Re: What's happening in Florida?

From: Carl Strohmenger (HSC) (cstrohme@com1.med.usf.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 01 1998 - 02:52:50 PDT


Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 05:52:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Carl Strohmenger (HSC)" <cstrohme@com1.med.usf.edu>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2197$foo@default>
Subject: Re: What's happening in Florida?

The forest fires in Florida have consumed over 160,000 acres. The fires are
scattered across the northeastern and central part of the
state (Jacksonville - Lake City - Orlando - Melbourne areas) as well as
some fires in other areas. Most of the damage has been to woodlands and
prairies that would normally be dry in the winter and somewhat wetter in
the summer (our normally wet season). The CPs in these areas are probably
limited to Drosera and Pinguicula species, and I would not expect them to
be adversely affected *in the long run*. They both re-seed profusely and
the open root space made available by the fires (in killing back other
types of plants) will probably result in more Drosera and Pinguicula plants
next year. Now, of course, everything in the burned areas is dead.

Utricularia and Sarracenia species also occur in these areas in normally
wet to moist areas which are now moist to dry. But I don't think that the
swamps and bogs are too badly affected by the fires.

I am located in west central Florida and have not seen any fire activity in
my weekend excursions, except for the results of controlled burns done a
while ago as part of routine land management procedures. These controlled
burns almost always result in an increase of CPs (Drosera and Pinguicula)
in the following year or two.

Someone from the Jacksonville or Orlando area may be able to better address
conditions on the ground in their areas.

- Carl in Tampa, Florida.

On Wed, 1 Jul 1998, Nigel Hurneyman wrote:

> The football world cup hysteria means that news about the Florida
> forest fires has been extremely limited from the UK news media. Can
> any natives give a summary of the impact, particularly for CPs?
>
> Thanks, NigelH
>
>
>



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:33 PST