resistant."
More prescribed burns planned
While Manatee County has already completed burns at a few preserves this year, including Perico Preserve, which opens Saturday, the county has only completed less than 10 percent of the expected 6,000 acres that will be burned this year, Elswick said. Prescribed fires are still planned for locations including Emerson Point Preserve. Rye Preserve, Duette Preserve and Pine Island.
"Things are going well," Elswick said. "We got Perico done. We got that (Robinson Preserve) done. We got a burn done in Rye. We are returning fire to places where we haven't been."
With the first lightning strikes around this time of year, the summer months are the ideal time for the prescribed burns, Elswick said. The county has been doing prescribed burns since the 1980s but has begun to expand the list of sites burned as the county gets some new habitats.
"In order to mimic the natural cycle of fire, we selected a timeframe when naturally ignited lightning strikes would have taken place so starting now until June, July, August is when the majority of native habitats in Florida are burned," he said.
Before the county can conduct a prescribed fire, the Florida Forest Service must first issue a permit.
A little more than two weeks after the 23-acre Perico Preserve burn, it is already green and now Robinson Preserve is in the recovery phase.
"It is like a prescription a doctor gives," Elswick said. "It is medicine for the marsh."
Benefits of prescribed fire
Without prescribed fires, the habitat would begin to return to generalized species such as ones found in people's yards.
"One of the absolutely great things about doing these projects on the west side of the county here is that we see a response from the wildlife already," Moore said. "Even in these smaller areas where we are doing this restoration, where we achieve this diversity of plants from the bottom of the food chain up, we work hard to build that strong foundation with diversity of plants, which attracts the diversity of animals and insects."
The absence of prescribed fires from these preserves would "cut huge holes in this tapestry of life out here," Elswick said.
"We would reduce biodiversity tremendously because we have fire dependent species," he said. "We would be left with the handful that can tolerate no fire and can persist when there isn't that regular disturbance."
The habitat would turn into "a less productive, low diversity, low wildlife habitat," Moore added.
"Being a preserve our aim is for high quality habitat to benefit as many plants, animals and people that want to come out," he said.
Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.
This story was originally published May 7, 2016 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Manatee County officials call prescribed burns necessary to maintaining habitats ."