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Habitat Friendly To Natives

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2008

RIVERVIEW - A pair of threatened Florida scrub jays stands watch atop a bare shrub overlooking one of the few patches of scrub habitat left in Hillsborough County. When trouble looms, they will warn the others with an unusual call: pssshhh, pssshhh, pssshhh.

Some 90 percent of the county's scrub habitat - desertlike sandy areas with stunted vegetation - has been converted, mostly into housing developments, citrus groves and cattle pastures.

The social blue-and-gray scrub jays, known for their elaborate family structures, are the only birds native to Florida. They will live only in the climate like that found at Golden Aster Scrub, where they can easily locate acorns on the bare ground.

Scrub habitat also is home to threatened gopher tortoises and indigo snakes and, on this site, the endangered golden aster plant.

Since its inception, Hillsborough County's Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program has purchased 2,040 acres of scrub on 12 sites.

Even scrub areas cleared for pastures and groves can be returned to natural settings, said program biologist Bernie Kaiser.

Environmental land officials said they hope to purchase some of those converted properties and restore them.

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