digital imagery (continued)
Tampa Bay Water is using these tools at Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park, a nearly 3,500-acre preserve on the Gulf coast of Florida. Our mitigation project is aimed at removing Brazilian pepper from 136 heavily infested acres. First, the location and amount of Brazilian pepper was identified using hyperspectral imagery. This was confirmed by field investigation for ground-truthing.
A restoration plan was implemented that included treatment of Brazilian pepper with herbicide. The project also removed spoil mounds previously built in the park. Monitoring in the first year of project completion indicates pepper plants have been reduced by 95 percent.
The technology has been used at two other mitigation areas, Model Dairy and the Tampa Bay Regional Reservoir. Those projects address skunk vine, tropical soda apple, and cogon grass. The use of advanced technology is one way our scientists get results that are both time efficient and cost effective.