Hartman Mackey

Rapid Ecological Project Assessment

Alachua County Forever

Draft Date: March 21, 2003

Matrix Score: 4.93 of 9.44

Size: 92 acres

Number of parcels: 3

Number of owners: 2

Number of Buildings: 3

Location/Description:

The 92-acre Hartman Mackey (HAR) Project is located in an urbanized area of northwest Gainesville. The site is bounded by four city streets: NW 53^rd Avenue to the north, US 441 to the east, NW 19^th Street to the west, and NW 45^th Avenue to the south (Map 1). The project is approximately half a mile from the Murphee Wellfield Conservation Area and three miles from Devil’s Millhopper State Park, however these connections are through dense residential, commercial, and industrial development. The closest Alachua County Forever (ACF) project is the 71-acre Emmer’s Sorrento Tracts, located approximately 0.2 miles west of the HAR site.

The HAR site contains a portion of the headwaters area for Hogtown Creek; there is significant drainage from surrounding areas onto the site into stream tributaries that lead to Hogtown Creek. Hogtown Creek flows through the southern portion of the site. In addition to the seepage stream, the HAR site consists of approximately six acres of high quality upland mixed forest in the southwest portion of the site, one acre of cypress dome in the northwest corner, and a minimum of four acres of floodplain forest adjacent to the creeks. The remainder of the property has been disturbed and is an old field successional pine forest. The HAR Project area is currently being considered for a rezoning change to planned development (PUD), in preparation for a Wal-Mart Super Center.

Protecting Water Resources:

According to the Florida Geologic Survey Open File Report 21 (Macesich 1988), approximately 17% of the Hartman-Mackey Project is located within the confined aquifer zone of Alachua County. This zone is characterized by generally higher elevations underlain by phosphatic clayey sands, sandy clays, and carbonates of the Hawthorn Group. It prevents the rapid movement of surface water into the Floridan Aquifer. The remaining 83% of the project lies within the perforated aquifer zone. Sediments underlying the perforated zone may contain substantial thickness of clays, but are perforated by numerous karst features, which allow direct hydrologic access to the aquifer.

According to the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Aquifer Recharge Map for Alachua County, 100% of the Hartman-Mackey Project exists in a high aquifer recharge area where 12 inches or more of water is recharged to the aquifer on a yearly basis. According to Aucott (1988), the project is located in an area where greater than 10 inches of water per year is recharged to the aquifer.

Of the 92 acres of land within the Hartman-Mackey Tracts project, approximately 25% of the total acreage is wetlands, contain hydric soils, or areas that fall within the FEMA 100 and 500 year floodplain.

The Hartman-Mackey Project is located on the upper northeast arm of Hogtown Creek, which flows through the southern portion of the site. Two tributaries of Hogtown Creek pass through the site. These tributaries transport water into Hogtown creek from two culverts that pass under 441. From here, the creek flows in a southwestern direction through the City of Gainesville and into a sinkhole on the west side of I-75 with direct connectivity to the Floridan aquifer.

Protecting Natural Communities and Landscapes:

Natural Communities

Upland Mixed Forest

Seepage Stream

Dome Swamp

Floodplain Forest

Other

Disturbed Cleared Area

Old field Successional Pine Forest

The ecological quality of the natural communities ranges from good for the upland mixed forest to fair for the old field successional pine forest.

The six-acre upland mixed forest on the southwest portion of the property, adjacent to Hogtown Creek, is the highest quality natural community on the site. It contains a high diversity of species that would typically be found in an undisturbed upland mixed forest. However, the site is impacted by extremely high levels of invasive, non-native plants particularly coral ardisia (Ardesia crenata) and glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum). This portion of the Project site is zoned conservation. It was set aside after a previous rezoning review project.

The one acre isolated dome swamp is also of good quality. It contains a dense canopy of sweetgum, water oak, sweet bay magnolia, red maple and bald cypress (CPH 2003).

The moderate quality floodplain forest is associated with the creek tributaries, and includes an overstory of mostly maple and sweetgum.

The remainder of the HAR Project is old field successional pine forest. Historically, soils indicate that these uplands were most likely mesic pine flatwoods. Current vegetation includes a dense canopy of water oak, laurel oak, sweetgum and loblolly pines, with low groundcover diversity and abundance. There is an approximately 10 acre cleared area that was once a golf driving range. This area is now in an early successional state with a groundcover of grasses and blackberry. There is no overstory in this area, although the site has young loblolly pines and standing dead pines.

Several acres of loblolly pines were harvested during the 1994-1995 southern pine beetle infestation. An abundance of snags and downed trees occur in these areas.

None of the project site is within the Florida Ecological Greenways Network (FEGN). The Florida Ecological Greenways Network is a decision support model to help identify the best opportunities to protect ecological connectivity statewide. It was developed by the University of Florida for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. GIS data on land use and significant ecological areas were integrated in a process that identified a statewide Ecological Greenways Network containing all of the largest areas of ecological and natural resource significance and the landscape linkages necessary to link these areas together in one functional statewide network (Hoctor et al. 2002).

The HAR Project does not fall within a Strategic Habitat Conservation Area. Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas were developed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). They are private lands containing habitats critical to the continued survival of populations of inadequately protected plants and animals, Cox et al. 2000. These lands are essential to providing some of state’s rarest animals, plants, and natural communities with the land base necessary to sustain populations into the future (Cox ET al.1994).

The HAR Project is not considered a Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) Habitat Conservation Priority. FNAI’s Habitat Conservation Priorities prioritize places on the landscape that would protect both the greatest number of rare species and those species with the greatest conservation need (Florida Natural Areas Inventory, June 2001)

The HAR Project does not contain any Under-represented Natural Communities. Under-represented Natural Communities are those natural community types that were inadequately represented on conservation lands in Florida. A natural community is considered to be inadequately represented on conservation lands if less than 15% of the original extent of that community is currently found on existing conservation lands. Under-represented natural communities include, seepage slope, upland hardwood forest, pine rockland, tropical hardwood hammock, sandhill, scrub, upland glades, and pine flatwoods. This data was developed by the Office of Environmental Services, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and FNAI (FNAI, December 2001)

Protecting Plant and Animal Species:

Common Name Endemic/ Large Fed/State FCREPA/FNAI Observed

Home-Range Status Designation

Reptiles

American Alligator -/- T/SSC -/S4 SM

Eastern Indigo Snake -/- T/T SSC/S3 SM

Birds

Black Rail -/- -/- R/S3 SM

Cooper’s Hawk -/- -/- SSC/S3 SM

Great Egret -/- -/- SSC/S4 SM

Mammals

Florida Black Bear X/L -/T T/S2 F

Round-tailed Muskrat X/- -/- SSC/S3 SM

X= Endemic, L=species with large home ranges according to the Closing the Gaps in Florida’s Wildlife Habitat System, S= observed by Alachua Co. EPD staff and/or an LCB subcommittee member, SM= documented on the Species Models maps created by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, F= Focal species used for the most detailed analyses in the Closing the Gaps in Florida’s Wildlife Habitat Conservation System, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, 1994, N= Florida Natural Areas Inventory Element Occurrence, P= potential for species based on habitat types, K=documented in the Alachua County Ecological Inventory Project.

The above data lists the Florida black bear as a possible inhabitant of the HAR site; however this species is unlikely to be found in this area because of the isolation of the site within an urban area as well as its small size. If a black bear was found on the project site, it would most likely be relocated to more suitable habitat.

The site contains the threatened rainlily (Zephyranthes atamasca) and milkvine (Matelea spp.).

The FWC 2001 data shows no bald eagle nests within four miles of the HAR Project.

A very small percentage (2%) of the HAR Project is considered a Regional Biodiversity Hotspot. The purpose of the Regional Biodiversity Hot Spots maps, developed by FWC, is to “convey more detailed information on the known locations of as many components of biological diversity as possible, regardless of whether or not they fall within proposed Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas, to help meet the need for conservation information at regional and local levels” (Cox et al. 1994).

Invasive, non-native plants are generally restricted to areas adjacent to the creeks. The dominant invasive plants include coral ardisia, glossy privet, Japanese honeysuckle, mimosa, and small amounts of Japanese climbing fern. In some areas coral ardisia is the dominant groundcover species and is very abundant.

Achieving Social and Human Values:

The HAR site is a not listed as a Natural Resource-based Recreation Area (Knight et al. 2000), nor is it within a Florida Ecological Greenway Network area. The Natural Resource-based Recreation map was developed by FNAI in collaboration with DEP, FWC and the Florida Division of Forestry. The recreation potential of a site depends on available road access, presence of a water body or beach, proximity to urban areas, and size of the site. “These criteria were applied to Potential Natural Areas delineated by FNAI using aerial photography and revised using the 1995 Water Management District land cover data. Sites were ranked by recreation potential” (Knight et al. 2000).

In addition, the HAR Project is not included in the Emerald Necklace Land Conservation Initiative - “a publicly accessible, connected, and protected network of trails, greenways, open space, and waterfronts surrounding the Gainesville urban area.

The HAR Project is an easily accessible urban natural area located in a residential area. This site would provide an opportunity for local residents to explore nature and may provide some environmental interpretation opportunities for nearby schools. At a minimum, the site provides needed urban greenspace within a developed area of Gainesville.

Management:

Vigilant management is necessary to control the spread of invasive, non-native plants which are already in high densities in portions of the site, particularly adjacent to creeks. In addition, much of the HAR Project has been significantly altered by land use activities including clearing natural areas for use as a golf driving range, and establishment of loblolly pines. The diversity of the habitats is poor to moderate at best and is in need of ecological enhancement and restoration. This would include harvesting of the loblolly pines and prevention of pine recruitment, and allowing for natural regeneration in much of the site. Prescribed fire would be necessary in restoring some of the upland areas that were historically mesic flatwoods, although the sparse groundcover in these areas may make carrying fire difficult. In addition, prescribed fire is difficult to implement in such a densely populated area. It may be necessary to revegetate the area.

It may be beneficial to restore portions of the creeks and its tributaries that have been channelized.

Restoration and management of this site would be costly and labor intensive.

Economic and Acquisition Issues:

The entire project site is currently under review for a proposed land use change to PUD (planned unit development) to allow mixed use (commercial and residential) development on the site. The current plan calls for a 33-acre Wal-Mart Super Center, approximately 14 acres of mixed use commercial, and 21-acres of residential single family development (CPH 2003). This would leave approximately 24-acres for conservation, including the 6.2 acres in the southwest corner of the site already zoned conservation (CPH 2003).

There are three parcels and two owners in the 92-acre Hartman Mackey Project. The Alachua County Property Appraiser (ACPA) shows three buildings on their parcel data. The ACPA’s 2002 Just Value or land value for the entire project is $899,300 or $9,775/ acre. The ACPA’s total value (Just, Miscellaneous and Building) for the project area is $1,233,300 or $13,405/ acre. These figures are for comparative purposes between nominated properties, and are not necessarily an accurate reflection of the true cost of the property if acquired by the Alachua County Forever Program.

The HAR Project is located within the Gainesville city limits. It has several zoning designations including general business, multi-family residential, single family residential, and conservation. The owners are currently pursuing the development of the site for a mixed use planned development, and the surrounding land uses makes this site highly developable.

Other:

There are two identified archaeological site on or directly adjacent to the HAR property. These sites designated 8AL3426 and 8AL3427 in the Florida Master Site File maintained by the Florida Division of Historical Resources contain, “thin lithic scatter…lacks cultural strata or features” (SouthArc 2002). In addition, the Hartman house is a historical building listed as 8AL4855 in the Master Site Files. This property is described by SouthArc (2002) as, “while old lacks integrity of materials, design, workmanship, association, and feeling…due to the loss of integrity in these aspects, the house has also lost integrity of feeling. As a result, we do not believe it is significant or eligible for the National Register.”

Literature Citations

Aucott, W. 1988. Water Resources Investigation Report 88-4057. USGS.

Cox, J., R. Kautz, M. MacLaughlin, and T. Gilbert. 1994. Closing the Gaps in Florida’s Wildlife Habitat Conservation System, Office of Environmental Services, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, Tallahassee, Florida.

Cox, J. and R. Kautz. 2000. Habitat Conservation Needs of Rare and Imperiled Wildlife in Florida. Office of Environmental Services, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, Florida.

CPH. 2003. Proposed Rezoning to Planned Development (PUD), PUD Report “North Creek PD.” Sanford, Florida.

Florida Natural Areas Inventory. June 2001. Florida Forever Conservation Needs Assessment Technical Report.

Florida Natural Areas Inventory. December 2001. Florida Forever Conservation Needs Assessment Version 1.1 Supplement to the technical Report June 2001. Tallahassee, Florida.

Hoctor, T.S., J. Teisinger, M.G. Carr., P.C, Zwick. 2002. Identification of Critical Linkages Within the Florida Ecological Greenways Network. Final Report. Office of Greenways and Trails, Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Tallahassee, FL.

Knight, G., A. Knight, and J. Oetting. 2000. Florida Forever Conservation Needs Assessment Summary Report to the Florida Forever Advisory council. Florida Natural Areas Inventory.

Macesich, M. 1988. Geologic Interpretation of the Aquifer Pollution Potential in Alachua County, Florida, Open File Report – 21. Florida Geologic Survey, Tallahassee, Florida.

SouthArc, Inc. 2002. Cultural Resources Survey and Assessment, Hartman Tract, Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville, Florida.