Nice day with Mike!

Hi again guys,

Today has been a really funny day. I have been all the day learning, learning and learning. I've learnt about USA's way-of-live, USA's way-of-thinking and about USA's Forest Service. The more I know about USA, the more I like USA. I think in Europe, we have a wrong idea about american people. I feel here like a King. It's impresive as people treat me. They are the cozier people I've ever met! No doubt: they're great guys.

I've been all the day with Mike. Mike is a Leda's fire labe mate. It is really a great guy, which has made me feel like at home. At the first time I have had some problems for understanding its accent (it's southern one, so hard, like Griegos' one in Spanish language), but in a few minutes all was right. I want to say that it is imposible for me to remember everything we have done, every explaning he has made to me and every curiosity I've seen and learnt. So, I apologize for not being abble to write as well as Mike speaks. I'm really happy with this guy.

Early on the morning we have gone to a Forest Service owned forest (it means public forest, such as C. U. P. ones in Spain) and University of Florida School of Forest Resources & Conservation managed. They use it both for reseraching and experiencing may things. Both, F. S. and UF use it mainly for aplying treatments on the vegetation. It's the Osceola National Forest, and the area is called "Osceola Wildlife Management Area". It sounds great!

They have different plots for different treatments. Mainly they apply "burn only" (prescribed fire), "mow only" (with tractors and mowing machines), "mow + burn" (mixed one), and "control" (no treatment). Some control plots are now "burn only", do you know why? Fire has scaped, hahaha. Florida State is fully plate, so it's earlier to control a prescribed fire than in other States with many mountains, changes in topography. In those ones there are many changes in wind, meteorology, slope,.. and many other things which complicates the execution of a prescribed burning. I have noticed that in "burn only" plots it grows many Serenoa repens (Saw palmetto) and few of other species.

In "mow only" it grows major variety of species (Serenoa repens, some shrubs and some grasses). It may be related to the effects of tractors (thery're heavy and they  compress the soil and remove the sands). Moreover, almost eighty per cent of the vegetation near to the trees isn't mowed, because tractors can't approach to them). There are also some injuries in the bark of the trees.

In "mow + burn" it grows major variety of species than in "burn only" but with less grasses than in "mow only".

As I said before, there are also control plots. These plots have not treatment and they are usefull to determinate how fire and mow (how treatments) manage the ecosystem. So you can compare between unmanaged plots and managed ones. And when we say "unmanaged" not necessarily we are saying "natural", because in Florida fire is part of the ecosystems, and the more effectively we are in fire supression, the more we are "detanuralizing" the ecosystems. So we can find that fire managed plots are the more natural than non managed ones (because non managed may be "fire exluded" ones, and therefore "non naturale" ones).

We have also visited a recently burned area and some other areas burned with different timelags. I've noticed that annual burning areas are greater than others. There is less vegetation and therefore you can better walk into the forest, animals also can better life, and fire is prevented. 

I've forgotten to say that the main fire cause in Florida is lightnings: it's not possible to predict where it will strike but the more area managed (the less fuel avalaible to burn), the less possibilities to ignition.

We have also visited the Forest Service Headquarters in the area. It's great, full of information, full of interesting things, not like in Spain. One of the better things I've realized it's that here there are many information for people, everywhere.

When you're in a public forest, surely you'll find a trail kiosk with some plains, some photos and many information. 

For example, if you're in a recently or frequently burned area (by prescribed fire) you'll find one of those kiosk which will explain why prescribed fire, what are its improvements to the ecosystems, how do they execute and how long are they doing that. It's only an example, but I think you'll understand what I'm trying to say.

Before that we've gone to Austin Carey Memorial Forest. It's another think which makes differences between Spain and USA. Here, every University has at least 2,5acres of forest for both teaching and reseraching. It may not be University owned, but it is always University managed. So many classes are directly in those forest. Austin Carey is the University of Florida's both teaching and researching forest. I love this idea. There are many identified plants everywhere, there are also many trail kiosk plenty of info, and of course, many plots with different experiments.

I have also time for remember one of the better Profesors, Dr. Oliver (University of Valencia). I have seen a sawmill, older one. It still has its saw and its pulley system. Really interesting. Also they was an original american indian's canoa (obviously handmade, and  also using fire in the building process). You should keep in mind that there are many uses for fire (moreover than creating and sustaining ecosystems, it is great for walking, hunting, for animals, for renewing nutrients and much more things).

 Finaly, we have gone to the Prairie a really nice place. So beautiful! There I saw aligators (which are very popular animals here, in Gainesville). There amazing! Also saw many different types of birds. It's hard for me to explain everything I saw in this place, so let me show you some photos:

Just for concluding, one more photo. This one remembers me a John Denver's song called "County roads" (Mike has teached me also in USA roads: there are inter-state ones, county ones, highways,... And then, there's the Highway to Hell):

 GPS data from my Garmin:

Have a good day and see you soon!