Until last week, most of my visits consisted of riding my mountain bike on the main north-south trail as part of my occasional exercise regimen. The overgrown flatwoods along the trail left me uninspired. If I wanted to see an interesting natural community, I would instead stop by the Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park which adjoins this property.
I finally decided to give San Felasco Park a thorough inspection and determine once and for all whether it should make my list of favorite local natural areas. It's not an easy list to make. Besides the Devil's Millhopper, it has to compete with the nearby state park which carries the same name and is about 35 times larger. Within a 30 minute drive, there are many thousands of acres of other public lands to explore. Still, I went with an open mind, intent on walking every trail it had to offer.
It turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. I had underestimated the diversity within the park's various plant communities and found several species I hadn't expected. I was pleased but not overly surprised to find four of Florida's seven species of pine in the park. I did not, however, expect to find loblolly bay, a beautiful evergreen tree not typically seen in northwest Gainesville.
The experience was not entirely positive. As a long-time manager of public lands, I couldn't help but recognize a number of issues that are common to many parks, particularly those at the margins of urban areas. At a superficial level, what I saw only marginally reduced my enjoyment of the park and may go unnoticed to most of its visitors. In total, however, they form a seemingly insurmountable challenge for the professionals who is charged with meeting certain ecological and service delivery goals on the property.
The total lack of prescribed fire was the most apparent and the most unsurprising condition I encountered. The degradation of natural flatwoods by the invasion of laurel and water oak is one of the most common effects when fire is excluded. I've seem much more than my share of degraded flatwoods and I initially wrote San Felasco Park off as just more of the same. Fortunately, there is still an interesting matrix of forest types that retain some floristic diversity. Unfortunately, the property is hemmed in by development making it difficult to imagine that a prescribed burning program could be made palatable to the neighbors. Perhaps the only hope would be to convince those with homes backing on the park that the high fuel loads and continuing drought make for a dangerous combination. Given the horrible possibility of wildfire, a few hours of wood smoke might not seem so bad.
Prescribed burning is also expensive and drains scarce fiscal resources from other important projects like trail maintenance. One of the maps in the visitor pavilion shows an extensive trail system on the property, but its expression on the ground is far from optimal. There is absolutely no signage or trail markings to guide visitors. Further, users of the park, presumably mountain bikers, have made new spurs and cross-trails. It's now hard to determine which path is part of the official system and which will peter out in the middle of a wetland. The trail system includes two boardwalks that provide a glimpse of different wetland types, but a lack of staff presence on the property has contributed to vandalism of the more remote of the two. Short of an infusion of funds, the most logical solution here would be for a group of local volunteers to adopt the park.
Invasive exotic species are a problem in all parts of Florida and San Felasco Park is no exception. As I hiked around the park I actually noted a few live red bay and swamp bays trees. These are members of the laurel family that are under attack by the laurel wilt fungus carried by the introduced red bay ambrosia beetle. Larger specimens of these trees had already been flagged, presumably when the onset of the disease was first noticed. These trees now stand as skeletal reminders that managers must deal with impacts that originate far beyond the boundaries of the park.
After all that, did San Felasco Park make my list of favorite natural areas? Yes, I think it did. But it made it because I can see past it's current condition and imagine what it might have looked like when it was part of a broader ecological complex. It also made it because it provides yet another small piece of natural Florida that has the potential to provide education and recreation for generations to come. To cap it off, it may also provide a place close to home where I can work out my weekly frustrations with a little Saturday trail maintenance. Anyone want to join me?
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