Florida Scrub on military installations supports a number of land uses including the Department of Defense (DoD) training and testing mission and threatened, endangered, and sensitive species (TES) conservation. This report documents strategies to manage TES and their habitat on a plant community basis, using methods that apply to multiple species occurring in scrub within the state of Florida. This report provides ecological descriptions of the community, along with available information about community occurrence on DoD installations in Florida. Known occurrences of plant and animal TES are also included. Known and potential impacts to the integrity of the community as TES habitat and to associated species are reported. Impacts are related to habitat fragmentation, and changes in community composition, structure and function due altered fire regime, hydrologic patterns, groundcover integrity or the invasion of exotic species. Management recommendations are made within as ecosystem based, adaptive management context.

The Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) is an indicator of ecosystem integrity of Florida scrub, an endangered ecosystem that requires frequent fire. One of the largest populations of this federally threatened species occurs on John F. Kennedy Space Center/Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Population trends were predicted using population modeling and field data on reproduction and survival of Florida Scrub-Jays collected from 1988 - 1995. Analyses of historical photography indicated that habitat suitability has been declining for 30 years. Field data and computer simulations suggested that the population declined by at least 40% and will decline by another 40% in 1 0 years, if habitat management is not greatly intensified. Data and computer simulations suggest that habitat suitability cannot deviate greatly from optimal for the jay population to persist. Landscape trajectories of vegetation structure, responsible for declining habitat suitability, are associated with the disruption of natural fire regimes. Prescribed fire alone can not reverse the trajectories. A recovery strategy was developed, based on studies of Florida Scrub-Jays and scrub vegetation. A reserve design was formulated based on conservation science principles for scrub ecosystems. The strategy emphasizes frequent fire to restore habitat, but includes mechanical tree cutting for severely degraded areas. Pine thinning across large areas can produce rapid increases in habitat quality. Site-specific strategies will need to be developed, monitored, and modified to achieve conditions suitable for population persistence. Breininger, D. R. and Larson, V. L. and Schaub, R. and Duncan, B. W. and Schmalzer, P. A. and Oddy, D. M. and Smith, R. B. and Adrian, F. and Hill, H., Jr. Kennedy Space Center COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; ECOSYSTEMS; ENDANGERED SPECIES; MERRITT ISLAND (FL); CAPE KENNEDY LAUNCH COMPLEX; HABITATS; POPULATIONS; BIRDS; FOREST FIRES; SITE SELECTION; ENVIRONMENT EFFECTS; FOREST MAN...