Environmental Science: Brooker Creek Preserve Report

Narrative

Starting from the parking lot we began the trail in an upland environment. Trees observed were persimmon (most suffering from a disease which curls and browns the leaves), oak, dogfennel, and beautyberry bush. Muscadine grape vines were proliferate. Animals observed upon entering and leaving the park’s Pine Flatwoods included a large (~1’x8”) gopher tortoise and a red shoulder hawk. The Pine Flatwoods included various grasses and wildflowers, slash and longleaf pine and saw palmetto. Once we entered the trail and proceeded into the preserve, we very quickly transitioned to wetlands. The soil became saturated within a dozen feet of the trail entrance and dry upland plants such as saw palmetto, sumac, bidens flower, rag weed, wax myrtle, and wheely grass gave way to transition plants like cinnamon fern, sawgrass, button bush, and Red Maple.

As we moved farther in, the north side of the trail was inundated with water between 6-12 inches deep. Trees such as cypress and live oak showed buttressing and several grasses and small plants covered the waterways. Lizard’s Tail and climbing hemp vine were frequent, as was wild taro. Baton Rouge, a species of lichen which looks like pink and white paint balls exploded, covered the trunks of many of the larger live oak trees. The south side of the trail was substantially drier, with more saw palmettos and larger trees. At this point we also saw cabbage palm trees farther in.

As we moved in toward the Education Center and Brooker Creek, we moved from the higher forested wetland to a bottomland swamp. The change was predominated by moving water, dark-black soil and air plants (habenaria florina), American elm, wild coffee, frostweed, water hyacinth and water oak.  We saw a brown water snake, spiders of various species, tadpoles and squirrels. Moving ever south, we crossed Brooker Creek with its riparian waterways and high water marks up the embankments and tree trunks (bald cypress and water oak predominantly) close to six inches above the current water line. The thought was the water level had been so high because of the recent hurricane. Soil samples were taken just south of the bridge over Brooker Creek. One from the dry hammock predominated by slash and long-leaf pine and one from the wet cypress dome where we saw a pileated and a red-cockaded woodpecker (found in pine forests). There was one lone dahoon holly tree in the water as we left Brooker Creek and proceeded south towards where we took soil samples. Monarch Butterflies were viewed and a small damselfly decided to rest on Brandon’s notebook as we took the soil samples.

                Upon review, the uplands were home to more oaks (live and water) than the wetlands areas where bald cypress grew in proliferation. Out of place plants include invasive species like caesarweed and wild taro (cypress dome) and skunkvine (forested wetlands). The boundary between zones was most clearly defined by the presence of standing or flowing water and the openness of the ground way. Brooker Creek would be identified as a forested wetland predominantly with interspersed cypress domes.

Photos:

Table 1: Soil Information

As the trail turned west/south-west, we stopped to take soil samples. The cores were between 35 and 37 cm deep and were taken from both a wetland and upland location within thirty feet of each other. Inference: The uplands zone was inundated quite recently, probably from the Hurricane which pushed the water table up.

Site ID	Site Name	Soil Depth Interval (cm)	Depth to Groundwater (cm)	Color	Texture	Water Content
1	Wetland	0-2cm	0	Brown	Decomposition of organic materials (leaves, bark, plants, etc.).	Moist
1	Wetland	2-8cm	0	Dark brown	Mucky silt	Wet
1	Wetland	8-30cm	0	Black	Soil was silty with not much sand	Uniform wet
1	Wetland	30-35cm	0	Black	Mucky soil with minimal sand	Saturated; odor of H2S

Munsell scale: 2 yr 2/1.

Site ID	Site Name	Soil Depth Interval (cm)	Depth to Groundwater (cm)	Color	Texture	Water Content
2	Upland	0-6cm	+37cm	Brown	Decomposition of organic materials (leaves, bark, plants, etc.); larger pieces could be felt.	Damp
2	Upland	6-37cm	+37cm	Uniform dark Brown	Sandy loam with fine particles.	Moist

Munsell scale: 2 yr 2/2.

Table 2: Animals Observed in Brooker Creek Preserve

Name (common)	Comments/Location
Red Shoulder Hawk	In Pine Flatwoods upon entry to Park.
Monarch Butterfly	Upland portion of soil sample.
Zebra Butterfly	Parking Lot.
Sulfur Butterfly	Parking Lot.
Brown Water Snake	By Education Center.
DamselFly	Upland portion of soil sample.
red-cockaded woodpecker	Wetland portion of soil sample.
Grasshopper	In Pine Flatwoods upon leaving Park.
Gopher Tortoise	In Pine Flatwoods upon leaving Park.

Table 3: Plants Observed in Brooker Creek Preserve

Common name *	Scientific name	Family	Plant type	Wetland status	Native or exotic**	Viewed on trip?
Red Maple	Acer rubrum	Sapindaceae	Tree	FACW	NATIVE	x
Swamp Fern	Blechnum serrulatum	Blechnaceae	Herb	FACW	NATIVE	x
Beauty Berry	Callicarpa americana	Lamiaceae	Shrub	FACU	NATIVE	x
Button Bush	Cephalanthus occidentalis	Rubiaceae	Shrub	OBL	NATIVE	x
Jamaican Sawgrass	Cladium jamaicense	Cyperaceae	Graminoid	NOT LISTED	NATIVE	x
Persimmon	Diospyros virginiana	Ebenaceae	Tree	FAC	NATIVE	x
Dogfennel	Eupatorium capillifolium	Asteraceae	Herb	FACU	NATIVE	x
False Dogfennel	Eupatorium leptophyllum	Asteraceae	Herb	FACW	NATIVE	x
Dahoon	Ilex cassine	Aquifoliaceae	Tree	FACW	NATIVE	x
Cardinal flower	Lobelia cardinalis	Campanulaceae	Flower	FACW	NATIVE-Threatened	Mentioned but I didn't see it.
Climbing Hempvine	Mikania scandens	Asteraceae	Vine/Herb	FACW	NATIVE	x
Wax Myrtle	Myrica cerifera	Myricaceae	Tree	FAC	NATIVE	x
Tupelo	Nyssa sylvatica	Cornaceae	Tree	OBL	NATIVE	Mentioned but I didn't see it.
Cinnamon Fern	Osmunda cinnamomea	Osmundaceae	Herb	FACW	NATIVE-Commercially Exploited	x
Maidencane	Panicum hemitomon	Poaceae	Graminoid	OBL	NATIVE	x
Swamp Bay	Persea palustris	Lauraceae	Tree	FACW	NATIVE	x
Wild Coffee	Psychotria nervosa	Rubiaceae	Shrub	FAC	NATIVE	x
Laurel Oak	Quercus laurifolia	Fagaceae	Tree	FACW	NATIVE	x
Water oak	Quercus nigra	Fagaceae	Tree	FAC	NATIVE	x
Cabbage Palm	Sabal palmetto	Arecaceae	Tree	FAC	NATIVE	x
Saw Palmetto	Serenoa repens	Arecaceae	Tree	FACU	NATIVE	x
Bald Cypress	Taxodium distichum	Cupressaceae	Tree	OBL	NATIVE	x
Muscadine Grape	Vitis rotundifolia	Vitaceae	Vine	FAC	NATIVE	x
Wild Taro	Colocasia esculenta	Araceae	Herb	FACW	EPCC(I)-INVASIVE	x
Caesarweed	Urena lobata	Malvaceae	Shrub	FAC	EPCC(I)-INVASIVE	x
Sewervine	Paederia cruddasiana	Rubiaceae	Vine	NOT LISTED	EPCC(I)-NOXIOUS WEED	x
Water Hyacinth	Eichhornia crassipes	Pontederiaceae	Herb	OBL	EPCC(I)	x
Bidens Flower	Bidens pilosa	Asteraceae	Flower	FAC	EXOTIC	x
Water Meal (duckweed)	Wolffia columbiana	Araceae	Flower	OBL	NATIVE	x
Torpedo Grass	Panicum repens	Poaceae	Graminoid	FACW	EPCC(I)	x