Feature BiodiversityBiodiversity Hotspot: Hotspot: TheThe Panhandle

Conservation in the Florida Panhandle, one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in North America, improves through major restoration efforts and new partnerships.

R I C H A R D J . B L A U S T E I N

The is one place where ivory-billed woodpeckers have reputedly been sighted. Though the river is in comparatively good condition, a recent report by the Nature Conservancy describes the main threats to panhandle river biodiversity, from greatest to least: dams and water management and use, agricultural and effluents, roads and railroads, housing and urban areas, and invasive species. Photograph: Marguerite Foxon.

The reported recent sightings of the rich biodiversity of the Choctawhatchee searched for the ivory-billed woodpecker, ivory-billed woodpecker in the River. The focus on the Florida Panhan- has underscored the environmental con- Florida Panhandle spotlighted not only dle, one of two locales (the Big Woods text for species survival.As a free-flowing the reputedly extinct bird but also the area of Arkansas is the other) being river through protected, successional

784 BioScience • October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 www.biosciencemag.org Feature forests, the Choctawhatchee River fig- ures large in the possible survival of this E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center iconic North American bird. The Florida Panhandle, considered In May 2008 the E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center formally broke ground at its Nokuse one of the five richest biodiversity Plantation site in the western panhandle. Named after Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, hotspots in North America, has been the who spent much of his youth in the Florida Panhandle and in nearby eastern , center of regional and national attention the center is scheduled to open in fall 2009. Local businessman and conservationist for reasons other than the ivory-bill. M. C. Davis is the driving force behind both the Nokuse Plantation and the E. O. Prominent developments in the pan- Wilson Biophilia Center. He says the center will make use of the natural setting of the 48,000-acre Nokuse Plantation to “give children an opportunity to learn and then to handle include the ongoing disagree- love nature.”After completing the program, he expects, each one will be “at least a little ment between , Alabama, and bit of a naturalist.” Florida over diversion of waters in the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River The center’s director, Christy Scally, is already consulting with local school districts. She system, which affects the biodiversity and explains that the Biophilia Center will have multifaceted programs demonstrating the commercial fisheries of Apalachicola Bay; importance of a balanced ecosystem. The programs will include discovery trails, interactive exhibits, curricular materials in line with Florida’s state science standards, the establishment of the Northwest and a theater for showing science films and presentations from noted scientists and Florida Greenway, a protected corridor environmentalists. through the panhandle; the recent iden- tification of a second species of the rare The Nokuse Plantation, with its major longleaf-pine restoration program, is flatwoods salamander; and the ground- representative of the larger conservation effort in the Florida Panhandle and has breaking for the E. O. Wilson Biophilia linkages to the million-acre Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem Partnership and the prospective Northwest Florida Greenway. Ecologist Matt Aresco, director of Nokuse Center, expected to open in the fall of Plantation, points out that Nokuse comprises a diversity of habitat types that were 2009. These join the ongoing recovery originally found in the region. “Much of the area has been impacted by silviculture and efforts in the panhandle for species such agriculture,” he says, “but all the pieces are there for restoration.” The goal at Nokuse is as the red-cockaded woodpecker and the to restore natural communities to their pre-European settlement conditions, which Okaloosa darter at , means a reemergent longleaf-pine dominance. Other habitats include herbaceous in the western panhandle, and substan- seepage bogs and blackwater streams. tial longleaf pine– restoration, Some of the state and federally listed rare species found there are the gopher tortoise, which makes use of refined fire applica- pine snake, and Cooley’s meadow rue. Aresco has been directing Nokuse’s gopher tions. tortoise rescue effort, which is the largest in the state, involving about 1500 gopher Deborah Keller, senior policy repre- tortoises. The aim, Aresco says, is “to save gopher tortoises from development and sentative at the Nature Conservancy reestablish gopher tortoise populations on land where they were historically (TNC), clarifies why the panhandle is a overharvested by humans.” biodiversity hotspot:“Its rivers run clean; Education and conservation objectives are intertwined at Nokuse Plantation and its coastal estuaries and forests are pro- the E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center. The education component is as important as land ductive. It has changed more slowly than acquisition, Aresco says. The public needs to know why land is being acquired and peninsular Florida, so species and natural what might be lost, in terms of natural communities, if property isn’t protected. ecosystems have survived.” Although political choices and economic develop- Davis says Nokuse Plantation is his effort “to save biodiversity on the ment pose pressing challenges for the largest scale personally possible.” area, the Florida Panhandle is a biologi- Much of the species loss is caused cal wonder that presents scientific, pub- by our ignorance, he says, and the lic policy, and educational questions. only cure is knowledge, which is gained most efficiently through Natural history formal education. E. O. Wilson has Ecologist Bruce Means, founder and not only shared his name with the executive director of the Coastal Plains center but, through his research Institute and Land Conservancy in Tal- and writing, has inspired people all lahassee and adjunct professor at Florida over the world. Wilson’s writings, State University, has been involved in says Davis, “were the catalyst that caused my own dedication to conservation in the panhandle for more conservation.” than 40 years. He points out that no area Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson (right) spent much of his youth in of its size in the or Canada the panhandle and in nearby Mobile, Alabama. Also pictured are has more species of frogs (27) or snakes M. C. Davis (center), Nokuse Plantation’s developer, and Matt (42),and it ranks about third in the world Aresco (left), Nokuse’s director. Photograph: Margaret Gunzburger. for turtle species (18). The diversity of www.biosciencemag.org October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 • BioScience 785 Feature

large rivers builds extensive barrier beaches with endemic subspecies of beach mice among the fauna.Tothe east,” she continues, “shallow water for miles offshore dampens waves and allows huge salt marshes and seagrass meadows to stretch for miles.” Its denizens include attention-getting manatees, bald eagles, and sea turtles, but also tarpon, grouper, pink shrimp, and “all the thousands of smaller marine species that support the larger headliners.” The flatwoods salamander is a noted example of the species diversity and endemism Florida’s , which extends be- of the panhandle. Hundreds of thousands of salamanders and frogs emerge every yond the panhandle all the way south to year from small, temporary ponds and migrate into the longleaf forests, Bruce the Withlacoochee River, has one of the Means says. They transport nutrients upslope from their natal pond, they feed on a largest seagrass beds areas in the world host of invertebrates, and their bodies are abundant food for predators. and is encompassed almost entirely by Photograph: D. Bruce Means. publicly owned lands. Marine ecosys- tems are more diverse at the phylum and salamanders (28 species), birds (approx- The Gulf Coast of the panhandle is class levels than terrestrial ecosystems, imately 300 species), and plants (more also uniquely varied, with the most bio- explains Rudloe, “for the simple reason than 2500 species) is also very high.“All diversity in the eastern Big Bend, where that most biological lineages are marine this is a reflection of the high habitat di- seagrass meadows thrive. Marine biolo- and never became established on land.” versity of the Florida Panhandle,”Means gist Anne Rudloe, managing director of Like coral reefs, seagrass beds are espe- says. the Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory cially rich because they combine abun- Steve Herrington, a senior aquatic in Panacea, Florida, says the Florida Pan- dant food and shelter with a relatively ecologist for TNC, explains that the nat- handle has one of the most biologically stable physical environment.“The result ural Panhandle rivers diverse coasts in the continental United is an underwater meadow teeming with is linked to changes in sea level.“Unlike States.“Tothe west, the wave energy cre- life.” peninsular Florida,”he says,“panhandle ated by deep water close to shore and rivers remained connected to mainland Longleaf-pine savannas North America throughout the Pleis- The panhandle has many rich and dra- tocene Epoch” (1.8 million to 12,000 matic habitats.For example,seepage bogs years ago), providing a refuge whenever contain colorful arrays of carnivorous the sea level rose. The plants in communities that rival rain has the most remarkable biodiversity of forests in diversity, with more than 50 the large rivers of the panhandle, “sup- species of plants per square meter, by porting more primary freshwater fish some estimates. The panhandle’s steep- [more than 90 species], mussels [more head ravines, small canyons formed by than 30 species], and reptile and am- spring water, are also known for their phibian species than the other rivers.” endemism.However,it is the the longleaf- Although less diverse, other panhandle pine habitat that is the most extensive river systems contain numerous endemic and broadly supportive habitat for which species, as well. Yet the hotspot for the panhandle is best known. biodiversity is the Apalachicola, where “Longleaf-pine ecosystems may be notable species include Apalachicola North America’s least appreciated re- rosemary,Florida torreya trees, fat three- ridge mussels, Say’s spiketail dragon- Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas, top), along with manatees, are the dominant flies, fireback crayfish, shoal bass, and large herbivores in the panhandle’s seagrass habitat. Their populations were Apalachicola dusky salamanders. “The decimated by centuries of overharvesting, says Anne Rudloe, of the Gulf Specimen reason for this high diversity and en- Marine Laboratory, so the ecosysytem today is probably significantly different from demism,” Herrington says, “is strongly what it was when they were more common. The pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus related to historical biogeographical pat- duorarum, bottom), which supports the most valuable fishery in the Gulf of terns of colonization and recoloniza- Mexico, uses seagrass as its juvenile habitat. Without seagrasses, Rudloe says, there tion during the Pleistocene Epoch until would be no pink shrimp. Photograph courtesy of Gulf Specimen Marine present day.” Laboratory, Panacea, Florida.

786 BioScience • October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 www.biosciencemag.org Feature

The Florida Panhandle contains vital remnants of old growth and regrown longleaf-pine habitat, which once covered over 60 percent of southeastern land from Virginia to Texas. “The vast majority of the diversity in southern pine forests occurs from the knees down,” says David Printiss. “At least 40 plant species have been documented per square meter.” Photograph: D. Bruce Means. positories of biodiversity,” Means ex- maintained by frequent fire,many animal springs, and Apalachicola Bay, which is, plains. Longleaf-pine habitats once ac- and plant species evolved in this fire- Herrington observes,“arguably the most counted for 60 percent of the landscape, dependent ecosystem and are found biologically productive bay in the North- spanning a 2000-mile swath of land from nowhere else.” ern Hemisphere.”Drought and upstream Virginia to Texas, but now they are re- In fact, fire is central to longleaf- water diversions have had a major impact duced to less than 2 percent of their orig- pine habitat, facilitating faunal and on the bay, and as with all panhandle inal expanse. What remains is protected floral succession and clearing out less habitats, its future depends on public on publicly owned lands of the Florida biodiversity-supportive hardwoods. policy, development agendas, and con- Panhandle: Eglin Air Force Base, Apa- Restoration ecologist David Printiss, servation and restoration efforts. lachicola National Forest, Blackwater director of TNC’s Northwest Florida pro- River State Forest, St. Marks National gram, which includes Apalachicola Bluffs 21st century conservation: Wildlife Refuge, and state parks. Most and Ravines Preserve, says that for south- Restoration, partnerships, old-growth longleaf-pine timber was ern pine forests, and not just long-leaf and policy removed between 1880 and 1930; what pine, “the most important ecological Restoration of longleaf-pine habitat is longleaf acreage is left is second growth. process by far is fire.”It is carried across making great strides, in terms of both “An ancient plant community with the landscape by a blanket of grassy scientific advances and major commit- origins in the Miocene,” Means says, ground cover, and although pine trees ments (see the box on p. 785). Printiss’s “longleaf-pine savannas support up to do play an integral part,the ground cover, restoration work at Apalachicola Bluffs 150 species of plants per hectare. Such dominated by Aristida stricta, defines it. and Ravines Preserve emphasizes the ap- plant species richness is mirrored in The red-cockaded woodpecker and other plication of prescribed fire. To address animal life. Of 212 resident species of rare fire-dependent species,Furman adds, habitat damage from mid-20th-century vertebrate animals, 38 are specialists such as the gopher tortoise and indigo timber harvesting, which noticeably occurring exclusively or primarily in snake, thrive in the open savannalike uprooted the forest floor as part of site longleaf-pine savannahs.” Adds James forests that frequent fires produce. preparation, his program focused early Furman, wildland fire program manager Among the panhandle’s other bio- on the need to restore wiregrass, the crit- at Eglin Air Force Base:“With predomi- diverse habitats are the Apalachicola Low- ical ground cover. It was not known nantly open, park-like stands that were lands biotic region, the many natural how wiregrass reproduced before the www.biosciencemag.org October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 • BioScience 787 Feature

Fire has always been integral to the longleaf-pine habitat; the unique species assemblage of longleaf-pine areas evolved in the context of recurrent fires. Lightning strikes were once the most common cause, but Native Americans also instigated fires for hunting, land clearing, and pest control. Today, prescribed fire is necessary for maintaining the remaining and restored longleaf-pine habitat. Photograph: D. Bruce Means.

late 1980s, but his research has since Partnerships play a large role in con- of the endangered species’habitat, Seiber shown (a) how to stimulate flowering by servation at Eglin. Steve Seiber, chief of explains. The fish live in only six small growing-season fire, (b) when to collect natural resources at the base, says that streams, and the main threat has been the seed, and (c) how to successfully without them,the principles of ecosystem sedimentation from borrow pits (exca- propagate the seed for both sowing in management and biodiversity conserva- vated holes) and from nonpoint sources, the nursery and direct seeding in restora- tion at Eglin could not have been devel- such as roadways and rights-of-way.From tion sites. “Through the continued re- oped. From workshops with military test 1994 to 2007, he says, a total of 324 sites finement of techniques and equipment,” and training range planners to TNC’s totaling 495 acres have been rehabilitated he says, “we have reduced ground cover site conservation planning process, part- and maintained. As a result of Eglin’s restoration costs from over $10,000 per ners have played a vital role in improving restoration efforts, the US Fish and acre to hundreds of dollars per acre.” the natural resources management of Wildlife Service is proposing downlisting Eglin Air Force Base, whose 464,000 the base. Keller, who leads TNC’s work the Okaloosa darter from endangered to acres are a prime focus of panhandle at Eglin, says the Northwest Florida– threatened. conservation, is comparable in size to Conservancy–military partnership works Thered-cockadedwoodpecker(Picoides Rhode Island; 11 federally listed threat- well because all members embrace the borealis) is perhaps the most famous ened and endangered species persist long-term benefits of protecting a healthy species drawing attention to Eglin. The there. “Eglin Air Force Base,” Furman ecosystem.“It is truly a win-win arrange- woodpecker constructs its highly crafted says,“includes the largest remaining long- ment,” she says. The protection plan for nest in the older longleaf-pine trees found leaf-pine forest under single ownership, high-priority conservation areas that is in at Eglin, as these trees are prone to the as well as the largest tract of old-growth place in the panhandle preserves the heart rot fungus that makes the tree longleaf-pine forest, making it extremely ecosystem services for wildlife and human amenable to deep nest excavation. “We important from a conservation stand- populations, as well as provides a buffer have been implementing a comprehen- point.” The base made taxonomic news between residential areas and military sive management program for the red- in 2007 when a new species of flatwoods operations and training missions. cockaded woodpecker on Eglin for salamander at Eglin (Ambystoma bish- The entire population of Okaloosa 18 years and have made great strides opi) was identified, distinguishing it from darter (Etheostoma okaloosae) is endemic towards the recovery of the species,” its sister species (Ambystoma cingula- to the Florida Panhandle, and Eglin has explains Bruce Hagerdon, wildlife pro- tum) east of the Apalachicola River. management responsibility for 95 percent gram manager at Eglin. Starting from an

788 BioScience • October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 www.biosciencemag.org Feature estimated 184 potential breeding groups in 1994 to the latest, but still unofficial, 2008 count of 335 groups,“we have doc- umented what I think is an impressive 55 percent increase in our population,” he says. The recovery goal, as established in the species recovery plan, is 350 potential breeding groups. Hagerdon credits their recovery to artificial cavity/nest drilling and translocation of juvenile birds, as well as to good ecosystem management. Conservation efforts in the panhandle owe a great deal to existing government support and overarching initiatives. For example, notwithstanding significant en- vironmental problems, such as invasive species and agricultural waste in some lo- cations,“The overall status of panhandle rivers is generally good,”Herrington says, owing much to the relatively low human population density of the panhandle. The State of Florida, particularly in the past 15 years, has been purchasing lands to protect and restore natural areas for conservation purposes. The federal gov- Located alongside fire-replenished areas of longleaf pine, seepage bogs are ernment has also been protecting large exceptionally diverse. These water-permeated habitats contain colorful areas. The result, he says, is “a compara- carnivorous plants, including 6 species of butterworts, 12 species of bladderworts, tively extensive amount of land protec- and 6 species of pitcher plants. These plants, which have been around for tion [that] helps protect riverine resources millions of years, devour insects that become trapped in their intricate from problems resulting from develop- and alluring flowers. Photograph: D. Bruce Means. ment and human land practices.” The purchasing of land for conserva- tion is often a part of the popular Florida Forever program,which received funding in May 2008 for the fiscal year, notwith- standing a budgetary crisis, and which was extended until 2020 by the state leg- islature. Yet the most ambitious initiative is the Northwest Florida Greenway,which is a plan for an extended biodiversity corridor linking Eglin Air Force Base and the Apalachicola National Forest 100 miles to the east, and which sprang from a cooperative understanding among var- ious state and federal offices, TNC, and others. The proposed greenway from Apalachicola to Eglin Air Force Base, Keller says, will create a corridor of wilderness and conservation lands that stretches from Florida’s Big Bend to Alabama. These lands harbor species, The biodiversity and endemism of steephead ravines are accentuated by the unique protect future water resources, provide progression of plant life down the steep slopes. Steepheads are small canyons, Bruce storm buffers, and allow ecological adap- Means explains, formed by the sapping action of springwater emerging from the toe tations to shifts in sea level and rainfall, of sandy slopes. Over time, the slopes migrated headward as was removed, she explains, “and they are the places of creating the “steep heads.” Steephead springwater is buffered thermally and our cultural and natural heritage.” chemically, making a very stable wetland habitat. Photograph: D. Bruce Means. www.biosciencemag.org October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 • BioScience 789 Feature

concern as to whether development forces For more information, visit these sites: can be kept in balance.At the same time, www.nature.org/florida conservation and education efforts are a www.eowilsoncenter.org substantial influence in the panhandle. www.cooperativeconservationamerica.org/viewproject.asp?pid=544 The elusive ivory-billed woodpecker is www.coastalplains.org perhaps emblematic of biodiversity in www.gulfspecimen.org the panhandle, Keller reflects, in that “it www.auburn.edu/academic/science_math/cosam/departments/biology/ faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/index.html evokes the hope and the promise that nature, given the opportunity to survive, can and often will.”In a place where rivers The future agendas will interface remains to be seen run fresh and forests cycle naturally,long- As the greenway plan moves forward, in the time ahead. lost treasures like the ivory-billed wood- other efforts for major highway exten- Significant business, development, pecker or longleaf-pine habitats may yet sions across the panhandle are being and environmental pressures weigh on be recovered. advanced by a different group of stake- the future of the Florida Panhandle and holders. This extension plan raises con- its natural springs, seagrass meadows, Richard J. Blaustein (e-mail: cerns about undercutting the scope of estuaries, and forest savannas. The di- [email protected]) is an the greenway and undermining sensitive minished productivity of Apalachicola environmental lawyer and freelance species recoveries. Even though the Bay, the invasive species and nutrient writer based in Washington, DC. Northwest Florida Greenway is viewed as problems at Wakulla Springs, and de- a serious Florida initiative, with bearing velopment threats to seagrass beds, to doi:10.1641/B580904 for the future, how these contravening name a few difficulties, are causing some Include this information when citing this material.

l.AJTECHNO r((1JDDD

New from Meiji Techno Designed with Meiji's ICOS Infinity Corrected Optical System - the new TC Series of Inverted Microscopes by Meiji Techno incorporates world class optics in a cost effective platform offering a Available higher standard in specimen Observation Modes observation. • Brightfie/d With a host of new features • Phase Contrast •~•ilai and options, the TC Series • Epi-Fluorescence Jil makes cell checking faster, clearer and easier than ever before. Ask your Meiji dealer for a demonstration today !

www.meijitechno.com Meiji Techno America 3010 Olcott St., Santa Clara, CA 95054-3207 1-800-832-0060 toll free or visit us on the web at: www.meijitechno.com

790 BioScience • October 2008 / Vol. 58 No. 9 www.biosciencemag.org