Panel No. 4. Land Management at Archbold Biological Station.

The Station’s 8,841 acres of land are its most valuable asset. Florida’s pre-settlement plant and animal communities were shaped by countless lightning-ignited fires. In today’s fragmented natural landscape, Florida’s land managers use prescribed burns to mimic the effect of large-scale lightning fires. The Station has been a leader in the use of prescribed burns to manage Florida’s scrub (oak-pine) habitats.

At the left, Archbold’s Land Manager Kevin Main uses his ATV, and portable radios, to oversee the burns and to communicate with the burn team. Here he talks to Roberta Pickert, Archbold’s Geographic Information Systems Manager, and frequent member of the Station’s burn teams. At the right, Station Staff (Kristen Snow, Student Intern, and Bert Crawford, Operations Manager) use drip torches to light a back fire along a firelane. All of Archbold’s burn-crew members receive regular training and always wear protective clothing, here the familiar fire-retardant Nomex suits.

At the right, a Yellow Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata), common in the Lake Placid area, easily climbs the rough bark of a Slash Pine. Several charcoal-gray Melanophilus beetles (a Metallic Wood-boring Beetle) crawl on the bark of the pine. These tiny (half-inch long) beetles are attracted to smoke from burning pine trees and they mate and lay their eggs on the bark of recently-burned pines.

© Archbold Biological Station, 14 November 2007. Webmaster: Kevin Patram, send e-mail