Prairie Pines

Mellow Drive (Del Prado Blvd. North)
North Fort Myers, FL 33917

See a map to this location

The Prairie Pines site about 64 acres of pine flatwoods owned and managed by the Lee County Parks and Recreation Department. The land is a palmetto and pine wetland infested with a range of large to sapling sized melaleuca trees intermingled with slash pine and saw palmetto. The land is seasonally flooded. The site consists of 13 plots. The stump treatment plot consists of nine subplots.
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Chemical Treatments yellow square representing chemical treatment

Slightly over twenty-eight acres received aerial chemical treatments. We treated 7.4 acres using hack and squirt with the following herbicides: Arsenal, Rodeo, and an Arsenal-Rodeo mix. Five aerial plots and the stumps on nine subplots each received a different herbicide or mix of herbicides.

Subplots 1 through 3, 5, and 6 were treated by contractors with commercial herbicides. Subplot 4 was treated with off-the-shelf consumer products. Subplots 7 through 9 were not treated with chemicals.

Aerial Treatment Details

Acreage treated Type of Treatment
4.4 Arsenal and Rodeo mix
8.7 Garlon 3A
6.8 Velpar
4.2 Rodeo
4.0 Plateau

 

Subplot
(see site map)
Type of Treatment
1 Arsenal-Rodeo mix
2 Arsenal
3 Rodeo
4 Stump demonstration using consumer products
5 Garlon 4
6 Garlon 3A
7 Untreated and stacked cut trees
8 Biological control of stump regrowth
9 Untreated control plot (except for insecticide)

Mechanical Treatments white square representing mechanical treatment

Almost 15 acres received mechanical treatments using heavy equipment as follows:

Acreage Treated Type of Treatment
4.8 Standing trees ground using a brontosaurus
4.8 Leveled and stacked using a feller-buncher
5.0 Leveled and chipped using a Barko chipper

Biological Control Treatments light green square representing biological control

We released melaleuca psyllids (Boreioglycapsis melaleucae) on 3.3 acres. Melaleuca weevils are present here naturally as a result of earlier releases elsewhere.