Speech Delivered to the North Brevard Parks and Recreation Department
October 8, 1998.

Written and Delivered by Tim Mallow

Good Evening, my name is Tim Mallow, Director of Coryi Foundation. Inc. We are studying wildlife population viability in the Eastern Florida Flatwoods Ecoregion which includes Brevard County and counties from Jacksonville south to Lake Okeechobee. Specifically, we are looking at how wide-ranging species are currently persisting in developed and fragmented landscapes. We are currently doing this by radio-collaring bobcats and documenting their movements.

Our emphasis is on Brevard County for the following reason:

On a regional scale, Brevard County is the weak link in a chain of east Florida counties. The St. Johns River acts as an effective impediment to terrestrial movement from west to east. Its vast marshes and/or wide channels impede, if not prevent, movement into eastern coastal counties. Thus, principal routes throughout coastal counties for many animals is along a north and south direction. Unfortunately, Brevard is a narrow county that is subject to intense habitat loss especially on the upland topographies. The largest remaining wild areas are quickly becoming the St. Johns River marshes. In time, development could effectively reach 100% saturation from the Indian River Lagoon to the marshes of the St. Johns River at key locations. This "pinch-off effect" will eliminate upland and other forest types that are needed to facilitate animal passage from north to south and vice-versa. i.e., bobcats and other wide-ranging or long-dispersing terrestrial species will not be able to get from Palm Bay to Mims. North-south habitat connectivity will cease to exist. As a result, populations to the north will become isolated (again the river is a virtual barrier). Future development in those areas will shrink those populations - and with it will come inbreeding depression, lack of individual replenishment and gene flow from outside sources, and possibly local extinction. Brevard county will also see the disappearance of a majestic and beautiful attribute of the natural forest - the bobcat - perhaps one of the most effective regulators of rodent and rabbit populations.

To prevent this, remaining natural areas need to be afforded some level of protection to insure that they are linked together in the fragmented landscape to allow north-south movement. Such connectivity should allow gene flow to occur throughout, as well as in and out of the county. Therefore, the bobcat needs habitat connectivity on a large scale. Conservation areas (core tracts) need to increase in size and number and be interconnected via movement corridors. Since the St. Johns River floodplain marshes do not sufficiently meet the needs of bobcats, these corridors and core tracts need to exist in the preferred forested and dry shrub habitats that are east of the marshes.

Coryi Foundation is determining where these corridors exist by radio-collaring and tracking the movements of bobcats. We are also obtaining important information on how these corridors need to be designed. The final objective is to insure that the long term needs of bobcats and other species are met. Please refer to our web site at http://www.coryi.org for details of this effort.

Linear parks can act as wildlife corridors provided minimum criteria are met as follows:

(1) Proper length to width ratios need to be maintained (that is, the longer the corridor, the wider it must be).

(2) Trails that are intended to be used by animals should be embedded within linear strips of forest. These forested strips must be sufficiently wide to allow a buffer between the trail and adjacent developments. Trails will act as movement conduits when there is adequate cover (type and width) on both sides.

(3) The trails should interconnect larger core tracts that can provide enough space for several home range areas. An example of a large core area is the composite lands of Fay Lake Wilderness Park and the St. Johns NWR.

Proper planning of this project should include adequate accommodation for the needs of wildlife - a plan that is subject to a wildlife corridor network design that provides a real function for animal movement. Now is the time to address this need - in the process of designing a linear park. If planned correctly, the park’s presence will be an investment in the biodiversity of the future - biodiversity on a local scale that effects regional ecological processes.

Coryi Foundation, Inc. supports a park design that benefits not only the human agenda, but also the needs of wildlife. We hereby invoke that action be taken to include serious and progressive ecological consideration of this project.