# Minutes

# June 15, 2005 Pine Rockland Working Group Meeting

24 participants in attendance from TNC, IRC, Ecostudies Institute,
Everglades NP, FIU, SERC, Miami-Dade DERM, Miami-Dade Parks NAM, USGS,
USFS, Fairchild TBG, Turnpike/FDOT, FWC, SFWMD and Big Cypress NP

**[1:30 -- 2:30 Committee Updates and Discussion]{.underline}**

[Outreach Committee]{.underline} met on Feb. 15 and morning of June 15.
The committee is completing review of existing pamphlets, videos and
other outreach materials. They are shooting to have a press package
prepared for October 2005 which is "Fire Prevention Month" in Florida.
They are also working up an outreach package for decision makers that
will include the basics of what pine rocklands are, why fire is
important and some info on the costs of burning compared to not burning.
The existing Miami-Dade pine rockland display will be moved around among
Adopt-a-Tree sites. A smaller, more portable display is under
development. Last spring, Everglades, DOF and Miami-Dade staff hosted a
fire education booth at the youth fair and they will probably do so
again in the future.

Discussion of adding info to the PRWG website (hosted by USGS) resulted
in recommendations to add the Bahamas Fire Assessment .pdf and the pine
rockland section of the USFWS Multi-Species Recovery Plan. Other
relevant documents are welcome. Contact Jim Snyder for placement. Names
and contact info for PRWG chair and committee chairs will be added to
facilitate communications. PRWG participant logos can also be easily
added if agencies and organizations send them to Jim.

[Science Committee]{.underline} met on the morning of June 15. The focus
of the group is currently to develop a recommended minimum monitoring
standard for all pine rocklands. Rick Anderson from Everglades NP
described the park's old (1999-2004) and new (2005) monitoring schemes
which are adaptations of the NPS standard protocol. The new method
relies on replicable, rigorous photo-monitoring and NPS Fire Management
Handbook guidelines for standard brush and forest plots. Copies of the
procedure are available from Rick Anderson, Jim Snyder or Chris Bergh.

The committee will develop monitoring recommendations using a
hierarchical approach (i.e. with a minimum recommended standard and
options for more detailed monitoring). A "menu" of generic methods for
monitoring special interest species or features (e.g. herbaceous
diversity in general, a rare herb in particular, cavity nest trees, etc)
may be developed.

Recommendations for "Implementation Monitoring" (i.e. day of burn flame
length, fire spread rate, etc.) will also be developed.

The importance of data archiving, organization and accessibility was
stressed.

No headway has been made on refining the initial list of research
priorities or developing the list of funding sources. The original
priority list was still considered valid, and wildlife, fire history,
fuel mapping and effects of fire history on genetic diversity were noted
additions.

The Science Committee will also work toward development of an ecological
model for the pine rockland community. See "[Conceptual Models of Fire
in the 2050 Greater Everglades"]{.underline} below.

[Organizational Committee]{.underline} has not met. Keith Bradley from
IRC offered to take over the chairmanship of this committee in hopes of
catalyzing resource sharing and collaboration. It was noted again that
the National Fire Plan's evolving system of federal resource sharing is
likely to force federal players to work more efficiently together and
that state, local government and private groups may be well served to
get on board if at all possible.

[Symposium Committee]{.underline} made some progress via email and
during the morning of June 15. The symposium will be in February 2006 at
FIU's main campus in Miami. A day of field trips (possibly including the
Deering Estate, a private pine rockland site that IRC is working on and
Everglades National Park) will take place on a Wednesday. The following
Thursday will be a full day of presentations followed by an evening
poster session/social. And on Friday morning more presentations will be
given. Friday afternoon will be set aside for travel to the Bahamas (see
below). The two potential time windows for this event are Feb. 8-10 and
Feb. 22-24, 2005. Please let Sonya Thompson and Chris Bergh know if you
have any preferences by July 13. A final decision on dates will be made
based on preferences and availability of a meeting room at FIU.

Joe O'Brien may have some travel funding to support participation in the
symposium. TNC can provide up to \$1000 for the symposium. SERC can
provide up to \$1,000 for food and conference space at FIU. Everglades
may be able to contribute something as well. A firm commitment of at
least \$1000 will be needed to pull off the U.S. portion of the
symposium.

The Bahamas leg of the symposium will involve a trip to Abaco for field
trips and development/review of the fire management plan for southern
Abaco and the Abaco National Park. All costs will be up to the
individual, their agency or company. Chris Bergh will work with Bahamian
contacts to identify an overall cost for airfare, room, board and ground
transportation. \$750 is a rough estimate for a trip departing Friday
afternoon and return to the U.S. the following Monday morning. This
would be Feb. 10-13 or 24-27. If you hope to participate in the Bahamas
trip, consider these dates in conjunction with the Miami dates above and
get back to Sonya and Chris with your preferences by July 13.

**[2:30 -- 4:00 Presentations and Discussion]{.underline}**

[A Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy]{.underline} for all
wildlife in the State of Florida is under development by FWC. Rather
than plan for the 1000+ individual species, a habitat approach is being
used and pine rockland is one of the habitats. The group discussed the
draft summary of pine rocklands in the Strategy with the intent of
providing comment but the comment period has expired. The main problems
in the summary were a very low acreage estimate (2,959 acres) and lack
of migratory species in the "associated species" list.

[The University of Miami is Pushing to Develop the Richmond Pine
Rockland Tract]{.underline} near Miami Metrozoo in an effort to add
money for their endowment. The plan is to develop part of the property
with 1200 homes and associated retail, office space, etc. This is the
largest pine rockland tract on the mainland outside of Everglades. This
link will provide more facts --

http://www.tropicalaudubon.org/conservation_archive.html#pineland

Dade County commissioners can be contacted with your comments on this
project at the following emails, and UM's decision makers may be
susceptible to public input as well --

District1@miamidade.gov; District2@miamidade.gov;
District3@miamidade.gov;

\>district4@miamidade.gov; district5@miamidade.gov;
district6@miamidade.gov;

\>district7@miamidade.gov; district8@miamidade.gov;
district9@miamidade.gov;

\>district10@miamidade.gov; district11@miamidade.gov;

\>district12@miamidade.gov; district13@miamidade.gov

[Pine Rockland Best Management Practices]{.underline} -- Dr. Joe O'Brien
from the U.S. Forest Service is leading this BMP assessment for the
Joint Fire Science Program. He wants input on... "Hazardous fuels
management in pine rocklands: What is the scale of the problem, what are
the treatment needs, and what techniques do you use for reducing fuel
loads?" Treatments under consideration include; fire, mechanical
(chopping, etc.), chemical (herbicides), biological (goats and such),
and other (hand clearing, etc.). Combined treatments will also be
considered. Fuel treatment choices will be evaluated in light of social
values, aesthetics, economics, politics and environmental concerns. The
project should be complete in 18 months and a General Technical Report
will publish the results.

Joe will be developing an online survey and a paper survey to gather
input. He will also conduct interviews and may conduct a workshop on
this topic during the February PRWG symposium or separately. PRWG
members are obviously central to this effort so please participate when
the time comes.

[Prescribed Fire Training, Demonstration and Research Project in the
Bahamas]{.underline} - Chris Bergh provided a brief update on the
Bahamas effort including plans for a second training and research

burn on Abaco during July 2005, development of a fire management plan
for the Abaco National Park over the coming year and convening a
national "fire summit" to build governmental and private sector support
for fire management in the country. Research is being led by Joe O'Brien
and Mac Callaham of the USFS. Major Bahamian partners include the
Bahamas National Trust, Friends of the Environment, Andros Conservancy
and Trust, Royal Bahamas Police Force-Fire Service and other government
agencies.

"[Conceptual Models of Fire in the 2050 Greater Everglades"]{.underline}
-- Dr. Mike Duever with the SFWMD presented the model, its assumptions
and outputs and solicited feedback from the PRWG on its applicability to
pine rocklands. Mike pointed out the fact that Everglades restoration is
hydrology-centric for obvious reasons but that restoration goals may not
be achieved if fire regime and alien species dominance are not addressed
as well. He noted that the overriding impression that the S. Florida
Fire Council's members give of their collective ability to accomplish
fire goals is, "continually falling behind."

The South Florida regional model is well developed and vetted. It
focuses on the intersection of hydroperiod and fire return interval as
the dominant feature of creation and maintenance of vegetation
communities (e.g. permanent lakes with no fire on one end of the
spectrum and high, dry scrub with 20-80 year fire return on the other
and everything in between). The goal is to now move this type of
modeling into a more site specific approach that helps to identify
problems with a site' s fire regime(s) and a strategy or combination of
strategies for assuring the appropriate role of fire in a given system.

Mike is willing to help guide the development of a site specific model
and strategy for the pine rockland. The Science Committee will add this
to its goals.

The Next PRWG meeting will be Dec. 8, 2005.