3. Animals


 The Everglades Flatwoods are habitat for a variety of wildlife. Typical
 animals are:

 MAMMALS Bobcat, cotton mouse, five-lined skink, marsh rabbit, opossum,
 raccoon, white-tailed deer

 BIRDS Pine warbler, red-shoulder hawk

 REPTILES Pygmy rattlesnake

 Information on animals known to occur in specific ecological communities
 is in Appendix C.

 LAND USE INTERPRETATIONS

 1. Environmental Values as a Natural System

 Fire is the major stress condition of the community. It is important in
 control of hardwoods and removal of fire will cause a successional move to
 a hardwood community. With road and canal building, natural firebreaks
 are produced which endanger the pineland.

 Decaying plant material is important in that it produces a weak acid which
 dissolves the rock and in time produces soil for seed germination.

 Everglades Flatwoods are good cellulose producers but distance from
 woodland markets generally limit commercial production. Native forage
 production is good with proper management. Use for rangeland has only a
 slight effect on the community. This community has good wildlife values,
 especially with proper management. It affords a drier habitat for
 wildlife species utilizing the wetlands nearer the Lake Ockeechobee and
 the sawgrass marsh in the Everglades. A special importance is that it
 serves as a buffer for wildlife between the wetlands adjacent to Lake
 Okeechobee and urban development near the coast. Water control practices
 and improved management techniques have facilitated the use of this
 community for vegetables, fruit crops, and urban development. This .s
 especially true near the coast.

2. Rangeland

 This ecological community has the potential for producing significant
 amounts of high quality forage such as creeping bluestem, chalky oluestem,
 and indiangrass. For sites in excellent condition, the average annual
 production of air dry plant material varies from 3,000 to ,000 pounds per
 acre. The variation depends on plant growth conditions. From 3 to 14+
 acres are usually needed per animal unit depending upon amount and type of
 forage available. There will be little forage available if the canopy
 cover exceeds 60 percent. The relative percentages of annual vegetative
 production by weight is 75 percent grasses and grasslike plants, 15
 percent trees and shrubs, and 10 percent herbaceous plants.