Nature Is Real: Jennings State Forest

Jennings State Forest Headquarters

On a rainy Saturday February 8th Nature Man had the pleasure of accomplishing two life changing events. I graduated the second Module of the UF IFAS Master Naturalist Program Freshwater Wetlands Module andI joined my Florida Master Naturalist Freshwater Wetlands classmates for a field trip to Jennings State Forest, which is just west of Middleburg off highway 218. If you have never had the pleasure of hiking in Jennings State Forest I highly recommend you make it your next outdoor destination.

Acquisition of Property and Management
Jennings, a 25,301 acre State Forest, was purchased by the State of Florida's Conservation and Recreation Lands (CARL), Preservation 2000, and Save Our Rivers programs. Just a reminder, Guana property was purchased by CARL funds back in the 90's. I had the pleasure of speaking at three public hearings in favor of the purchase of Guana from Gate Petroleum. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Forestry, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission, and the St. Johns River Water Management District are responsible for the management of Jennings State Forest.

Prescribed Burn Area

Natural Communities
Jennings State Forest has more than 15 different natural communities, each with unique plants, animals and physical characteristics. A few examples are sandhills, slope forests, flatwoods, seepage slopes, dome swamps, blackwater streams and seepage streams. The variety of natural communities accounts for the abundant wildlife that occur in the forest. Gopher frogs, otter, alligator and wading birds can be seen along North Fork Black Creek and other streams. White-tailed deer, turkey, kestrel and other birds are found in the uplands. Rare plants like Bartram's Ixia, and St. Johns Susan can be observed in the forest, as well as many uncommon herb bog plants growing in the seepage slope communities. Several steephead ravines can be found in the forest. These ravines are located along the seepage streams leading to North Fork Black Creek. Gopher tortoise, pine snake, gopher frog, southeastern American kestrel, indigo snake and Sherman's fox squirrel are some of the rare sandhill species protected in Jennings State Forest.

Master Naturalist Class Field Trip

Cottonmouth Water Moccasin

Today our class was led by our instructors Carol, Allan, Amy, Beth and David in a wetland area just off the North Fork Black Creek. We were rewarded very quickly for hiking in a light cold rain by finding a beautiful, coiled, Cotton Mouth Water Moccasin who lay nearly motionless due to the conditions. Alan got a little too close to suit the snake to take its picture and it quickly turned its head his direction. Alan immediately moved back a little to give the snake a little more breathing room. I snapped a great picture from a safe distance using my zoom lens pocket Cannon camera. On this hike we found American Holly, Cypress Trees, Native Bamboo and Neverwet (part of the Arum Family) which is a shallow stream or pond floating water plant.

Female Turkey Scat

We next visited a recent prescribed burn area next to a woodlands pond. In the area we saw the beneficial effect of fire on plant life and thus the positive impact on the wildlife. For some reason this was to be a very poopy day. We found rather large hog scat, male and female turkey scat (yes Allan said he was able to tell the difference due the shape (female curvy, male straighter). I'm not kidding, Allan was serious. We also found rabbit scat and whitetail deer scat. In this area we saw numerous wood duck boxes installed for nesting, a hatched turkey egg shell, a hooded pitcher plant that was turned yellow from the fire and turkey needle palmetto burned in the fire to form an arrowhead shape at the end of the stalk.

It was back to the Jennings Forestry Office to dry out and warm up for lunch, project presentations and graduation proceedings. Our instructors were impressed with our projects. It was easy to tell everyone had fun developing their project and presentation. I would like to thank each of our instructors for their wonderful expertise and excellent teaching skills. This class was highly educational due to the excellent written material, presentations, videos and especially the very enjoyable hands on field trips. I can't wait for the Coastal Systems Module. I hope you enjoy the pictures from the today's field trip.

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