You have just harvested your timber stand, and now have at least 20 acres cleared.

What do you do next?

If you are going to replant pines in your cutover, you have two basic options here in Florida. You can plant longleaf pine or you can plant slash or loblolly pines. I combine loblolly and slash because the decision making process is the similar for those species, yet different from longleaf.

If you have drier sandy soils then longleaf is your best choice. It grows better than any other pine in sandy soils with the exception of sand pine. Sand pine though is not a great choice for commercial stands because it’s only used for pulp wood, the lowest value product.

If you have wet soils then you would look to slash or loblolly pines and a forester can help you decide which is best for your land. If you have good loamy soil that is not frequently flooded or ponded then you could reasonably plant any of the three main commercial species.

So how do you decide when soil is not an issue? Well, longleaf is usually planted using containerized plugs that cost around $200 per thousand. Slash and loblolly are usually planted using bare-root seedlings that cost around $60 per thousand. But factor in your chances of receiving cost-share money to help establish a stand and the cost of longleaf comes way down. Longleaf pine is the focus of most state and federal cost share programs and you are much more likely to get a contract to plant longleaf than you are to plant slash or loblolly.

Although longleaf can cost more on the front end to establish, it recoups the cost all along the way. A longleaf forest can be leased to hunters for more money because it makes better wildlife habitat.

Longleaf has a more open structure to its branches that allow more sunlight on the ground and that allows more herbaceous ground cover, which means more food and more nesting cover. It can be burned as early as one year after planting, which reduces competition from brush. So whether you are leasing your land for deer, turkey or quail, a longleaf pine forest can command a higher fee.

Longleaf pine straw is also the most preferred pine straw used for landscaping and commands a higher price. Landowners can be paid twice as much for longleaf pine straw compared to slash and three times more than loblolly pine straw, which is the lowest grade. When harvest time comes you are likely to have many more poles and saw timber with longleaf than slash or loblolly.

I am partial to longleaf because you have so many more options than with the other species. Landowners often focus on the upfront cost and how fast slash and loblolly grow in the first 10 years. But you never know what the market will look like 10 or 20 years down the road, and longleaf will catch up to slash and loblolly by age 20.

Longleaf is more disease resistant, aesthetically pleasing, wildlife friendly, hurricane resistant and therefore is a better tree for reducing financial risk. So if you can produce more valuable products, and have the flexibility to let the timber ride out bad markets, then longleaf is a better choice.

Resources

Several organizations can help you establish, restore and manage longleaf pine. A variety of programs are also available to help improve wildlife habitat on your forest. Some are listed below.

Natural Resources Conservation Service: Several programs give financial and technical assistance to plant longleaf pine in Florida. The Longleaf Pine Initiative is available to forest owners in select counties and Working Lands for Wildlife is for enhancing habitat for the gopher tortoise. Landowners apply through NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentive Program. A district conservationist at your local USDA service center will help guide you through the application process.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: Landowner Assistance Program biologists provide technical assistance to manage and restore longleaf pine and manage wildlife habitat. They can also provide information about cost share opportunities.

Florida Forest Service: County foresters give technical assistance managing your stands.

The Longleaf Alliance website: A comprehensive source of information, history, education, workshops and management information for restoring the longleaf pine ecosystem.

America’s Longleaf website: Also a comprehensive resource, including workshops and reports.

Arlo Kane is the northwest region conservation planning coordinator for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: What pine to plant? A case for longleaf

GAINESVILLE — When invasive Burmese pythons are breeding, radio-tracking one python can help find and capture more, a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher says.

Thus, UF/IFAS scientists say this technique can help them remove the pythons.

“This is one more tool we can add to our tool box to help us combat this invasive species,” said Brian Smith, a graduate student in the UF/IFAS wildlife ecology and conservation department and lead author of a new study documenting the radio-tagging experiment. “It is also complementary to our current removal tool, in which we drive on roads and levees to capture moving pythons. It’s complementary because it’s effective at a time of year when we do not catch pythons on the road, and also because it provides more opportunities to catch the really big, breeding females.”

For the new study, UF/IFAS and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers tracked 25 pythons from 2007 to 2012. Some of the pythons were used in more than one year, so their research covered 33 tracking periods. In those periods, researchers encountered eight of what they call “betrayal events.” At that point, scientists call them “Judas pythons” because they betray their own kind. Those “Judas pythons” led scientists to 14 new pythons, said Smith.

In all, scientists captured 14 new pythons during 33 tracking periods, said Smith, who conducts research under the supervision of assistant professor Christina Romagosa, a faculty member in wildlife ecology and conservation. Smith is also advised by professor Frank Mazzotti, a faculty member at the UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

While scientists have a complementary tool to remove Burmese pythons, the downside to the radio telemetry technique is that it costs $11,000 per python caught, compared to $6,500 per python caught while cruising around in trucks along Everglades roads. The upside is that snakes help them find Burmese pythons when road surveys aren’t effective.

“Using ‘Judas’ pythons might seem like a wild idea to some, but, despite the cost, it has been the best method to help us find more, large, reproductive individuals during the breeding season,” said Kristen Hart, a USGS research ecologist, study co-author, and a graduate advisor to Smith. “Removal of these large breeders is essential if we are ever to make a dent in the python population.”

Burmese pythons live a normally solitary life, but from December through April in southern Florida, they gather in groups of up to eight, providing an opportunity to spy on them, the study says.

Pythons arrived in South Florida via the pet trade. They then either escaped or were intentionally released into the wild, where they’ve been thriving since at least the mid-1990s.

The Burmese python, whose range stretches from Eastern Indian through mainland Southeast Asia, is a nonvenomous constrictor but can overpower a human. Pythons suffocate their prey before swallowing it.

The new study is published online in the journal Biological Invasions.

Brad Buck is a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences science writer.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: University of Florida: Radio tracking helps hunt Burmese pythons

PANAMA CITY — The 2016 recreational red snapper season in Gulf of Mexico state waters closes July 11, with the last day of harvest being July 10. The season will reopen Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in September and October, and on Labor Day.

This season will help maintain fishing opportunities for recreational anglers in state waters and provide additional fall weekend fishing days.

The private recreational angler red snapper season in Gulf federal waters ran June 1-9 and was extended two days due to Tropical Storm Colin, closing June 12. The federally-permitted charter boat and head ­boat season for federal waters will run June 1-July 16.

Learn more about red snapper at MyFWC.com/Fishing by clicking on “Saltwater,” “Recreational Regulations” and “Snappers.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 2016 Gulf recreational red snapper state season closes July 11

GAINESVILLE — University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences economists estimate the Oriental fruit fly outbreak last year caused at least $4.1 million in direct crop damages in Miami-Dade County, but the damage could have been far worse, UF/IFAS researchers say.

In the new report, UF/IFAS researchers and the chief economist for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, compiled three scenarios for crop losses: optimistic, mid-range and pessimistic. So, although the optimistic scenario reports direct crop damage at $4.1 million, the pessimistic one shows that the loss could have been $23 million.

Edward “Gilly” Evans, a UF/IFAS professor of food and resource economics, said the $4.1 million loss that he and his colleagues estimated was a conservative one and does not reflect the full economic impact on the economy due to the multiplier effect. In addition to these costs, approximately $1.5 million was spent by state and local agencies in a joint effort to control the outbreak. 

The direct crop losses came as a result of the quarantine protocol and a potential non-planting response by growers in Miami-Dade County.

But UF/IFAS faculty credit quick, decisive actions by FDACS, UF/IFAS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for limiting the reach of the fruit fly. Among other things, the UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center provided logistics, acting as the hub for the entire operation, Evans said.

“Although there was certainly a cost to growers in the regulated area, all of Florida agriculture would have been negatively impacted if the pest had expanded its reach,” said Amanda Hodges, associate Extension scientist in the UF/IFAS entomology department. “Other states and countries would have stopped outgoing shipments of Florida’s agricultural products. At the very least, this pest would have cost millions if not billions of dollars if it had made a home here.

“Although many insects and diseases will not result in an eradication program, fruit flies generally will,” said Hodges, director of the UF/IFAS doctor of plant medicine program. “In fact, the state of Florida and the USDA have personnel who monitor fruit flies throughout the year. The state of Florida and USDA are the lead agencies for eradication programs in Florida, and fruit fly eradication efforts here are among the most successful in the world.”

In addition to the crop loss, the new UF/IFAS report says the fruit fly outbreak caused between $10.7 million and $58.5 million in overall economic losses. Evans, a faculty member at the UF/IFAS Tropical REC, in Homestead, Florida, outlines the findings in this new Extension document, http://bit.ly/28KHfcA.

Here’s how the damage occurs.

The fruit fly feeds on more than 400 crops, including many grown in Florida. Once established, the insect may cause 25 to 50 percent losses in food-crop harvests. In August 2015, fruit flies began to appear in south Miami-Dade County monitoring traps, prompting FDACS to impose a temporary quarantine on 99 square miles that include an agriculture-dependent area known as The Redland.

Altogether, the county’s agricultural activities generate $1.6 billion in revenues each year.

Blair Siegfried, professor and chair of the UF/IFAS entomology department, said there is little anyone can do to prevent another outbreak other than to be vigilant in detection efforts and prepare for an outbreak if it’s detected.

“Each potential invading species has a unique set of circumstances related to the pest biology and the environment where it is detected,” Siegfried said. “In some cases, eradication may be possible, while in others, learning to manage the pest may be the best we can do.”

Brad Buck is a University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences science writer.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: University of Florida: Fruit fly outbreak cost growers $4.1 million