Green Swamp Lygodium Meeting Notes

March 5, 2009
12:30 pm – 2:30 pm
At the Bartow SWFWMD office

1. Present: Brian Nelson (SWFWMD), Michael Terry (SWFWMD), Stephanie Green (SWFWMD), Paul Elliott (SWFWMD), Colleen Werner (DOF), Kathy Johnson (DOF), LeRoy Crockett (NRCS RC&D), Rosalind Rowe (TNC), Kris Price (Polk Co.), Josh Agee (FWC)
Online/conference call: Don Robinson (Pasco County), Lauren Brothers (Lake County), Annemarie ____

2. Brian reviewed the 5 main elements that comprise a CWMA or CISMA, as structured in the national “cookbook” for such partnerships, “CWMA Cookbook: A Recipe for Success” (MIPN.org). The group agreed that we did want to work to have all the elements, that we are well on our way towards meeting them, and would like be officially considered a CISMA for the Green Swamp. The Geographic Boundaries are in yellow on the attached map.

3. Review of action items from the first meeting:

Colleen: Has approval and support from agency managers to incorporate surveying for Lygodium with fire crew flyovers. Sent training info to two pilots and got a very positive response from one pilot (Lakeland district), who reviewed the presentation and literature. The Withlacoochee pilot hadn't responded yet, but it is fire season. Colleen is hoping to address all of the state's DOF pilots at their next annual meeting in November. After fire season, she’s been invited to talk at the Lakeland district personnel meeting. She is planning to collect some Lygodium and make laminated herbarium specimens to hand out.

Brian: Waiver forms: Brian is still gathering samples of other agencies’ “across the fenceline” waiver, and is looking to have one for SWFWMD in the near future. He commented that the more agencies there are that have one, the more willing agency lawyers seem to be to help to come up with one for their agency. Since there won’t be “one waiver fits all” for the various agencies in the CISMA, individual agencies will need to have their own; samples can be shared among the agencies to make it easier to make this happen.

Poster for public reporting: An 8’ x 11” mock up for a potential poster was reviewed. Most agreed on the text content, but there was some discussion about picture choices and arrangement. A final poster cannot be made until all the contact data was available, and since we want to include our CISMA website URL, printing will wait until we have that. In the meantime, Brian will get with SWFWMD design people and get the layout ready.

Rosalind: EDDMapS review and protocols for individual reports – Her plan was to walk the group through the website, to show how to register a sighting of lygo, but she couldn’t get past the Log-in stage (She couldn’t remember her original registration data, found no “ Forgot Password?” mechanism to help her register, and when attempting a new register for the demo, couldn’t get in as a new client.) This is a design flaw: Why give a hunter or fisher this kind of headache? Overall, though, once the person is actually in the system, it is remarkably easy to log a location and select the pest you want to register. This system could turn out to be useful for the CISMA for getting the general public to report sightings, and may be one more URL we could include on hand-outs.

Modeling habitat projections for lygo probability based on on-the-ground work to date: Rosalind found that the CFLS data for sites and surveys is in sufficiently inconsistent formats so that it would not be very useful for modeling purposes (many points and polygons have been drawn in as graphics, so coordinates are not readily available; or if there are coordinates, they are not reliably accurate for modeling purposes). Rosalind asked for assistance getting the data better homogenized for this purpose. The group also talked about other potential sources for this information; FNAI was suggested.

4. Brian passed out maps indicating the locations of lygodium infestations detected during SWFWMD’s January 2009 helicopter overflight of the Green Swamp. Six new infestations were detected. Only one of the new infestations was on public lands (Richloam, Pasco Co.) and it was less than two miles from the Hernando County line. This infestation has already been treated by DOF. Rosalind has contacted one of the private land owners with a small infestation and this property is scheduled for treatment under the CFLS project.

5. The group discussed how we could form small teams to help TNC-CFLS staff (Rosalind) investigate the new Lygodium infestations discovered during the aerial survey. This would include determining land ownership and contact info, scheduling and performing a site visit and conducting a field survey to determine the extent of the infestation. Local folks who are familiar with the surrounding lands and property owners can be helpful and everyone was asked to help Rosalind as much as possible. Mike Blondin (FWC) agreed to help Rosalind with the infestations adjacent to the Hilochee WMA.

Don reported that Wendy Andrew indicated that she has observed Lygodium sp.? at two spots along the Van Fleet trail at the Bay Lake entrance; Brian will check with Wendy Andrew to confirm species.

Don asked for most current CFLS map and the Cypress Creek points, and for copies of waiver samples to help with treating lygo infestations across fencelines.

6. Discussed assigning visits to each county extension agent/office (& urban foresters) in the Green Swamp Area (Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, Polk, Sumter and Lake Counties). The purpose of these visits would be to inform the extension agents of the Old World climbing fern problem/distribution, the formation of the Green Swamp CISMA, the ongoing CFLS effort which allows the treatment of Old World climbing fern on private lands, provide them information and resources (posters/pamphlets to distribute), provide contact info for Green Swamp CISMA members in case someone reports an OWCF infestation, determine how they or others in their offices can help us with this effort, get on their speakers bureau and discuss with them ideas they may have on how we can work together. Several people recommended talking with Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists. Colleen offered to go to Hernando and Citrus county offices.

The group agreed to first create a “packet” of information, then organize who would go to the IFAS offices. The packet is to include:

A brief explanation of the CISMA, with contact information
Lygodium microphyllum information, particularly ID and probable habitat info; could use “Find It – Kill It” flyer, Weed Decks, as well as IFAS documents
Explanation of services for private properties (CFLS program flyer)
Copies of the poster

7. Reviewed the items we should have for a Green Swamp CISMA website, as suggested by Florida Invasive Species Partnership (FISP). Rosalind showed the FISP website, with examples of other CISMA pages. The group agreed to use this website, and to use this URL (when we get it) as part of the contact information that we put on posters and brochures. Also discussed county and other websites that could add a link to the CISMA site. Rosalind and Brian will schedule a phone conference with FISP to start the ball rolling for our website and to get a URL that can be used for our outreach.

8. Discussed subcommittees that may need to be established at this time. Although subcommittees for Outreach, Membership, and GIS were discussed, none were actually formed at this time. GIS subcommittee could be a couple of people working to resolve CFLS and other treatment data, so that we might create some kind of modeling for likely lygo habitat in the GS area.

9. Other Next Steps were considered. There was some discussion about others we could consider for this CISMA membership, such as Greenways & Trails.

10. Agreed to schedule another meeting during May 2009.

Action Items summary:

Website set up:
Brian & Rosalind – phone conference with FISP to get website started and get URL for outreach purposes.

Outreach Packet assembly:
     Rosalind – provide sufficient CFLS Summary Reports for extension agents and managers;
          provide 1 box Weed Decks; draft brief explanation of the GS CISMA.
     Brian – complete poster; get sufficient copies of poster, Find It-Kill It flyer, and IFAS publications.

Points/treatment follow-up:

Don to contact Wendy Andrews about Van Fleet Trail report.
Rosalind to call Michael Blondin about the 2 Hilochee-related sites;
     to call Jahna about south Lake County site;
     to locate property owners for site adjacent to jail.
     Also, to investigate how to get/improve predictive modeling for lygo infestations.
Brian to send Don sample waiver forms for treating across fencelines.
Colleen to make laminated samples of L. microphyllum for FDOF and other ed purposes.