Turtles and light pollution

Hatchling sea turtles are instinctively drawn toward the reflected moonlight and starlight that glitters on the nighttime ocean.  Artificial lights  can cause these turtles to become disoriented and crawl toward land instead.  Biologists have determined that the largest threat to nesting turtles comes from direct, artificial  “daylight” type bulbs.  As a result, many coastal communities now require hotels and beach resorts to use  “turtle friendly” amber lighting.  Some contributors to this blog have pointed out that campfires also give off an amber/red light. Nevertheless, keeping any forms of artificial light to a minimum during nesting season is certainly the right thing to do for our testudinal friends.  Friends of Shell Key encourages you to spread the word about the summer ban so that there can be no confusion about the rules …

Beware the slippery slope

Those of us who were present during the early years of the Shell Key management plan know all too well that a seasonal ban can, for no good reason, turn in to a year-round ban. Once upon a time, you could include your family dog in your camping and recreational activities in the public use areas of the island.  In 2000, a summertime ban was enacted to protect nesting seabirds from dogs. The seasonal ban was painful to dog owners and their pets – but it made sense – and it was an acceptable compromise that allowed our canine companions to enjoy the island during other times of year. Before long, however, the county decided that the poorly enforced, seasonal ban was too “confusing” and determined that a more draconian year-round ban was necessary. Why did this happen? 2 words:

Poor Communication …

At the time of the proposed year-round ban, we made the argument that the public was not being well informed about the seasonal pet ban. The “rules” signs on the island were, quite frankly, abominable. They violated every tenet of good advertising and clear communication. These signs were designed to repel – not attract – attention.  Rather than take action to improve communication with island visitors, officials took an easy way out and simply banned pets all year round. This cynical action neither educated the public nor reduced the number of dogs on the island during nesting season. It merely created an occasional source of revenue for the county from the citations randomly issued to pet owners.  Enforcement of the rules on Shell Key is expensive – and is limited to the occasional marine law enforcement presence – usually on the busiest holidays of the year.  And this really gets to the core of my concern…

Education works better than the threat of punishment

Let there be no ambiguity:  We support sensible efforts to protect nesting turtles and shorebirds.  And we believe that public outreach is the best tool at our disposal to protect these resources.  Good communication, public awareness and volunteer efforts will do FAR more for the cause of preservation than will excessive and draconian rules with sporadic enforcement.  Lets implore our county officials to think of creative ways to communicate the plight of nesting sea turtles and to help give visitors to Shell Key a sense of inclusion in the preservation of this resource.  This is our mission at shellkey.org and we are here to help.  If you have any comments about the seasonal campfire ban, please feel free to join the discussion below …

Marsh rabbits are active at night, which increases the difficulty of photographing one.  During the day, they hide in burrows or thickets.  You can find their bunny trails during the day by identifying their perfectly spherical droppings.  But to photograph one, you’ll need to wait until after sunset.

Marsh rabbits are excellent swimmers and will travel between the small mangrove islands around Shell Key just like raccoons.  Read more about this cool little local inhabitant.

Good luck to all the photo hunters!

If you see any turtle nest on Shell Key, send us a pic – we’d love to know about it.

Red Mangroves

First In:  The Red Team
Red Mangroves are the most salt tolerant and they occupy the lowest elevations of the shoreline.  Their seed pods root themselves in the sand and they prop themselves above the water line with their distinctive ‘Stilt Roots’.  These roots act as a snorkle to provide the plant with needed air.  Red mangroves’ root structure slows water flow and helps to build the sandbar into a small island.  Their falling leaves decompose and help form the foundations of the food chain.

Black mangrove ‘sweating’ salt

Boots on the ground
Black mangroves establish their base of operations just above the high tide line.  They benefit from the supply lines established by the red mangroves  and they contribute to the mission of building land and feeding the ecosystem.  This species is named for the darker color of  its trunk and heartwood.  The leaves often appear whitish from the salt excreted at night and on cloudy days.

White Mangrove

High Ground
The White Mangrove grows in the sandy dunes at the highest part of the tidal marsh.  Along with the Buttonwood, it forms a  protective line against storms and winds coming from the Gulf.

All 3 mangrove species work together to build and maintain the health of Shell Key.  Upland species like the White Mangrove can grow to nearly 50 feet tall – providing shade for wildlife and humans.

Please do not ever cut or disturb mangroves for any reason.  All the plants in Shell Key Preserve are protected by law.  Besides the critical ecological value these trees have – people come to this island to visit undisturbed nature – and causing a scar on the land by cutting down mangroves is extraordinarily careless.  We appreciate your cooperation.

Update: 07/2013 – The small channel created by this Spring’s dredging has already been filled back in by the prevailing currents in the area. It has been suggested that the rip-rap installed on the development project on the east side of the channel has stunted the natural migration of this channel.

Regular visitors to the north end of Shell Key have noticed that the narrow passage leading to the inside of the island has been gradually closing over the past few years.    Volunteers reported to Shellkey.og that this channel has been recently dredged to open access to the docking facility at the new development adjacent to the northern tip of the island.   Like all barrier islands, Shell Key is evolving and maturing. While fighting mother nature is generally a futile endeavor, day visitors on the north end will benefit from the newly cleared passage – until such time as mother nature fills it in again.

Take,  for example, the Welcome to Shell Key Preserve sign shown below.  Have you ever seen anything less welcoming than this sign?  Due to poor design, these signs give the impression that people are merely tolerated on Shell Key.   They are universally disliked by visitors to the island.  Not everyone knows why they find these signs repellent.  But as a sign designer, I can see the subtle reasons clearly …

The large block of ‘process’ red is immediately painful to the eye.  Notice, also,  how the words on the sign are all butted against the edges – leaving no margins at all.  Designers know that a little empty space around the margins helps make content much more clear to the eye.   By trying to squeeze an extra inch of height out of the letters, the designers have made the sign LESS readable  – and also visually offensive.  The ‘welcome‘ message at the top is completely lost by the PROHIBITED headline.  And, after the poor execution of the main content,  few people are likely to read the two obscure blocks of text on the right.   Setting aside, for a moment, the content of this sign – everything about the design and layout is counterproductive to communicating with passers by.

I don’t mean to harp on our overworked and under-appreciated County Parks & Conservation Resources department staff.  They accomplish a great deal with very limited resources.  And, it’s not easy maintaining signage on a shifting barrier Island.  Yet, it does need to cost more money to make a beautiful and useful sign.  Every criticism I have made so far could be remedied with a slightly more competent design and a change in sign-attitude.  A more effective sign could be made with all the same materials as the current signs – while being much more useful and attractive.  Indeed, attracting people to read it is every sign’s prime directive.   And this communication is absolutely critical for sustainable public use of this resource.  For the benefit of Shell Key,  its wildlife and ecosystem and the people who visit here, we think it’s time to seriously rethink the way signs are used on Shell Key.

We would start our suggestions with a simple premise:  That people actually ARE welcome on Shell Key – and that we are asking for their help in watching over this island…

The punishment myth

A sign can’t issue you a citation.  It can’t enforce the law.  And there will always be some people who ignore it.  That’s why a good rules sign is really designed to keep honest people honest .  It should draw them in and ask for their cooperation.  Too often, rules signs are conceived from a punitive perspective.  They are designed to issue a threat of punishment for violators.   But, it’s a mistake to try to intimidate those who don’t care  – while simultaneously alienating those who might care.

Behavioral science shows us that punishment or the threat of punishment is  the worst possible way to build long term behaviors.  Behaviors or ‘habits’ formed by punishment are the most volatile and quick to disappear.  That’s why people who use punishment as a method for reinforcement always end up using the timeless phrase “I-DON’T-WANT-TO-HAVE-TO-TELL-YOU-AGAIN!“.  Yet, they have selected a method of reinforcement that virtually guarantees that they will have to continue punishing indefinitely.

I’m not saying punishment is wrong because it’s mean.  On the contrary.  If punishment actually worked,   I would reluctantly support this  approach.  But,  as a behavioral scientist (and also a parent and pet owner), I have seen overwhelming evidence that punishment is a terrible,  inefficient and ultimately futile way to influence long term behavior – both on an individual and on a social level. Most people believe in punishment because they see no alternative.  It is deeply ingrained in our culture and laws.  “Spare the rod, spoil the child”.  But behavioral science shows us that the choice between punishing – and “doing nothing” – is a false one.  We can cultivate behaviors and attitudes the same way nature does it…

Habits that are naturally the strongest and hardest to stop are those that are driven by internal desire.    Internally driven habits are automatically reinforced at all times – and they result in deeply rooted behavior – for better or worse (depending on the habit).  This gives us a clue how to use this tendency to our advantage when designing a rules sign.    Instead of getting caught in that familiar pattern of intermittent punishment – followed by brief compliance – followed by rapid decay of the compliance, we can use human nature to our advantage by spending our efforts making people actually want to cooperate with the rules.  This takes a little more creativity – but is well worth effort because behaviors built this way are much stronger and long lasting.

People love to be asked – about as much as they hate to be told things.    And, it turns out that people respond surprisingly well when they are asked politely to help.  That’s why the signs on Shell Key should be designed to enhance the visitors experience with information and a sense of inclusiveness.  They should draw people in with an attractive overall design – and they should gently inform them about the rules and why we are asking for their cooperation.  And, they should impart knowledge and teach skills that will give people a sense of inclusion. Check out these examples of some great signage at the Ft. Desoto boat docks.  It would not be viable to put this particular type of printed sign on Shell Key, but the positive design approach could be replicated on a more durable sign for the island…

We are currently working on a set of ideas to present to the County for improving the effectiveness of the rules signs – and proposals for more subtle informational signs in some of the delicate areas on Shell Key.  We are prepared to offer our resources and volunteers to help design, manufacture and maintain signs for this Signage Improvement Project.

If you are interested in this project, please stay tuned to this site – We will be posting updates and design ideas for this project.

‘Sandspurs’ or ‘sandburs’ are a type of grass that produces many thorny and painful burs. On Shell Key, they are concentrated along the edge of the recently removed pine forest in the southern public use area. From a distance, it is hard to distinguish them from other native vegetation.

Ouch!

If you are exploring in this area, wear shoes and tread carefully. You may find yourself in a virtual minefield at any time. The burs stick easily into skin and are quite painful. To remove them, use a piece of cloth or leaf to gently grasp the bur and pull it off.   Look for a small spike that may be left behind after removal. You might need tweezers to get it. These can be very painful and get quite sore if not removed.

Population Explosion
Longtime visitors to shell key will recall a time with far fewer sandspurs.  The current population boom is most likely due to the 10 year eradication effort to remove the  ‘exotic’ Australian pine forest in the South Public Use area.  For decades, these trees dropped nutrient rich leaves and twigs onto the soil.  When they were cut, the richer soil was exposed to sunlight and the sandspurs had a field day (pun intended).  Sandspurs are one of those ‘pioneer’ species that will move in to an immature,  bare or newly disturbed environment – to restart the eventual progression to a forested area.  Once the trees that were planted to replace the pines have matured in a few decades, the sandspurs will eventually die back in numbers … out-competed by a balanced and mature ecosystem.

Sandspurs are summer annuals. They create their “fruit” (burs) over the summer. In fact, sandspurs are an edible grain that can be processed into porridge and flour.

Those that are not carried away by a passing flip-flop will fall to the ground and produce next year’s crop.  Like most annuals, sandspurs appear quickly in the spring.  They are already nasty by this time, but you can usually remove them without leaving splinters.  By late summer and autumn, the sandspurs become more brittle and are more likely to leave splinters. They are dry, sharp and ready to come off the stalk at the slightest bristle.

By winter, the majority of the burs will have lost most of their sharp points and the sandspurs will be a little less bothersome.

Eradication of sandspurs is reasonably straight forward in a controlled, home lawn situation. If they are mowed down, they will not be able to make next year’s crop.  Although I have seen them adapt by growing sideways and making burs close to the ground.  Otherwise, they can be dealt with in the spring – after the new plants have sprouted and before they make fruit (burs).  At that time of year, they should be pulled from the ground by hand – being careful not to leave behind burs for next year.

This approach, however, would not work in a wild area like Shell Key.  By removing sandspurs in this environment, we are really just resetting the clock to a less mature ecosystem.  Remember that these grasses thrive in bare sand.  Trying to eradicate sandspurs in a wild environment would be an exercise in futility.

The long-term control of sandspurs on Shell Key will rely on nurturing a mature ecosystem where a diverse and established community of plants and animals keep the sandspurs in check.

We like to go for over-nighters right after a good rain.  The days are mild with the sun traveling lower in the south – and night time temperatures are usually in the 60’s.  Yet, the water is still comfortable enough to swim.

At this time of year, the water is clear and the island is sprinkled with the colors of Autumn foliage.  However, the island sandspurs are particularly nasty because their dried burs tend to leave splinters in your skin.  If you camp on Shell Key, don’t forget your required (but free) camping permit and please help us by cleaning a little extra before you leave.

Water at Shell Key

One of the things I love about springtime on Shell Key is that gulf waters are still clear of the plankton blooms that will occur during summer.  Its a great time to explore the sea bottom with mask and snorkel – or just wading along the seashore.

While some of the newly planted trees have begun to grow new leaf canopies, the grasses, sea oats and the hated sandspurs have not fully awakened from their brief winter slumber.

This is also a time that boaters begin to visit the preserve in larger numbers.  If you would like to participate in one of our scheduled island maintenance missions, please check out our volunteer page.