Lake Wales Ridge, central Florida,
BIBLIOGRAPHY

compiled by
Fred E. Lohrer, Archbold Biological Station  send e-mail
October 1998, last revision 15 June 2004

No bibliography is ever complete. Please send your corrections, additions, or comments to the compiler. Thank you.

Videos

"Islands in Time," a 20-minute video about Lake Wales Ridge ecology and conservation, was produced in 1991 by Archbold Biological Station.

Web sites -- (Since I started this bibliography in 1998, almost all of the Web sites listed here have changed their internal structure, or file names, several times, and probably will continue to change, faster than I can remember to check these links. Therefore, I would be grateful if users of this bibliography would let me know if they ever get a broken link. Thank you. Fred Lohrer.)

INTRODUCTION TO THE RIDGE

"Florida's Ancient Islands." This 16-page booklet about the Lake Wales Ridge was published in 1998 by the Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem Working Group with Tricia Martin as editor and lead writer. It was published on this Web site in November 1999 by Archbold Biological Station. A list of endangered/threatened species of the Ridge, with links to internet images, was published in August 2000.

Centres of Plant Diversity: Volume 3, The Americas. This global Web site from the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Systematic Biology - Botany, includes a good overview of the Central Highlands of Florida by Richard P. Wunderlin.

National Public Radio, Radio Expeditions, The Lake Wales Ridge, "Florida's Attic." Broadcast on 22 December 2003.

ORGANIZATIONS & VOLUNTEERS

Lake Wales Ride Ecosystem Working Group, founded in 1991. A consortium of government agencies and private organizations cooperate for regional conservation, land management, and education goals.

Ridge Rangers is a volunteer network coordinated by Tricia Martin, Lake Wales Regional Office (telephone 863-678-1551), Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. The Ridge Rangers work on a diverse array of projects for the preserves on the Lake Wales Ridge.

SCRUB INFORMATION

FLORIDATA From their welcome page, go to "The Florida Scrub" pages for the best Web presentation about Florida’s scrub written by recognized scrub expert, and one of Florida’s best field biologists, Dr. Steve Christman. This is accurate and authoritative text about scrub ecology, scrub plants and animals, and scrub conservation issues, and all illustrated with Steve’s excellent photos.

Florida Natural History Information. The Web site of the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, masterminded by Dr. Wayne King, is the best gateway to Web information about all of Florida’s natural resources, and it has links to most of the sites mentioned in this list.

Wild Florida; Living Treasures of the Florida Scrub. This is an out-of-print 1990 poster published by the (then) Nongame Wildlife Division of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. Now, most of the text and some of the illustrations from that poster, are available from the (re-named) Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's information-rich Web site.

ENDANGERED SPECIES

Endangered, Threatened, or Rare Species of the Lake Wales Ridge; a list with links to images at other Web sites. Also includes a brief overview and  official status codes.

US Fish & Wildlife Service This is an always-changing,  complex Web site but at the end of the hunt you will find full-text species accounts. From the column on the left of the welcome screen select "Endangered Species," and be transferred to their "Endangered Species Welcome Page." This is a complex page with links to individual species accounts or to an alphabetical list of Florida’s 111 endangered species including species of the Lake Wales Ridge. Click on the scientific name, and then "Learn More" and "Species Account" to find the text of any existing species recovery plan. There may be other information of interest in this USFWS Web site.

"Florida's Endangered Species; A List of Names and Status." Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (formerly Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission) official list of species, on either the Federal or State list, compiled all these years by Don Wood and published in numerous paper editions, is now on the Web. This site is an important "spell-check" and reference for anyone developing their own regional list of endangered species.

HABITATS

The Florida Native Plant Society Web site has a section, "Natural Communities" with a good introduction to all of Florida's plant communities (from the FNPS home page select; Florida Native Plants > Ecosystem Components > Natural Communities. If you do not have access to "Ecosystems of Florida," this Natural Communities section will be useful.

CONSERVATION

The Florida Chapter of The Nature Conservancy is a leader in scrub conservation with their strong land acquisition program, and with their LWR Program office (155 Pfundstein Rd., Babson Park, FL 33827. 863-635-7506) at their Tiger Creek Preserve near Lake Wales. Land preservation and management on the Lake Wales Ridge is just one of many regional foci of the busy and very successful Florida Chapter.

PRESERVES

Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge. This is a brief Web page of general information about the relatively new LWR NWR. Also, see the LWR NWR Fact Sheet and the LWR NWR Profile Page. The headquarters for the LWR NWR is at Merritt Island NWR, P.O. Box 6504, Titusville, FL 32782. Telephone (407) 861-0667.

  Lake Wales Ridge State Forest (20,283 acres in Polk County, Florida). Telephone (863) 635-7801. This overview Web page includes information about the history, natural resources, recreation use, and access of the forest.

Tiger Creek Preserve (4,805 acres near Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida). Telephone (863) 635-7506. This Nature Conservancy preserve is the oldest on the Ridge and protects an entrenched blackwater seepage stream, draining the east edge of the Ridge, and the surrounding uplands.

BIOTA

Florida's Dicerandra mints, A BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Books, scientific articles, and government documents

Abrahamson, W. G., A. F. Johnson, J. N. Layne, and P. A. Peroni. 1984. Vegetation of the Archbold Biological Station, Florida: an example of the southern Lake Wales Ridge. Florida Scientist 47:209-250.--PDF file

Abrahamson, W.G., and D.C. Hartnett. 1990. Pine flatwoods and dry prairies. Pp. 103-149 in Myers, R.L., and J.J. Ewel, eds. Ecosystems of Florida. Univ. Central Florida Press, Orlando.

Bishop, E.W. 1956. Geology and ground-water resources of Highlands County, Florida. Florida Geological Survey, Reports of Investigations, No. 15, 1-115.--PDF file (Be patient, this link can be slow to load.)

Chafin, L.G. 2001. Field guide to the rare plants of Florida. Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Tallahassee, FL.--PDF files of species accounts.

Christman, S.P., and W.S. Judd. 1990. Notes on plants endemic to Florida scrub. Fla. Sci. 53:52-73.

Deyrup, M. 1989. Arthropods endemic to Florida scrub. Fla. Sci. 52:254-271.

Dobson, A.P., J.P. Rodriguez, W.M. Roberts, and D.S. Wilcove. 1997. Geographic distribution of endangered species in the United States. Science 275:550-553.

Hipes, D., et al. 2001. Field guide to the rare animals of Florida. Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Tallahassee, FL.--PDF files of species accounts.

Kohout, F.A. and F.W. Meyer. 1959. Hydrologic features of the Lake Istokpoga and Lake Placid areas, Highlands County, Florida. Florida Geological Survey, Reports of Investigations, No. 19, 1-73.--PDF file (Be patient, this link can be slow to load.)

Humphrey, S.R., ed. 1992. Rare and endangered biota of Florida. Volume I. Mammals. Univ. Presses of Florida, Gainesville.--Contains species accounts for the Florida mouse (Podomys floridanus) and Sherman’s fox squirrel (Sciurus niger shermani).

McCarten, L., and W.-S. Moy. 1995. Geologic map of Sarasota and Arcadia, Florida 30x60-minute quadrangles. U.S. Geol. Surv. Open-File Report 95-261.

Moler, P.E. 1992. Rare and endangered biota of Florida. Volume III. Amphibians and reptiles. Univ. Presses of Florida, Gainesville.--Contains species accounts for gopher frog (Rana capito), bluetail mole skink (Eumeces egregius lividus), gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), sand skink (Neoseps reynoldsi), Florida scrub lizard (Scleoporus woodi), short-tailed snake (Stilosoma extenuatum), eastern indigo snake (Drymarchom corais couperi), Florida pine snake (Pituouphis melanoleucus mugitus).

Myers, R.L. 1990. Scrub and high pine. Pp. 150-193  in Myers, R.L., and J.J. Ewel, eds. Ecosystems of Florida. Univ. Central Florida Press, Orlando.

Myers, R.L., and J.J. Ewel, eds. 1990. Ecosystems of Florida. Univ. Central Florida Press, Orlando.--An essential Florida reference. Contains chapters on biogeography (4), pine flatwoods and dry prairies (5), and scrub and high pine (6) among others.

Richardson, D.R. 1989. The sand pine scrub community: an annotated bibliography. Fla. Sci. 52:65-93.--Includes 316 references and a good introduction. This bibliography covers all areas of sand pine scrub in Florida and in nearby Alabama.

Rodgers, J.A., Jr., H.W. Kale, II, and H.T. Smith, eds. 1996. Rare and endangered biota of Florida. Volume V. Birds. Univ. Presses of Florida, Gainesville.--Contains species account for the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens).

Stewart, H.G. 1966. Ground-water resources of Polk County. Florida Geological Survey Reports of Investigations No. 44, 1-170.

U.S. Dept. Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1989. Soil survey of Highlands County, Florida. 178 pp + 55 maps.

U.S. Dept. Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1990. Soil survey of Polk County, Florida. 235 pp + 154 maps.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 1993. Final environmental assessment and land protection plan. Proposed establishment of Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, Highlands and Polk counties, Florida. U.S. Fish & Wildl. Serv., Atlanta, Georgia. 25 pp + 27 pp.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 1995. Draft recovery plan for nineteen Florida scrub and high pineland plant species (revision and expansion of recovery plan for eleven Florida scrub plant species approved January 20, 1990).

Weekley, C., T. Race, and D. Hardin. 1999. Saving Florida ziziphus: Recovery of a rare Lake Wales Ridge endemic. Palmetto 19(2):9-10,20.

White, W.A. 1970. The geomorphology of the Florida peninsula. Florida Geological Survey Bulletin 51:1-164.--This publication is available as an on-line, full-text document from Florida Environments Online, A State University System of Florida PALMM Project. The Lake Wales Ridge is in "The Central Highlands" section. Be patient with these links; they may take some time to load.

Woolfenden, G.E., and J.W. Fitzpatrick. 1996. Florida scrub-jay. Birds of  North America 228:1-28.--A comprehensive account of the species' biology.

Popular articles

Bass, G. 1988. Secrets of the Florida scrub. The Nature Conservancy Magazine 38(4):11-15.

Deyrup, M., and T. Eisner. 1993. Last stand in the sand. Natural History 102(12):42-47.--Insects of Florida’s sand ridges.

Deyrup, M., and T. Eisner. 1996. Photosynthesis beneath the sand in the land of the pygmy mole cricket. Pacific Discovery, Winter, 44-45.

Florida Audubon Society. 1992. A scrub issue. Florida Naturalist 65(1).--This issue is devoted to Florida’s scrub with articles about; "Florida’s vanishing scrub," "Lake Wales Ridge Refuge," "Recognizing scrub," and "The Florida scrub jay."

Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, Nongame Wildlife Program. 1990. Living treasures of the Florida scrub. Wild Florida, Volume 1.--Six-fold color poster and information brochure. OOP. An Internet edition is available.

Fergus, C. 1993. Scrub: learning to love it. Audubon 95(3):100-104.

Jennings, M. 1997. The treasures of Lake Wales Ridge. Endangered Species Bulletin 22(2):14-16.

Martin, T. 1998. Florida's ancient islands: the Lake Wales Ridge. Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem Working Group, Lake Wales, Florida, 16 pp.

Ripple, J. 1994. All in the family: the social life of the Florida scrub jay. Birder’s World 8(2):23-27.

Stap, D. 1994. Along a ridge in Florida, an ecological house built on sand. Smithsonian 25(6):36-45.