• Soils: Grey mineral, typically poorly drained soils of the Myakka, Immokalee, or other flatwoods series.

FUEL MODEL:

Fuel Model 7 is best fit for modeling the fire behavior of this stage (Anderson, 1982).  Flame lengths are modified* due to local experience.  Fire intensity and severity is dependant on firing technique (head, back or flank).

DESIRED STAGE:

Flatwoods - Stage 1 (grass dominated flatwoods).  Open yellow pine overstory.  Pyrhic grasses dominate groundcover vegetation and palmetto is short in a vertical stem or short "gator-back" growth form less than 2 feet in height.  Typical flatwoods shrub species such as gallberry and Lyonia appear much less dense in terms of cover dominance.  Fuel Models 2 or 7.

RESTORATION/MANAGEMENT PROTOCOL

• Restoration Phase:
  • Selective thinning and "pocket cut" timber harvests to restore open character of yellow pine overstory in situations where overstory is too dense.
  • Mechanical treatment of dense palmetto cover with bush-hog or roller chopper type equipment to reduce palmetto over-dominance.  Care should be taken in treatment design to avoid any soil disturbance from roller chopper tine digging or "root tip up".
  • Post mechanical fuel reduction (dormant season) prescribed fires should be performed only in the thicker extremes of this stage category.  Care should be taken to choose weather/moisture parameters that create low fire intensities yielding moderate to mild fire severity.
  • Follow-up of exotics management should exist where exotics are in or surrounding the treatment area.
• Maintenance/Management Phase:
  • Growing season and mixed season series of prescribed fires at a 1 to 4 year fire interval.
  • Follow-up of exotics management should exist where exotics are in or surrounding the treatment area.
• Special Management Concerns:
  • Soil disturbance as avenue for exotics.
  • Degradation of wiregrass complex from equipment trampling.
  • Hydrologic/topographic alteration such as ditching and fire-plow scars as impacts to fire process.