Our trip to southernmost Florida and Key West was peppered with nature – a two day stay in Everglades National Park to start the trip, a cruise out to the Dry Tortugus National Park mid-trip, and a jaunt up the Keys to Big Pine Key to hike at the National Key Deer Refuge to close out our stay. We have previously written about the first two experiences.
The National Key Deer Refuge is huge, spanning 84,351 acres across 25 islands in the Lower Keys. Most of the refuge is not easily accessible and is without designated hiking trails. Since its establishment in 1957, and with the protection afforded by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Key Deer population has risen from 25 to 50 animals, to a stable population between 700 and 800. Key Deer are the smallest sub-species of white-tailed deer, standing about 24-28 inches at shoulder height – about the size of a Golden Retriever of Labrador. We were hoping to get a glimpse of this diminutive deer that remains on the Endangered Species List.
We chose to visit the Blue Hole and the Jack Watson Trails on Big Pine Key.The Blue Hole is a freshwater pond at the site of a former rock quarry that supplied stone for the construction of Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad in the early twentieth century. A short walk from the parking area delivers you to a platform overlooking the pond.
The surrounding landscape is unimproved Florida Keys habitat – Florida Slash Pines, Silver Palms, and Key Thatch Palms, and shrubs, packed shoulder to shoulder. The water in the pond is crystal clear, allowing us to see into its depths, including appreciating the extremities of this alligator, that were dangling below the surface.
From the platform we could observe the bird life in the plants along the shore. If you look closely at the photo below you can see an Anhinga perched with its wings aired out for drying.
In this photo you can see a couple of Anhinga on the opposite shoreline.
While it looks graceful in this photo, the Anhingas are awkward flyers.
Arising at the overlook is a 0.3 mile trail that weaves through the dense, tropical landscape that borders the pond.
Openings in the understory allows for occasional views back onto the pond.
From this vantage point we could look back to the observation platform that we had utilized earlier.
After the Blue Hole we drove a short distance to the Jack Watson Trail. Jack Watson was integral to the establishment of the Key Deer Refuge and was its first manager. Although the loop trail is only two-thirds of a mile, it passes through three distinct habitats – pine rockland, tropical hardwood hammock, and freshwater wetland. These diverse habitats are home to a variety of plants and animals and make Big Pine Key an important stop for bird migration. The one constant is the stone, comprised of old coral topped with a limestone called Miami Oolite, that together make up the base of the terrain, and is notorious for draining poorly. During the wet season, from June through October, portions of the trail can be covered with a couple of inches of water. The pine rocklands is an endangered plant community that only occurs in South Florida, the lower Florida Keys, and the Caribbean, and is dependent on episodic fire to maintain the habitat.
Like the Blue Hole, the foliage along the Jack Watson Trail is densely packed, not allowing for much in the way of vistas.
Some of the interesting specimens noted in the plant community included:
Key Thatch Palms are small, slow growing trees, reaching to twenty feet in height. They frequently had a cluster of adventitious roots at their base. Its fruit is a small, white, berry-like drupe that measures about a quarter of an inch in diameter, which leads to its other name – Small Fruited Thatch Palm.
The South Florida Slash Pine was also a dominant feature of the landscape. Like the Key Thatch Palm, they have evolved to survive on the rocky landscape of the Keys with thin, almost non-existent, soils.
There were many snags of the pine across the landscape. Evidence suggest that these deaths are due to the rising sea levels from climate change, resulting in saltwater intrusion into the low lying ecosystem.
Following the pine rocklands we entered a small area of hardwood hammock that featured Buttonwood, one of the four species of mangrove found in South Florida, which we had not seen up to this time in our trip. In contrast to the hammocks that we had seen in the Everglades, here there were no towering trees, just contorted specimens shaped by the winds off the ocean.
This smaller Buttonwood specimen featured some fruit from last year.
Later we found some Buttonwood trees actively flowering. The detail of the flower cluster is fascinating. Each flowerhead consists of perhaps 50 flowers, held together in one ball.
Another unique tree species noted in the hammock was Sweet Acacia, a species that was new to me.
On closer imaging you can see that it does resemble the Acacia trees of Africa, with its compound, bi-pinnate leaves and thorns.
The last habitat that we encountered was the “freshwater wetland”. But it was early February, the middle of the dry season for South Florida and the Keys, and the wetland was bone dry. If you came here in the wet season, which runs from May to October and corresponds with the hurricane season, you would likely find this shallow channel full of water.
Odds and Ends:
While I am sure that I have seen South Florida Slash Pine on my previous trips to the Keys, this was the first time that I had an opportunity to study it. They are the only pine tree native to the keys, and is a sub-species of the Slash Pine, a commercially important timber tree of the Southern Pine Group. Slash Pine, which we frequently see on our hikes in the Florida Panhandle, is used for lumber and historically was an important source of turpentine and other naval stores. The Slash Pine is a rapidly growing tree, but the South Florida Slash Pine, which inhabits marginal lands, is not. This stump was about six inches in diameter and the tree ring count suggests that it was over fifty years old.
There were some larger South Florida Slash Pine trees across the landscape, but by pine standards they were small. As you would expect in a fire dependent habitat, it has evolved with the ability to withstand fires.
As we walked the trail we were able to note the male and female cones of the pines. The male cones arose in a cluster at the ends of branches, while the female cones were more stout and arose about a foot to eighteen inches from the branch tips.To minimize self-fertilization, the male cones shed pollen and the female cones become receptive at different times on any single specimen.
While Bracken Fern occurs across the world in the northern hemisphere, Lacy Bracken Fern is tropical, occurring in South Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America . On Big Pine Key we found it in the understory of this rather dry landscape. It tends to grow in thickets and plays a pivotal role in providing shelter for wildlife. A telltale characteristic of the bracken ferns is how the tip of the leaf frond is simplified compared to the proximal part of the leaf, where the pinnas are divided.
The lacy nature of the fern can be better appreciated in this photo.
As we completed the loop trail we were commenting amongst ourselves that while we enjoyed the hikes, we were disappointed that we did not see any Key Deer, which really wasn’t a surprise given the density of the foliage. A lady standing nearby overheard our conversation and suggested that when we left that we head north and turn into a small subdivision that laid just north of the preserve. She was confident that we would see Key Deer. She was right as we saw one deer after another. In total we noted about twenty deer, usually alone, meandering amongst the fenced yards.
In summary, our outing to the National Key Deer Refuge was a worthwhile endeavor. Hiking the preserve gave us a better appreciation for the natural landscape of the Keys than we had from just driving the Overseas Highway (the famous U.S. 1). We were able to study some plants and habitats that were new to us. The noted die off of the South Florida Slash Pines due to rising sea levels, demonstrates that climate change is real and will impact many habitats around the globe. While seeing the Key Deer in the suburban habitat was less romantic than seeing them in a natural landscape, it was exciting to witness the success of the refuge in their population recovery. Environmental and habitat protection works!
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Photo credits to Peggy Juengling Burns.
Overview
Location – Both trails are located on Key Deer Boulevard, Big Pine Key, FL 33043, about a quarter mile apart.
Parking – both trails have parking for about 20 cars.
Facilities – none.
Trail Conditions – thin sand overlying a stone base.
Benches – a few on both trails.
Picnic Tables – none noted.
Kids – kids 4 and over should do fine.
Dogs – allowed on both trails on a six foot leash.
Suggested Paired Hikes – none
Links:
https://www.fws.gov/refuge/national-key-deer/visit-us/trails