Wild Native Bromeliads

[LeftCoastAngler]

Should I remove and add to my collection, or no?

I'm a industrial electrician working on yet another water plant in the middle of BFE. (middle of nowhere...) Happens the 125acre property is surrounded by Florida's Natural Cypress Swamps... I was following deer & hog tracks and stumbled upon some wild Broms... Debating if I should break the chain of events in the woods or not? I've done some research on UF's site, and the ones I'm looking at ARE NOT protected, and it doesn't say YOU CAN'T posess them, but there are some that you CAN'T. Should I get the gettin's while the gettin's good?

Your opinion?

I'll snap some piccies today...

~LCA.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by LeftCoastAngler

Should I remove and add to my collection, or no?

I'm a industrial electrician working on yet another water plant in the middle of BFE. (middle of nowhere...) Happens the 125acre property is surrounded by Florida's Natural Cypress Swamps... I was following deer & hog tracks and stumbled upon some wild Broms... Debating if I should break the chain of events in the woods or not? I've done some research on UF's site, and the ones I'm looking at ARE NOT protected, and it doesn't say YOU CAN'T posess them, but there are some that you CAN'T. Should I get the gettin's while the gettin's good?

Your opinion?

I'll snap some piccies today...

~LCA.

Check out who owns the land. Is the land itself protected? I'm not sure of the land protection laws in the States but in Australia it is illegal to take any plant material from state and federally protected land without a permit, regardless of the conservation status of the plant itself. I'd be surprised if the US doesn't have similar legislation regarding state and national land. If it's private land, contact the owners to see if you can collect some material. Are the plants in question available comercially? If so is there a reason why you'd want to collect the wild material instead of buying the plant (other than the obvious price factor)?

[jbigio]

All Native plants growing wild are protected in FL the only ones who can collect are the Semonals and that's even debatable. If the land is privately owned and the plants are not on the endangered list and you have asked the owner you can collect them seems way to troublesome to me

[evagentry]

I agree with jbigio, if the plants are not endangered and the owner of the land gives permission then o.k.

[LeftCoastAngler]

Florida's Native Bromeliads


15th picture down...

You can note that it clearly states on the ones that you aren't supposed to have... Lemme upload my pics:

[LeftCoastAngler]

Took well over twenty pics, and this was the best one... I had to bend over the little red maple tree that it was attached to... Hence the upsidedown look of it...

~LCA.

[pikevi]

LeftCoastAngler: I am sure some of the Bromeliads would have been destroyed during the construction of the water plant. If they are protected then the construction would not have been permitted, as I understand. But 'progress' initiated by the government is usually 'blind'

As Andrew said your federal land ( we call it Crown land) is legally protected and strictly speaking not even a small stone can be removed from the crown land without a 'permit'. It is, however, rarely enforced to the letter.

I am sure your local authorities will allow you to take some of them home in the light of a new plant construction.

Good luck.

[LeftCoastAngler]

The property I'm working on in owned by the county. The surrounding CypressySwamp area is probably owned by the state being "wetlands", it is uninhabitable... aka 'Protected' here in the state of Florida. My guess is anything in it aswell...

The tree-huggers have been out to the job site several times in light of the gopher turtle findings... They've really slowed down progress... You aren't even allowed to cut a branch off a tree around here!

GopherTortoise Facts and Information

They've got burrows all over the property so the environmentalists are really thick around there... I think I should just leave the Broms well enough alone until I have a chat with one of these tree huggers about it. They'll have a definate answer for me; I'm sure...

I just don't want any problems with StateLaws. I remember back in the days growing up as a kid seeing baby alligators hatch in a 100gal aquarium after a buddies father snatched 'em from a nest one day... Those days are over here in FL, my friends... Those'll getcha in some serious trouble these days!

I'd much rather get properly inform'd from these environmentalists... Although they'll probably just want me to leave them alone...

[LeftCoastAngler]

Check out this big 'ol SouthernPine I stumbled on while adventuring!
It was almost 4' round.

~LCA.

[pikevi]

Thanks for the photos. Is it 4 feet around (circumference) or in diameter?

It is better to talk to an official of your county than the environmentalists to get the right answer.

Good luck.

[LeftCoastAngler]

Here's a couple pics of a gopher tortise cave:







Pretty neat. I've since stumbled upon yet another, I'll take piccies of that one in a couple days...

~LCA.

[Debbie Hayden]

My son was training at Camp Shelby in south MS, and he told us that if Gopher Turtles were visable while they were doing their maneuvers they had to stop everything until they were gone. If you kill one, its off to jail!!

[LeftCoastAngler]

A protected species there aswell; I reckon...

~LCA.

[pikevi]

Nice pictures. I assume gopher tortoises dig those tunnels to lay their eggs in them.

Do they have access to water close-by?

Pretty neat

Thanks for the photos.

[LeftCoastAngler]

Originally Posted by pikevi

Nice pictures. I assume gopher tortoises dig those tunnels to lay their eggs in them.

Do they have access to water close-by?

Pretty neat

Thanks for the photos.

These are more land minded turtles. I think they differentiate the two by calling them turtles and tortoise.... I dunno, I'm not sure...

But yes, there is Cypressy Swamp areas all around. But these caves that I've seen seem to always be in the high and dry areas near palmetto bushes and dry dirts... ? I don't think they're water based turtles like you'd normally think of...