Before I moved to NC from south FLA, I spent quite a bit of time out in the Everglades during the day and night. Never saw a non native snake. I moved out of FLA literally as the first bands of Hurricane Andrew arrived. Not fun moving when a major hurricane is about to hit.
South FLA has a huge problem with non native animals and plants. Melaleuca trees, Brazilian pepper, walking catfish, Oscars(yes, the fish people have in their aquariums), water hyacinth, Cane Toad, etc, Now add non native snakes. The snakes showed up after Andrew and the theory, which I think is correct, is that enough snakes got loose from the destroyed houses in Andrew to establish a breeding population. Having said that, the non native snake problem was likely to happen without Andrew. A decode or so before Andrew, our neighbor's son had a fit when his python escaped.
Twas only a matter of time before enough snakes escaped to create a problem.
I have not been back to South FLA in many years, but the last time I went across Alligator Alley a couple of decades ago, there were crews out killing the Melaleuca trees. These things have to be poisoned to kill them. If you burn them, they throw off seeds and spread, pun intended, like wildfire. If you cut them down and leave the trunk and stump, new growth will sprout from the stump and the trunk! :shocked: I have seem film from the 20's or 30's where the government was paying people to fly over the swamps of South FLA where they threw out box load after box load of Melaleuca seeds.
Why? The trees soak up quite a bit of water so this was an attempted to dry up the Everglades.
They crews did seem to have taken out quite a lot of the Melaluca trees.
I don't see how they can get rid of the Brazilian pepper bush but they have made an attempt and cleared out some areas. Not sure how they will ever remove the non native plants and animals. It is a real mess.
Later,
Dan
