During the warm months, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve focuses on resource management. The most influential component in managing Florida’s ecosystems is fire. Historically, lightning-created fires sustained ecosystems. The plants and animals in the prairie adapted with frequent fire. Fire is essential to this landscape, and it offers fire personnel a means to be ecologically productive, get dirty, and maintain friendships.

The Florida Park Service tries to mimic the timing of nature with controlled burns because the prairie responds differently to fire depending on time of year. Winter fires favor trees and shrubs because many of the grasses are dormant. Trees that encroach into the prairie push out plant species that require open spaces. But the response from plants and animals after a transition/growing season fire is remarkable: prairie grasses and forbs, bountiful butterflies, Burrowing Owls, Northern Bobwhites, and many other species that rely on the open ground of the prairie flourish and reproduce. This includes the endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrow (pictured), which uses patches of open ground as ‘run-ways’ to search for food and evade predators.

Fire is inherently dangerous. As Florida park rangers and land managers, it is our duty to ensure that controlled burns and wildfires are managed in a safe and responsible manner. Living and working in the most frequently burned ecosystem in Florida, we have to be well-versed in the techniques, preparations, safety protocols, laws, and equipment needed to conduct a controlled burn or contain a wildfire. All of this knowledge is not gained overnight. It requires years of training, on-the-job experience, support from the public, and cooperation among many agencies. The camaraderie among the fire crews is encouraging and supportive. Burn one time with a fire fighter and you’re friends for life! Birthday parties are more fun with fire fighters!

In the prairie, fire equals life! It is a beautiful relationship that inspires many of us to capture the prairie’s beauty with our cameras, and we keep it in our hearts and minds. One of the greatest joys in this profession is watching the prairie and all its inhabitants thrive after a growing season fire. Oh, and autumn—you have to see the prairie wildflowers in September/October—gorgeous!

As mentioned in February's post, here,  there are many uncommonly seen species that can be found with relative ease at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve. But the Preserve also protects and harbors some species that are not commonly found anywhere in Florida — or even in the world.

The most notable of these is the federally endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus), a subspecies of grasshopper sparrow endemic to Florida's fire-dependent dry prairie habitat.  Loss of habitat and other stressors (such as exotic, invasive fire ants) have reduced the population of this secretive little bird to where only a few hundred are believed to remain. Kissimmee Prairie Preserve is among the very few places where it is making its last stand.

To learn more about the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow visit the FWC website.

The Preserve's unique habitat harbors more than rare birds. It is also a place where one might find a threatened or endangered plant species, including the rarest of the grass pink orchids, the Manyflowered Grasspink (Calopogon multiflorus), which appears in the prairie shortly after a fire, or the aptly- named Bog Torch, AKA Snowy Orchid, (Habenaria nivea).

Not to forget reptiles and amphibians — the Preserve is habitat for the extremely rare South Florida Mole Kingsnake, for instance (no photo of that!). Florida Panther tracks have been seen there as well. Rarely seen butterflies and other arthropods also have been recorded in the Preserve (some of which may be covered in a future post from Linda Cooper).