Exotic Plant & Animal Removal: Jay Blanchard Park

5/26/11
     Armoured Catfish in Blanchard Park
     I called the FWC (Florida Wildlife Commision) and asked them what the law was on catching exotic/invasive Armoured Cat Fish. They said because they are exotics then there is no bag limit or catch method limit on them. Of course what ever method I use, it must be very species specific.
     So I went with a friend to Blanchard Park to hunt the Armoured/Sailfin/Janitor/Sucker Cat Fish. My friend had a cast net and I brought a bamboo spear. After chasing about ten of them around we didn't catch a single one. They stayed just a few feet beyond our reach all afternoon. The cast net sunk to slowly and the fish just ducked under it. The spear was not accurate enough.
     After watching several Youtube.com videos, I really feel a bow and arrow fighing-rig up is the best way to catch them.
     I did collect a bucket full of Water Hyacinths, Water Lettuce, one Chinese Tallow Tree, 20 Cesar Weeds and 1 Cuban Anole. I also scraped off all the pink egg cases of the invasive Channel Apple Snail I could find.

10/10/10
     Chinese Tallow Trees
     I went to Blanchard Park today and did something I have never done. I walked over the bridge over to the north side of the Little Econlockhatchee River. I've been cleaning this park for 17 years with Eco-Action and never knew there were paths over there!
    I explored and found these paths to be a lower elevation than on the south side of the river. In Florida a few inches in elevation could mean the difference between weeks or months underwater. The plants are different and dominated by grasses and Button Bushes. I saw a few populations of Cesar weeds and pulled out 205 of them. I more importantly saw a dominance of Chinese Tallow Trees and I pulled out 72 of them. I found a lot more styrafoam here then in higher elevations.

     Since I'm walking and not in a canoe like I am at home, I'm limited to taking out only what I can carry. If I was in a canoe I could use it like a floating trash can and collect a lot more.

                            
10/7/10
     Anolis sagrei
     I stopped briefly at Blanchard Park and terminated three Cuban Anoles. Cuban Anoles (Anolis sagrei) are an exotic and invasive species of lizard. They are pushing the native Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) into extinction. (The picture above is a young Cuban Anole.)
     Often when I am out hunting Cuban Anoles I see them fighting Green Anoles for territory. I swoop in an take the Anolis sagrei right out of the picture. Often I keep the Cuban Anoles for later and feed them to some local Soft Shell Turtles. I find this to be true justice, to feed an exotic species to native one.
     I wish the Anoli sagrei were more commonly called Caribbean Anole. To call them Cuban Anole, like Cuban Tree frogs in neither biologically correct nor culturally correct.

10/6/10
     A Good Use of Time
     Today while waiting for a dentist appointment I went to Blanchard Park and took out 200 Cesar Weeds and two Cuban Anoles.

10/4/10
     A War Begins
     I have many exotic invasive plant and animal removal sites going on at once. This blog will be about my effort to rid Central Florida of exotic and Invasive species.

     Today I went to Blanchard Park in East Orlando and ripped out 450 Cesar Weed plants, 10 small Chinese Tallow trees, two Begonia plants, one Cuban Anole lizard and some litter. There was several Chinese Tallow trees to big for me to remove. So I took out my survival knife and hacked them down to stumps.
     The picture above is of Cesar Weed (Urena lobata). Cesar weed is a category II invasive exotic plant in the state of Florida. I think it should be category I. It is very invasive and crowds out any native plants.