CONSERVATION CHALLENGES AT TIMUCUAN ECOLOGICAL AND HISTORIC PRESERVE: A COMPLEX URBAN MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL ESTUARINE PRESERVE

The Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve is located in Jacksonville, Florida and is comprised of 46,000 acres of salt marsh, hardwood hammock, scrub, and sand dune habitat. The preserve contains a variety of archeological and cultural resources, provides recreational opportunities for the citizens of Jacksonville, and protects large areas of natural habitat in a rapidly urbanizing region. During the summer and fall of 2018, two Geoscientists-in-the-Parks (GIP) interns focused on surveying the wide variety of species within the preserve to better understand both the status of specific species and the Preserve’s role as a protector of biodiversity. One of the major assignments was to survey the burrows of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), a Florida-listed Threatened Species, to determine their abundance and distribution within the preserve. The interns flagged, measured, and assessed more than 275 burrows at eight sites, and mapped the distributions of active and inactive burrows around the preserve. These results were compared to those obtained in previous years to assess changes in gopher tortoise abundance and habitat usage. The interns also surveyed nesting waterbirds at two ponds within the preserve, completed biweekly surveys of flowering plants along hiking trails to create phenology records, mapped invasive plant distributions, and completed annual photopoint surveys at six locations within the preserve to monitor long-term environmental change. These data give a snapshot of biodiversity within the Timucuan Preserve, and also contribute to long-term monitoring of the preserve’s success in protecting natural resources. The internship experiences provided insight into the challenges in conserving a wide variety of ecosystems in an urban environment and the importance of relationship building necessary to accomplish conservation efforts with multiple land owners and agencies in managing a major estuarine environment.