In the best of worlds, large undisturbed, undeveloped landscapes unaffected by hydrological changes, fire suppression, fragmentation and a host of other human induced changes would be best for protection of Florida’s wildlife and their habitat. However, as the best of worlds is long past for Florida, we must work to find ways to maximize habitat and wildlife utility within the varied mix of developed, managed or human influenced landscapes.
A good way to ensure maintenance of species richness is to work toward developing a mix of connected large parcels, both within and proximate to our communities, that are planned, designed and managed for maintenance of indigenous wildlife habitat. As the relative density of development increases in Florida, supporting a growing human population, we must capitalize on every opportunity to accommodate Florida's wildlife habitats into our communities - as well as on large natural or rural areas between communities.
The basic premise at all scales of wildlife landscape design is that the larger the parcel, the better the opportunities to have viable, sustaining wildlife populations. The smaller the parcel, the more likely deleterious impacts will come into play such as edge effects, habitat fragmentation, incompatibilities with human communities (e.g., loss of regular fires on our fire dependent ecosystems, loss of various micro climates such as highly humid hardwood hammocks or seasonally ephemeral ponds and wetlands with requisite upland edges).
Read more about issues related to Tools to Use for wildlife habitat planning.
