A Florida Cat-tastrophe

When my wife and I moved to the Orlando area in 2010 there was one thing we didn't like about our condo -- cats. We had a small feral cat colony near us that had free rein of the complex grounds at night. They fought at night and the wails would frequently wake us even with the windows closed. And feral cats take a toll on the local small animal population. Small mammals, reptiles, and birds are all on the menu. Even well fed cats still have the biological imperative to hunt and kill.

But over time the cats disappeared. Not all at once but gradually the feral cats that regularly hid in the woods near our house were no more. By 2013 we never saw feral cats.

Debary Coyotes

I thought about that when I read this piece about coyotes in DeBary, FL. At the time I didn't realize that the disappearance of cats in my neighborhood coincided with an increase in the number of coyotes. But coyotes numbers are still increasing throughout Florida.

Coyotes don't only prey on cats for food. They also kill them as a way of reducing competition. This is called intraguild predation. Most predators will attack a slightly smaller predator because it helps keep the number of prey animals high.

Fluffy and Tasty

My neighborhood wasn't the only place this was happening. Here's a story from Pinellas County about coyotes moving into a neighborhood. A feral cat colony there completely disappeared after the coyotes showed up. They've also been tough on housecats that occasionally roam outside.

So what are the wildlife implications? Probably generally good. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FFWC) says of cats in Florida:

The adverse impacts of cats in Florida are best documented for threatened and endangered species, especially endangered or already extinct subspecies of beach mice and cotton mice and the endangered Lower Keys marsh rabbit. However, predation by cats also has been documented for the Florida scrub-jay and for shorebirds, terns, and other ground-nesting species of birds, as well as for sea turtles.

Of course, this was written all the way back in 2003. That was a time when spotting a coyote in Florida was a memorable event.

The probable impact of the increase of the number of coyotes and the reduction in feral and owned outside cats differ by prey species. Small birds and mammals that live near people will probably see less of a predator threat as outside cats become a thing of the past. Larger animals that rarely see themselves under threat from cats will probably be more threatened as the number of coyotes increase. In particular the number of sea turtle nests destroyed by coyotes is now far above any threat they had from cats.

Now the FFWC says that the coyote is a naturalized species. They're here to stay and the FFWC won't take steps to eradicate them in Florida. So doing things like making sure your cat or small dog never goes out alone is something you have to do now. Feeding stray cats only brings them together so they're easier for coyotes to kill.

So I'll end with a small clip of video that I shot in about a year ago. I was standing beside a trail under a tree when a coyote started toward me. I could tell he couldn't see me clearly because I was partially hidden under the tree. Coyotes don't have particularly good eyesight. They depend on a keen sense of hearing and smell and you can tell exactly when he caught my scent.

Canoeing in Norris Dead River

My wife and I canoed the Norris Dead River this week. We used our 16' Mad River canoe.

We put in at Ed Stone Park which is located where FL Route 44 crosses the St. John's River. Ed Stone Park has 10 or so boat ramps so there's rarely a wait to launch. It has a quick outlet to the river. We saw a couple of bald eagles shortly after setting out. Norris Dead River is about 1.1 miles downriver (northwest) from the park.

Why is it called Norris Dead River?

A dead river is a natural waterway with almost no permanent current in either direction. The Norris Dead River connects Lake Woodruff to the St John's River. But the elevation difference between them is almost zero. The river flows very slowly to Lake Woodruff, but most of the time you can't really tell which way it's going. As you enter Norris Dead River you are entering Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge.

The goal of the trip was to make it to Lake Woodruff, about 15 miles round trip. We've made it all the way to Lake Woodruff exactly once and have stopped short several times. This was our first trip this year and the temperatures were hotter than we usually attempt this one. We knew the odds of making it all the way to the lake weren't good.

My what a big nose you have

We saw several alligators on the river. A couple were pretty good size. With experience we've gotten pretty good at spotting alligators. We see many more than most people see. However there's no doubt that we only see a small percentage of what's actually there.

We also saw an incredible number of little blue herons. We usually see a large number of the usual Florida wading birds but this time we saw very few of other waders. We only saw 1 great blue heron, a couple of egrets, a few ibises, but it seemed the little blue herons were everywhere. We probably saw 20 of them. I'm not sure why there were so many compared to the other birds. Probably just caught a good day for them.

One of many little blue herons

And that's one thing that makes hiking or canoeing over a well-known track interesting. The wildlife will be similar each time but also different. Next time we may see lots of great blue herons and only a few little blue herons.

Probably the most interesting thing we saw were the manatees. We a group of about 5 manatees munching on some spatterdock along the river. There was a mom and small baby as well as about 3 other adults. We were never sure exactly of the count. But it was interesting to watch them eating.

Manatee at a spatterdock buffet

We made it as far as Blue Peter Lake, about 2.5 miles short of Lake Woodruff. It's very shallow and covered with spatterdock and a few other plants. I looked on the internet to find how Blue Peter Lake got its name but didn't find anything. If anybody has any word on the history of that name I'd be interested. At that point we decided to turn around and head back. Lake Woodruff will have to wait until next time.

The other interesting thing we saw was when we were almost back to Ed Stone Park. A huge, dilapidated riverboat was trying to dock at St. John's Marina. It looked like it was a tour boat back in better days. Somebody told us it was bought in Palatka and driven down to the St. John's Marina to be refurbished. It was large enough it stopped traffic on the St. John's River as it tried to maneuver to the dock. But they finally made it.

A very nice day on the river.  A little hotter than we like, especially considering there's little shade along the Norris Dead River, but still a nice day out. 

Lake George Part 2

Part of a continuing series on Florida's Lakes.

This is Lake George Part 2, the current environmental condition and challenges of Lake George. Here's a link to Lake George Part 1, the history of the lake. If you haven't read it you may want to start there. The history of Lake George is inextricably intertwined with its current condition.

Lake George's Most Famous Resident

I want to look at 2 different measures of water quality in Lake George – the trophic index and turbidity. These measures are related can give us a picture of the lake’s health. I also want to look at a few other threats out there today.

The first piece of data is how trophic the lake is. The term refers to how high the nutrient level is in the lake. The amount of nutrients, especially phosphorus, is related to the amount of algae can grow in a lake. The number graphed is the trophic state index, an easy way of looking at how easily algae blooms can start in the lake. Anything below 60 is considered good and between 60 and 70 is fair.

Nutrient Load

The numbers don’t look to bad over most of the last 10 years. You can see elevated nutrient loads during the drought times in 2007-2008 and also in 2011, but other than that the numbers stay consistently in the good or fair range.  The latest numbers available from the Lake Water Atlas is through 2015.

This is better than most large lakes in Florida. The fact that the St John’s River flows through the lake helps keep the nutrient load at a reasonably low level. The water doesn’t flow through most lakes in Florida nearly as fast as Lake George.

I included the full 10 years of data here because it shows a sustained drop from roughly the year 2012. For several years the lake had been on a Total Maximum Daily Load program through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) concerning the nutrient load. The FDEP kept the program active through 2014. It’s since ceased, but it seems to have brought Lake George into a relatively good place.

Another parameter to look at is the turbidity. Turbidity is the level of suspended particles in the water. Turbidity changes a lot over the course of the year. Rains can cause the amount of solids to increase and turbidity also increases during summer when algae and other plants bloom.

Turbidity for 2 Years

A turbidity value of 10 or less is pretty good for a Florida Lake. Compare this to Lake Apopka (one of the worst in the state) where the turbidity averages around 40 with spikes to 80. Most of the time the turbidity is stayed below 10 over the last few years. Again, the latest data available is through 2015.

The turbidity does spike occasionally. However turbidity can be affected by a recent storm or even high winds. I think the peaks in 2015 are probably just that. But the average values look relatively good.

One last parameter to examine is the mercury content. Mercury gets into the environment due to industrial and waste output. Coal fired power plants are large emitters as are wastewater disposal systems. One problem with mercury is that it's a non-point source. Mercury goes into the water cycle and there doesn't have to be a local source that puts it in the water. A coal plant in India is nearly as bad for Florida water as one in Tallahassee.

Mercury Cycle

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has been tracking the mercury levels in Lake George since 2014. There has never been a reading of mercury in Lake George over allowable limits. However some of the areas draining to the lake have seen elevated levels. This happens in most of Florida in areas with water that don't drain well. Here's a map of the area around Lake George that have had elevated mercury readings.

Mercury Elevated Areas in Red

The red areas have occasionally seen elevated levels. But again the St. John's Rivers flows through the lake keeping the mercury levels within allowable limits. The wetlands around the lakes seem to be the areas that maintain the mercury. Here's a set of EPA maps that show Florida areas that have some mercury problems. Hint:  About all marshes and swamps.

But the overall evidence is that Lake George is in relatively good shape environmentally. The waters have cleared over the years and the nutrient load has dropped somewhat over the last 10 years. There are still challenges -- invasive species rank near the top of the list and nutrient load can still become a problem. But the overall geography and management practices have kept it relatively clean.

I'll quit there on Lake George. My final article on Lake George will be about ecotourism opportunities near the lake. 

Hiking at Hidden Waters Preserve

I went hiking this week at Hidden Waters Preserve in Eustis, a 90 acre preserve managed by the Lake County Water Authority. It's an interesting hiking experience in Florida because of this change in elevation. The parking lot is at about 155 feet above sea level. However the trail falls down to Lake Alfred at 75 feet for an 80 foot drop. Although an 80 foot drop isn't interesting to hikers in most of the US, an 80 foot drop over a half mile in Florida is considered precipitous.

Hidden Waters Preserve Map

Hidden Waters Preserve is a sinkhole. It was once known as Eichelberger Sink. Like a lot of sinkholes it was used as a trash dump for years. By the 1940’s it turned into a golf course. The golf course closed in the late 1950’s. Closed golf courses have been an interest of mine for a while now – how they can be repurposed after bankruptcy, etc. This one had the advantage of being a freestanding golf course, not part of a larger housing development. So when it went bankrupt it was easy to convert it into citrus groves. If anybody knows of any old pictures of the golf course at Hidden Waters I’d love to see them. 

But today there’s a golf course of sorts still there. A disc golf course has been installed. Interestingly it has 10 holes. When I saw the 10^th tee I thought maybe there was a full 18 holes, but I don’t think so. I guess there’s no law that courses need a number of holes divisible by 9. Or maybe that law just applies to regular golf. Instead of walking one of the established trails I decided to walk the disc golf course. I walked each hole from tee to "cup" plus wandered around the lake a little while at the bottom.

I saw several gopher tortoises. This was the most interesting, a virtual Usain Bolt sprinter of the tortoise class.

Near the top of the edge of the preserve plants and animals that prefer well drained, sandy soil predominate. Prickly pear cacti and gopher tortoises are easy to find. Going down the hill takes you to a longleaf pine and turkey oak forest. Then comes the wetlands around the sinkhole itself.

There seemed to be lots of beautyberries. I found them mostly near the bottom of the sinkhole between the forested area and marshy area. The beautyberries were pretty ripe, and about as good tasting as beautyberries get. They have a little taste if sufficiently ripe. Still not a lot of pulp or juice on each small berry. I’m not sure the rules on eating berries from a wildlife preserve, but it seemed the thing to do at the time.

 

Beautyberry

There were lots of passion flowers. I saw a few fruits around, but none looked ready to eat. Passion fruits are ready to eat when they start turning yellow. They taste like a sour, wild grape. It’s actually a very nice taste. Passion fruits are good to find on long hikes. The tartness and liquid pulp quenches a thirst nicely. Pick a few while hiking then spend a few minutes during a break separating the seeds from the pulp in your mouth. A great use of break time.

Passion Flower

The forest had an impressive amount of turkey tail mushrooms. They tend to be plentiful on rotting tree trunks. Turkey tail mushrooms have been heralded for their healing power for many years. Back in China’s Ming Dynasty of the 15th century they used turkey tail mushrooms to maintain health. And there could be a grain of truth there. The University of Minnesota Medical School and Bastyr University Research Institute randomly gave a tea of turkey tail mushrooms to breast cancer patients who were having trouble keeping up their white blood cell counts.  It seemed to help. Who knows? 

Turkey Tail Mushroom

A very nice hike. My total distance was about 4 miles. I stayed on the west side of Lake Alfred. I’ll go back and when I do I’ll try some of the trails on the east side. Or maybe since it’s a sinkhole lake I could go back when it’s dry and check out the lake bottom. In any case the many distinct environments caused by the elevation change makes it a worthwhile hike.

A couple of brochures:  Here's a brochure of the property and here's a picture of the disc golf course. The disc golf brochure is a good general overview, but the layout of the holes is outdated.

Whither Golf?

When's the last time you played golf? Do you know anyone under 40 who plays regularly?

Those questions haunt the golf industry today. People have quit playing golf over the last few decades and few people under 30 care to play. The New York Times sums up the problem quite nicely:

Golf has always reveled in its standards and rich tradition. But increasingly a victim of its own image and hidebound ways, golf has lost five million players in the last decade, according to the National Golf Foundation, with 20 percent of the existing 25 million golfers apt to quit in the next few years.

The year 2009 was a landmark year in the decline of golf courses. The financial crisis threw many golf courses that were barely in the black squarely in the red. That was also the year of Tiger Woods' very public personal issues. Before Tiger's meltdown there was some hope that golf would become a sport for younger people. According to American Golfer the average age in 2009 was 46. By 2015 it was 54. Golfers are a dying breed, literally.

Golf RIP. We Hardly Knew Ye.

But the observant among you know that. Golf courses are closing all around the US, with Florida being hard hit because of the number of courses here. On a personal note: From where I live Pine Meadows, Rolling Hills, Sabal Point, Links at 434,Mount Plymouth, and Rock Springs Ridge golf courses are within a 20 minute drive from my house. And all are in various stages of being overgrown with weeds as bankruptcy scenarios are playing out. And I'm probably missing a few. If you're a Floridian you can probably name a list of dead golf courses around you, too.

So what does this have to do with the reason for this blog -- My thoughts on wildlife, wildlife policy and about anything else that interests me in the general subject of plants and animals?

Here's the connection. Golf courses are the biggest tracts of undeveloped land remaining in many cities. As courses fail almost all will be eyed by developers as an easy building area. And golf courses are failing regularly. So what to do?

More Failures than Openings, Always

When golf courses fail it's always messy. Conflicting legal claims can keep old golf courses tied up in court for decades. Here are some thoughts from watching and studying the legal morass play out in roughly 10 dead golf courses in the Orlando Area.

• Running a golf course is a horrible business to be in. If a golf course closes for more than a month it's never coming back no matter what commitments were made to local homeowners.

• Lots of people have claims. Most dying golf courses created since 1980 were built as the centerpiece of subdivision developments. Agreements made when people paid for the house are suddenly null and void. Creditors, shareholders, homeowner associations, developers and individual owners need to have a say. People who pay extra for a view of the fairway are adamant that can't be taken away from them. 

• Maintaining the course becomes a problem. Many times this is the developer's biggest weapon to get agreement. People may be angry in the first year that the course isn't maintained, but after a half decade of growth it changes to acceptance. As the homes on the golf courses lose value people become more willing to negotiate anything to restart maintenance.

Florida Hazard, but only for Baby Boomers

• Another issue is the neighborhood can do downhill. People may be very anti- development of the golf course in the beginning. But homeless people moving into the clubhouse and meth deals happening in the parking lots tend to make people more susceptible to negotiations. And yes, I've seen both of these happen. And don't forget ATV races on the fairways. 

• The fact that the fairways tend to be long and narrow and snake between housing developments make them pretty worthless for large wildlife preserves. The fairways are also not idea for development since they are long and narrow with no road access in place. However the fairways do make good city parks / green spaces.

Fairways Meander Through Subdivision

So what should you do if you want to influence the next life of a dead golf course? There may be an opportunity to influence what happens to the course. But don't think it's going to be easy or quick. Each case is different, but here are some general guidelines.

• Any development to the golf course will probably have go through the local planning commission (or planning and zoning or whatever it's called there). Make your voice heard. The local planning board hates issues like this and will look hard for a way to make it go away and anything that unites the developer and local residents will get consideration.

• Compromise is the order of the day. In the end the deal will probably be some development around the clubhouse because there's large piece of property with utilities there and some kind of protection for the fairways. That protection may come in the form prepaid maintenance fees from the developer or maybe getting the local city or county to take over park maintenance.

• The golf course is never coming back. Local residents that get in a position that somebody must run the golf course because it was promised are going to be disappointed. This is always hard to get past.

• Time is of the essence. The developer gains strength every year the issue drags on. If nobody is doing maintenance on the buildings or mowing the grass people get more tired of the situation. Anger gives way to acceptance eventually. Sometimes it's better to cut a deal fast than be forced later.

About the best that can be hoped for from a hiker / naturalist perspective is that a piece of the property is set aside for a park or some kind of public use. Usually the compromise is the developer helping with upkeep for some period of time with the homeowner's association or city taking over that responsibility eventually. For that the developer is allowed to build on part of the property, usually the central part around the old clubhouse.

Getting an agreement on the ground makes it easier for the planning commission to OK new development. Without an agreement on the ground planners see it more as a dead rat being dropped on their desk. So don't be afraid to talk to the commission about competing visions of how a golf course can be repurposed. But also don't be too quick to accept new development on the old golf course, but ruling it out completely will probably not work either.

Zika and the New Aedes Control

So, how to deal with the Zika Virus.

The Zika Virus is particularly hard for policy makers. It doesn't affect people equally. Most people who contract the Zika Virus have few symptoms. Some say up to 80% who contract the disease never visit the doctor. For most people it's a little tired achiness for a couple of evenings. For the vast majority a good night's sleep and it's all over.

Aedes Mosquitoes

But for pregnant ladies it can be catastrophic. Zika can halt brain development in their baby causing microcephaly, a deformation in which babies are born with abnormally small brains and heads. To parents-to-be even a small risk of such horrible results are unacceptable no matter the cost.

I wrote a facebook post a few months back on the different ways of controlling mosquitoes. The most recent method involves releasing genetically modified male mosquitoes into the environment. Here's the meat of the earlier article:

But this is probably the future of mosquito control. What they’ve done is genetically modify a male mosquito who carries a gene that means all of the offspring of a mating will die. The female mates and lays the eggs but none survive. The goal will be to introduce enough of the males to outnumber the natural males in the environment, reducing the population of the Zika carrying Aedes mosquito without killing other organisms. And male mosquitoes never bite; only the females can digest blood of victims.

Taming the Double Helix to Fight Zika

What I want to explore here is what economists call the collective action problem. A collective action problem can be summed up as a group with most people thinking everybody should all take a particular action but wanting somebody else go first. In this case it seems most Floridians are OK with releasing the genetically altered mosquitoes:

The latest data, released Friday, suggests 60 percent of Floridians support the use of specially adapted male mosquitoes, which sire offspring that die young, to fight Zika — 40 percent “strongly” favoring it and another 20 percent “somewhat” favoring it. Only 19 percent strongly oppose the idea.

Testing on an Island

But the first US testing area is on Key Haven, a key almost out to Key West. The Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board decided to have a referendum on Key Haven to see what the locals think about releasing the genetically modified male mosquitoes. It's not a binding referendum and the mosquito control board may go ahead with the trial even if the public says no. The referendum will be held in November.

The public saying "no" is what I think will happen. When you combine the people who really hate genetically modified organisms, those who don't see Zika as a big deal due to the very narrow extreme victim class and the ones who think it should be tested elsewhere first I'm thinking it will be rejected quite handily. My over / under estimate is at about 70% rejection.

Killing Mosquitoes Wholesale

So where will that leave us? The Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board will almost have to walk away from the idea of a mosquito control trial if the vote is as lopsided as I think it will be even though technically the referendum is non-binding. And my reading of the situation was that was the intent. They didn't want to do the trial but didn't want the blame for walking away from a way to fight Zika so they decided on a referendum that would fail.

That's unfortunate. With the public attention on Zika the option isn't to do nothing about the mosquitoes. The only options on the table are moving to the genetically modified mosquito for control or stepping up chemical spraying. And stepping up chemical spraying can have its own problems, like wiping out bees in an area. This was part of a massive bee kill after spraying in South Carolina.

Dead Bees After Fogging

That's where the collective action problem comes in. The FDA has approved the genetically modified mosquito release for the trials but they won't approve a larger rollout until the trials have taken place. But what town will be willing to go first to show everything is safe? There's little incentive to be first. I'm not sure how they'll solve that problem.

Snorkeling at Silver Glen Springs

I went snorkeling at Silver Glen Springs this week. Silver Glen is a spring on the west side of Lake George. I had been there a couple of times in the past. However seeing this video recently made by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FFWC) had me wanting to go again.

My goal, in addition to having a good time snorkeling was to find the spring in the video. I knew from the size of the spring that it wasn't the main spring but a smaller one in the area. I also thought it was probably restricted because of the fish -- the wouldn't want swimmers there. But I wanted to find it and get what pictures I could.

Every year the FFWC stocks striped bass into the St. John's River. They're naturally there, but need long stretches of flowing water to reproduce, something not found frequently in Florida so the FFWC supplements the numbers. However striped bass can't stand water temperatures over 75°F for long. In the summertime they spend lots of time in the spring. Here's a drawing of what I was after.

Striped Bass

The spring is packed with visitors in the summertime. Coming to cool off is as popular with the locals as with tourists. But I still needed to go while Lake George was very warm. I picked Monday, August 29 for my trip. My reasoning was that Monday was probably the smallest crowd and by late August most of the kids are back in school. However it's still warm enough to see the striped bass.

I arrived at Silver Glen Springs to an empty parking lot and paid my admission of $5.50 for the day. I asked the lady in the store what was interesting to see. She showed a map of the spring and pointed out a "restricted area" on the back side of the spring. When I asked about the restricted area she just said it was an "environmentally sensitive area". That, Sherlock, is what we call a clue.

Snook in main spring

So I went snorkeling in the main spring and there was lots to see there. Several small groups of snook were in the main boil. The actual spring at Silver Glen shows the wear and tear of the end-of-summer season. Lots of vegetation around the edge of the boil had been trampled and the employees talked only how glad they were that the kids were back in school.

Around the edges of the spring is where I usually find most of the wildlife. I saw a banded watersnake around the edge but wasn't fast enough to take his picture. But there were lots of bluegills posing in front of some underwater palms. Kinda shouts "Florida" doesn't it?

Bluegills in front of underwater palm

There were also several good size largemouth bass around. It was interesting that I never saw them either in the spring boil itself nor out in the vegetation. They seemed to patrol the area on the edge of the spring. Every one that I saw was in this transition zone.

Largemouth Bass

I also saw several turtles. This guy was hiding in the grass. When I got too close he left his hiding place and ran to another. I didn't make him move again.

By that time I had worked my way around to the restricted area. It was Monday morning and I was all alone in the spring but I didn't go in the restricted area even though I wanted to. I stayed back behind the line. But the striped bass were indeed where I thought they would be. There's a smaller spring in that area that they leave for the striped bass.

With my little underwater camera I wasn't able to get a good picture. But you can see them in this one as dots in the distance a little bit.

Target Located

Another nice part of Silver Glen Springs is the walk out to the sand boils. The boardwalk is short, maybe 1/4 mile round trip. These are a very small springs that come up through the sand. Interesting to look at and very close.

Sand boil

I did see several other interesting things. I saw several skinks on the trees. I also saw a squirrel that looked like it had a recent fight, possibly with a hawk as its back was bloodied badly. And there was a 4 ft gator hiding in the shrubbery near the spring.

Overall it was a very nice trip to Silver Glen Springs. Silver Glen Springs is a very interesting spring with too many visitors in the summer. Not only is the spring full but the run tends to fill with boats. But it still makes for a wonderful visit. Just be sure to go in the off season.