Islands are often considered to be masses of land surrounded by water, cut off from other resources. The availability of food, water, mates, and shelter are limited because of the island’s disconnect from other land. Before rapid human development across Florida, wildlife could roam across the state, with natural barriers impacting their travel, not busy roads and swathes of strip malls.

Today, despite Florida being one large landmass, wildlife often struggle to journey across the state as their ancestors have done for generations due to human development fragmenting the landscape. This is why connecting and protecting the Florida Wildlife Corridor is crucial to the long term survival of our wildlife. The Corridor spans nearly 18 million acres, from the Everglades to the Georgia-Alabama borders. Currently 10 million acres are officially protected, with the remaining 8 million acres vulnerable to fragmentation. These opportunity lands are active pieces of the Corridor and need to sustain continuity with the officially protected properties to ensure wildlife have safe passage across the state. Within the Corridor, there are 16 irreplaceable gaps, which are critical areas where no other options exist to connect the surrounding lands. There are no replacements if these lands are lost. If these gaps become paved, rather than protected, the wildlife that depend on them for survival will be at risk of isolation from high quality habitat within the Corridor.

A connected Corridor is critical in ensuring genetic diversity, availability of resources, balanced species competition, and much more for the wildlife of our state. We need landscape connectivity, not islands of wilderness dispersed within a sea of concrete. Development in Florida is inevitable, but practices that work with environmental sustainability can help balance the state’s growing demands. When development sprawls without consideration of the environment, important wild spaces can become islands of their own.

Oscar Scherer State Park and the Scherer Thaxton Preserve are located in Sarasota County, bordered by housing developments and three busy roads: US-41, I-75, and US-681. On the state park’s website, it is advertised as “a hidden nature preserve for imperiled species surrounded by busy urban areas”. The park is a critical area for Florida’s only endemic bird, the Florida scrub-jay, hosts nesting bald eagles in winter, and supports a diverse array of both plant and animal life. Additionally, it contains a healthy scrub ecosystem, a habitat becoming more scarce due to development and its need for fire maintenance.

An adult (left) and juvenile (right) Florida scrub-jay perched on scrub oak. Photos by Abigail Nelson

The scrub-jay is currently listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. To survive, it requires low growing scrub oaks and sandy substrate, with prescribed fires utilized to maintain this suitable vegetation. However, the closer these prescribed fires are to human development, the more pushback they receive. Disrupting natural processes that damage necessary conditions for wildlife can have major repercussions on those populations. Oscar Scherer State Park also supports gopher tortoises, over 160 bird species, six-lined race runners, american alligators, eastern cottontails, a diversity of snakes, green anoles, white-tailed deer, and so much more.

Adult gopher tortoise on the move (left). Oscar Scherer State Park yellow trail scrub (right). Photos by Abigail Nelson.

The eastern side of the park is bordered by I-75 which acts as a massive barrier for wildlife and severs a possible connection to the Florida Wildlife Corridor which lies on the other side. On drives to Oscar Scherer and Scherer Thaxton, I often contemplate what it would be like to cross the traffic without a car. Vehicles would try to stop for me, but that same care may not be extended to a raccoon or gopher tortoise. No terrestrial wildlife from Oscar Scherer State Park or the Scherer Thaxton Preserve have safe access to those resources that lie on the other side of I-75. The populations here are restricted to an island, rather than the vast Corridor and it is because of the design of development.

On the trails in the center of the park, it is hard to remember you are surrounded by a sea of concrete. Families of scrub-jays call, birds soar overhead, and gopher tortoises crawl from burrow to burrow. The site of scorched trees and low lying scrub oaks all around spark nothing but awe. Yet, near the edge of the parks, the sound of cars vrooming by hum beneath the bird calls and the bliss of wilderness softens. Despite this, the park is still an invaluable resource to protect and acts as a warning of what could happen if we do not race to protect those 16 irreplaceable gaps. The answer is not ending all development in Florida, but to ensure a connected Corridor, wildlife and natural spaces must be core to the design process. There is not only hope, but real action being taken right now to protect these irreplaceable gaps. Your support of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and mission-aligned organizations today furthers the fight.

Sources
https://www.rcrcd.org/habitat-fragmentation-wildlife-corridors

https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/oscar-scherer-state-park

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22705629/179678639

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=152837&view=species