The Trailblazer

Sign up for Hillsborough County's new Prescribed Fire Notification System Hillsborough County is making it easier for you to know when a prescribed burn might be affecting your neighborhood. Sign up today to receive prescribed burn email notifications whenever Hillsborough County’s prescribed burn teams are conducting a burn.   Prescribed fire is a vital tool we use to manage Hillsborough County’s 80,000 plus acres of conservation land. It is a safe way to apply a nature process, ensure ecosystem health, and reduce wildfire risk. Despite all the great things prescribed fire can do to protect our communities and help nature flourish, the smoke from a prescribed burn can also be a nuisance if you are sensitive to it, and that is why we want to give everyone the power to prepare.    Although prescribed burns are carefully planned, unfortunately they cannot be scheduled. Our burn managers write a prescription based on the exact weather conditions they need to safely and...

Life on the Edge: Firewise Florida In previous articles we've discussed the reasons  prescribed fire is beneficial to Florida’s natural landscape . Whether you’re new to the state or born and raised in Hillsborough County, at some point you’re bound to come across a prescribed burn led by a Florida Certified Prescribed Fire Manager.  Past articles  describe the safety measures Fire Managers employ   to keep the public and staff safe while planning and directing prescribed burns. If you’re lucky enough to live near one of Hillsborough County’s Nature Preserves,  it’s important to become familiar with the use of prescribed fire. Without it, those beautiful views and healthy ecosystems will steadily decline over time. The Environmental Lands Management Acquisition and Protection Program  was created to manage and protect these lands for future generations. Our 68,000 acres offer more than fantastic recreation opportunities and picturesque landscapes. Ecosy...

Apollo Beach Nature Preserve:  More than a scenic view Apollo Beach Nature Preserve will reopen to the public on Wednesday, September 9th. The Preserve was closed for several months due to construction of our brand-new observation tower in the parking area. The observation tower is wheelchair accessible and provides 360° views of the Preserve. To the west, visitors will be able to see all the way across the bay to St. Petersburg. An extensive restoration consisting of 23 acres of uplands and 33 acres of wetland can be seen to the east, pictured below: Between 2003 and 2007, the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s SWIM program funded the following projects to restore the wetland and upland habitats: 2003: dune planting adjacent to the preserve. 2004: grading and planting of wetlands and upland islands which included grading and shaping a tidal marsh with upland buffer areas. 2006: upland buffer zone planted. 2007: removal of 200 Australian pines and Brazilian pepper trees...

Beach erosion, property damage, and habitat destruction, oh my!  The Australian pine is still loved by many Floridians, but it's destroying native areas and causing widespread property damage. Australian pine silhouetted against the sky It may look like just another pine tree at first glance, but don’t be fooled! Common names can be deceiving, and the Australian pine ( Casuarina equisetifolia ) isn’t a pine tree at all. Its small, evergreen leaves lay flat against long trailing stems, and from a distance these multi-leafed stems look like pine needles. Its reproductive structures even resemble pine cones, but this tree is much more closely related to many broad-leaf trees than it is to the true conifers. Sadly, the deception doesn’t stop there. Early Floridians were also deceived into thinking the Australian pine was both useful and harmless, but this species is now one of the most damaging invasive plants in the country. Needle-like branchlets of Australian pine When Australian pi...

As you hike through the preserve, you'll come to 12 numbered trail markers (shown on the map). At each trail marker, stop and listen to (or read) the short informational clip provided.  You can download each file separately using the links provided OR download the entire audio file and pause it between trail markers. You can also download the text to read along instead of listening. Remember to bring a trail map, water, bug spray, and a snack with you and tell someone where you're going. Happy hiking!  Trail Map and Text Links: >>Golden Aster Scrub Trail Map This is a geo-referenced trail map, meaning that if you download a mapping app like Avenza on your smartphone and open this PDF in the app, it will let you see your location on the map as you hike.  >>Full Hike - Text Only Audio Links: >>Full Hike Audio You only have to download one audio file, but you'll have to pause it between trail markers.   >>Introduction >>Trail Marker 1 ...

It's rainy season in Hillsborough County. That means slogging wet roads and  lots of mosquitoes on many of our Hillsborough County Nature Preserves.  However, don’t put away your boots and binoculars yet – check out this list of  dry and shady county hikes, and you won’t miss the spectacular wildflowers and wildlife! Top 7 Shady Hikes Alafia River Corridor Nature Preserve - North  9256 South County Rd. 39,  Plant City, 33567 Map The Alafia River Corridor Nature Preserve is a 4,070 acre preserve encompassing lands along the Alafia River east of the Bell Shoals Bridge, extending upstream along the North Prong into Polk County, and along the South Prong to Jameson Road.  The preserve contains many different habitat types and also includes areas that were formerly mined for phosphate. The site is home to some listed species including gopher tortoises, eastern indigo snake, American alligator as well as many others. Hike the red trail to take advantage of the sh...

Palmetto re-growing after a prescribed fire As we hike through the woods or walk through our neighborhoods, most of us don’t pay too much attention to the plants around us- they’re a nice part of the scenery, but we’re more likely to be looking for birds or deer than rare plants. If you’re hiking in a Hillsborough County ELAPP Nature Preserve , though, you may get the opportunity to spot some rare and beautiful native plants- all you have to do is look down! One of these beautiful but rarely seen plants is the native orchid Calopogon multiflorus , also known as the many-flowered grass pink. It’s one of 26 orchid species documented in Hillsborough County Nature Preserves. When it’s not flowering, this plant might be mistaken by a casual observer as a little clump of grass, but that all changes when it begins to bloom. The flower spikes can grow to be over a foot tall and are covered in bright pink, complex flowers with orange centers - a beautiful surprise for any hiker. Due to the loss...

Volunteer Spotlight: Trail CATS The Trail CATS are an amazing group of volunteers who decided that hiking just wasn’t enough – they wanted to do more. Every second Saturday of the month, ELAPP would schedule a trail workday on a site that needed a little extra attention. It was a great way for hikers and their families to come out and do some work on the trails they love to use. We even have employees that used to attend trail workdays prior to coming to work for us full-time! For some of our volunteers, helping one day per month just didn’t cut it. Several of our regular attendees asked if, during their regular hiking excursions, they would be allowed to do some work independently. We said: no problem! While ELAPP does have dedicated staff for each area of the county, that staff also takes care of the 63,000 acres of preserves we are so lucky to have, including the sections that are not open to the public to protect sensitive habitat. As we’ve discussed in previous articles, prescribe...

Why do we do what we do? Every organization has a driving purpose, a reason for bringing people together, a goal that  they're working towards. Recently, our team sat down together to figure out just what our  purpose is- to figure out our "why." We brought together a team made up of people from every level of our organization who  met every week, talking over our purpose together to condense hundreds of "why's" into  one cohesive, inspiring, and accurate phrase. What we came up with is a sentence that describes our main reasons for coming to work  every day- although there are so many reasons that we do what we do, these are the basic,  fundamental building blocks that inspire us. To passionately steward our conservation lands We work on some of the most amazing conservation lands in the state of Florida. Thanks to the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP), Hillsborough County has over 63,000 acres worth of nature...