FWC - Focal Habitat

This habitat occurs on areas of deep, well-drained, infertile sandy soils that are typically white or near white. Scrub has a patchy distribution and occurs in both inland and coastal areas, from the panhandle through subtropical regions of the peninsula. The largest and most important patches of Scrub occur along the central ridge of the peninsula near Ocala and in Polk and Highlands counties. This habitat is fire-dependent; it is maintained by fires that are usually very hot or intense, but occur infrequently at intervals of 10-20 years, or more. More...

Generally, Scrub is dominated by evergreen, or nearly evergreen, oaks and/or Florida rosemary, with or without a pine overstory. A relatively large suite of plant species is endemic to Scrub (e.g., scrub holly and inopina oak); the rarest endemic plant species are restricted to the Lake Wales area of the central ridge (e.g., pygmy fringe tree and scrub plum). Some species of wildlife also are endemic or largely restricted to Scrub habitat (e.g., Florida scrub-jay and sand skink). Several types of Scrub are recognized. Oak Scrub is a hardwood community typically consisting of clumped patches of low growing oaks interspersed with patches of bare, white sand. Pines are uncommon or absent. Oak Scrub is dominated by myrtle oak, Chapman's oak, sand-live oak, inopina oak, scrub holly, scrub plum, scrub hickory, rosemary, scrub palmetto, and saw palmetto. Sand Pine Scrub occurs on former shorelines and islands of ancient seas. This plant community is dominated by an overstory of sand pine and has an understory of myrtle oak, Chapman's oak, sand-live oak, rusty lyonia, wild olive, scrub bay, and scrub holly. Ground cover is usually sparse to absent, especially in mature stands, and rosemary and lichens occur in some open areas. Rosemary Scrub has few or no sand pines or scrub oaks but is dominated by rosemary with scattered lichen cover, scrub hypericum, and paper nailwort. Scrubby Flatwoods, differing from Scrub by having a sparse canopy of slash pine, is addressed in the Natural Pineland chapter. Additionally, many temporary wetlands are found throughout the Scrub landscape and are an integral part of this habitat type, providing breeding and foraging habitat for many wildlife species.

Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative supports several projects designed to improve the quality of its 2 priority terrestrial habitats: scrub and sandhill. These 2 habitats can be difficult to manage, especially when natural fires are suppressed and large quantities of fuel accumulate. To safely manage these potentially dangerous areas and prevent wildfires, interagency groups formed ecosystem support teams (fire teams) to work in areas with needs for assistance during difficult burns.

In the Panhandle, the support team associated with the Gulf Coast Plain Ecosystem Partnership focuses on sandhill management, while the Lake Wales Ridge Prescribed Fire Strike Team is concerned mostly with scrub. A new team focusing on both scrub and sandhill formed in the summer of 2008 in Northeast Florida. These three ecosystem support teams are managed by The Nature Conservancy, an organization with an excellent reputation for land management.

Other Legacy-supported scrub and sandhill projects include the Common Species Common program within the FWC's Landowner Assistance Program, which provides incentives to private landowners to restore habitat focusing on key uplands around the state, and the cooperative Upland Ecosystem Restoration Project, which assists agencies with planning and funding ecosystem restoration projects.

The Lake Wales Ridge includes important habitats such as scrub and sandhill and supports a suite of wildlife species, several of which have been identified as species in need of conservation in the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Many of the species that occur in the uplands are fire dependent, and lightning-ignited landscape fires historically provided optimal habitat conditions for wildlife. The Initiative has helped support The Lake Wales Ridge Prescribed Fire Strike Team, an interagency project coordinated by The Nature Conservancy. This project deploys an ecosystem-wide fire strike team to restore habitat on conservation areas. The team works in concert with local conservation managers, who must provide their own burn bosses, fire management plans, burn unit plans and a partial burn crew for each burn on their property. This project is just one of many ways The Initiative is taking action within the state. The Initiative is committed to leveraging funds for conservation and working with partners for a better Florida.

Additional current and recent projects being done by a variety of conservation partners to restore and maintain scrub habitat include: