Date: 16-Sep-14
Country: USA
Author: David Adams

Wildlife officials are preparing to set a 10,000-acre fire on Tuesday to combat an invasive fern in Florida's Everglades National Park, hoping to burn away a vine that is blocking sunlight to native plants.

The controlled burn is part of a fight against Lygodium microphyllum, commonly known as Old World climbing fern, which is threatening large areas of the 1.5 million-acre park in south Florida, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States.

The exotic intruder is native to Australia, Africa and tropical Asia. It was introduced to Florida in the 1960s as a landscape plant.

In past efforts to control it, Everglades managers have deployed herbicide. They now are attacking it with a fire confined to the southern tip of the Everglades.

It is one of many battles being fought in the park against non-native species, including plants such as Brazilian Pepper and melaleuca, an Australian paper bark tree, as well as animal species like the notorious Burmese python and two types of lizard - the African Nile monitor and the South American black and white tegu. Two aggressive aquarium fish, the Mayan cichlid and African jewelfish, are also high on the invasives list.

The park will remain open to visitors during the fire, expected to last one day, although it could blaze longer. Park managers urged people driving through the park to be careful when they see smoke.

( Writing by Letitia Stein in Tampa)

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http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/72190