| Radio programs for the week of 28 August 2000 (fe00828 - fe00901) | For more information: | ||
Florida's Desert Islands I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Florida is known worldwide for its unique flora and fauna. But even within the state, there is a place that is unique, even by Florida standards. It is the Lake Wales Ridge, home of the Archbold Biological Station, where Hilary Swain is executive director... "There's a series of ancient scrub systems. These are relic sand dunes left from times of much higher sea level. And the oldest and most ancient of these is a relic sand dune that runs down the middle of Florida, essentially about 150 miles... Orlando, due south." That ancient sand dune, still exists today as part of a near-desert environment in the middle of the state... "The Lake Wales Ridge is a unique geological feature. It's been well known to early explorers for many years and it has younger counterparts on both east and west coast systems in Florida." Much of the original Lake Wales Ridge has been developed or used for agriculture, leaving only pockets to be preserved... "You have to think of the Lake Wales Ridge as a sort of necklace or chain of islands running up the system, where you can go and experience it, rather than one, easy identifiable large area." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its environmental studies program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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 fe00829Ancient Florida I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. History in Florida is a highly relative term. Most cities date back decades, European settlement goes back only hundreds of years. So when discussion turns to Ancient Florida and the Lake Wales Ridge, running about 150 miles due south from Orlando, the greater time frame takes getting used to... "The ancient sand dunes of the Lake Wales Ridge have been around for about the last million-and-a-half years without any inundation, that is without being covered by the sea." Hilary Swain is Executive Director of the Archbold Biological Station "You can imagine yourself a million and a half years ago, standing on the southern tip of the Lake Wales Ridge. At that time, the Atlantic Ocean would have been a couple of miles to your east, the gulf coast would have been two or three miles to your west, and to your south you would have looked straight out to the ocean. And you would have been standing on giant, windblown sand dunes." Some of the ridge and its quirky animals still exist. And it is Swain's mission at Archbold Biological Station for their long-term study... "It's not a State park and it's not a botanical garden. Our role is that we conduct ecological research to understand how this system works." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its environmental studies program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00830 Like a Florida desert I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Florida's Archbold Biological Station was established for ecological research on the Lake Wales Ridge -- an ancient sand dune system in the middle of the state. Archbold's Executive Director, Hilary Swain says the environment on the ridge is very different from the rest of the state... "This is one of the toughest, harshest environments in Florida. To survive on the Lake Wales Ridge, you have to be able to survive in very acid, very sandy soils with really low nutrients. It's a little bit like a desert in the middle of Florida." That peculiar desert has spawned its own plant community: The Florida scrub... "The term 'scrub' typically means low growing, scrubby or bushy ecosystem in dry, sandy soil. But it can have some subtle variations on a theme that can be quite interesting when you get to know it well." Those variations make up habitats for animals found nowhere else in the world... "Some is dryer and higher and dominated by a plant we only find in Florida scrub systems called the Florida Rosemary. Other scrub systems are a little bit wetter, a little bit closer to the water table and have a higher preponderance of open, scattered pines in them." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its environmental studies program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| fe00831 Florida's most ancient plants and animals I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. The Lake Wales Ridge is ancient sand dune system that runs down the middle of Florida for about 150 miles from Orlando, due south. It's home the Archbold Biological Station where scientists like Hilary Swain can study Florida's oldest plants and animals... "We've got these specialized species that have been here, isolated for a million and a half or more years. It's a little bit like an island in the middle of the ocean and we end up with a complex or community of plants and animals that's found nowhere else on earth." Not only are the individual species not be found anywhere else, their closest relatives aren't even Floridians. Instead, they're found in western U.S. deserts... "We share species such as Burrowing Owls, Indigo Snakes, Scrub Jays, Gopher Tortises... these all have western counterparts. So in a way, the Lake Wales Ridge is a small piece of desert like environment that's been a relic left in the middle of Florida The long-term study of these unique plants and animals brings new appreciation.. "We have a unique complex of what has been described as almost Dr. Suess like creatures that live on the Lake Wales Ridge." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its environmental studies program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
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| ue00901 Protecting the Lake Wales Ridge I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment. Some of Florida's most unusual plants and animals are found along the Lake Wales Ridge -- an ancient sand dune system, in the middle of the state, south of Orlando. Its high and dry characteristics both make it unique and helped threaten its future. Hilary Swain researches the area from the Archbold Biological Station... "Some of the most likely to be developed land in interior Florida are the scrub systems because they are high and dry without wetland issues or without drainage issues." As a result conservation and study of the unusual, desert-like area have become priorities in recent years... "The large proportion of the Lake Wales Ridge has already been lost and we're focusing attention on the last remaining areas. The good news is that so far, that attention has been extraordinarily successful." Successful, in terms of how much of the Lake Wales Ridge has been and will be preserved... "We've gone from a situation 10 years ago where we had very few protected areas along the Lake Wales Ridge, to a situation now as we move into the next century of having several sites that have been completely acquired and many sites that have been partially acquired. And this has been an enormous effort." For more information, visit www.floridaenvironment.com. With help from its environmental studies program, we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education. |
