Last summer, Dana Houkal, LBC volunteer and professional environmental consultant, suggested that LBC consider planting pine tree seedlings at Lemon Creek Wildflower Preserve using a reforestation program sponsored by the Florida Forestry Service.
The program allows landowners to order a variety of bare root and containerized tree seedlings with very reasonable pricing. LBC placed an order for 1,000 containerized South Florida Slash Pine seedlings. In northern Florida, trees grown under this program are usually planted early in the year. However, with our very dry winter conditions, Dana arranged for the nursery to hold our trees until June.
On June 18th and 19th, Brad Kort coordinated an enthusiastic group of volunteers from the Rotonda West Woman’s Club and Lemon Bay Conservancy in two-hour shifts to plant the trees. Using dibble bars, the volunteers worked in two-person teams in our hot and humid summer conditions. While six shifts had originally been planned to complete the 1,000 tree planting, the work was completed in just three sessions! The teams planted 600 pine seedlings on the preserve mound near Placida Road, and 400 seedlings at locations around Duckweed Pond and near the preserve trail east of the Lemon Creek wetlands.
Dana has developed a survey program to monitor survival of the seedlings at varying elevations on the Placida Road mound, which will help us in planning placement decisions for future plantings.
Thank you to all the volunteers who supported this initiative, including Kathryn Gallagher, Sandy Ouderkirk, Dori Basilius, Glenda Sammet, Barbara Frey, Joe Gallagher, Gary Szapatura, Brenda Barker, Karen Nicholas, Jeff Nicholas, Ruthann Kort, Pam Neer, Janet Rojas, Eva Furner, Brad Kort, Dana Kehr, and Chad Lyman (preserve manager).
