By Lisa Hanley

Map of the burn.

Hold on, what’s that? Whoa, what happened here? It was an ordinary Friday morning during a routine check of the Galaxy Sand Pine Preserve when we stumbled upon something totally unexpected. Fire in the scrub! Or rather, very clear signs that a hot burning fire had scorched roughly a quarter of an acre of the Preserve.

On Wednesday, April 27th, Chris Lockhart (Habitats Specialists, Inc.), Rebecca Harvey (Sustainability Coordinator, City of Boynton Beach), Dwight Saulter (Parks Manager, City of Boynton Beach), and I walked the nature trail, noting the improvements made by Habitat Specialists who have been hired by the city to maintain the trail. When we reached the northern end of the trail and saw the blackened area, we were delighted and Dwight was amused. “Most people would be upset about this but here you all are, happy to see it.”

Dwight was right. We were very happy to see what nature intends to happen in all Florida ecosystems: periodic fire. In this case, the fire seemed to have been started by persons unknown who ripped back a portion of the chain link fence protecting the Preserve in order to gain access. We know it happened between April 21st and the 27th. The Boynton Beach Fire Department put out the fire before it moved into the forest and thankfully did not use any heavy equipment to do so, thus leaving the soil intact.

The fire burned down to the white sugar sand, providing exactly what the native seed bank needs to finally be able to propagate – hot, bare, sunny sand. No chemicals or hand pulling necessary. The native seeds will have competition and require continued maintenance to keep the invasives under control, but what a great head start. 

We hope to see you in the fall when we resume our service outings. We will be able to compare the burn pictures to what, and how much, grows back over the summer.

Before the burn.

After the burn.