Native Habitat Inventory Final Report 2004 - St. Lucie County

5 -- Directly contiguous with large areas of natural habitat along extensive boundaries.
Critical situation for interconnecting natural areas or trail systems.
The 30 sites surveyed were evenly split among A, B, and C quality sites (Table 5). The
quality of the sites was determined by their ranking of 5 ecological criteria of Rarity,
Connectivity, Completeness, Vulnerability, and Manageability.
Table 5. Site Quality Ranks.
Site Quality Rank Number of sites Total Acres Site Numbers
A 10 32628* 4, 9, 24, 25, 41, 42, 43, 44, 50, 51
(3841)
B 10 6549 3, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 28, 30
C 10 858 12, 16, 17, 19, 26, 27, 31, 32, 34, 48
*With the removal of one large site (Site 4) the total acres of A quality sites is reduced to 3841.
A-ranked sites generally had one or more of the following features: high quality natural
communities, rare or endemic species, rare natural communities, large size. C-ranked
sites generally had one or more of the following features: very small size, small
proportion of natural to non-natural areas, few or no rare species, few or no rare natural
communities. B-ranked sites were intermediate of these two extremes.
There were some exceptions. For example, although sites 25 and 51 are 10 acres or less
in size, the presence of narrow endemics and imperiled natural communities warranted a
high rank. Sites 12 and 14 are large sites that had no outstanding features and the nonnatural
portions of the sites were heavily impacted, thus these sites were not considered A
sites.
Conversion of FLUCCS to FNAI
A proportionality relationship between the Florida Land Use Cover Classification System
(FLUCCS) categories and FNAI natural communities system was developed. This
relationship was developed utilizing the 1995 FLUCCS classification for the county and
the FNAI classification from the 30 sites inventoried.
FLUCCS System
The 1995 FLUCCS Classification from South Florida Water Management District was
used as the starting point for the conversion since it was the most recent consistent
countywide coverage with good resolution in natural areas, a well-defined state standard,
and periodically updated.
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