Giving Some Atalas a New Home

Butterfly Blog

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This facility's origins go back to the 1940's when the property where Zoo Miami currently resides used to be part of the Richmond Naval Air Base and the bunker was likely used to store military munitions. The base went through several phases of decomission after the loss of its blimp hangers in a hurricane and the end of WWII until it was turned over to Miami-Dade County for conversion into a park in the mid 1970's. Built to withstand bombing and severe hurricanes, this bunker survived unphased from a direct eyewall hit of Catergory 5 Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Largely neglected after the base reduced activity, it became consumed with invasive plants and decades worth of dumped materials around its perimeter. It had became a problematic area surrounded by some of the most important critically endangered pine rockland habitat left in Florida.

The bunker in 2013 littered with decades of debris and consumed with invasive plants such as Indian rosewood, Brazilian pepper and Burmareed.

In 2013, Zoo Miami staff had begun an enhancement program of the adjacent lake by removing invasive plants along its shorelines to make the lake more productive for native wildlife and remove invasive plant seed sources for the surrounding pine rockland. In collaboration with Miami-Dade County Natural Areas Management and the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program, Zoo Miami staff decided to try and extend their efforts by taking on the invasive removal efforts around the neglected bunker. After about a year of periodic chainsawing and machete work the invasives were removed. Volunteers from HandsOn Miami helped haul away the cut and dried plant material. They also helped remove the dumped debris, recycling what could, and ended up hauling away many truck loads of materials that dated back many decades.

HandsOn Miami volunteer helping remove a piece of Indian rosewood

Bunker Before and After Invasive Plant Removal

The area was left to settle so an inventory of any imperiled natives that might still be present could be done. During the debris removal it was discovered that the area around the bunker had been previously excavated and it no longer had the native sandy rocky substrate of pine rockland. It appeared that marl/peat soil had been brought in to cover the bunker and surrounding site. This more nutrient rich soil and disturbance likely gave the invasives an advantage to take over the area.

Zoo Miami had been advancing their butterfly conservation program and future goals around this same time of clearing. Not wanting the invasives to gain a foothold again it was decided to plant the reclaimed area with pine rockland imperiled butterfly host plants among the few remaining native plants to help prevent the return of the invasives and provide the imperiled species in the surrounding pinelands more resources. Zoo Miami, BioTECH at Richmond, and the Florida Museum of Natural History helped provide hundreds of coontie, locustberry and pineland croton that were planted around the bunker.

The longer term goals of Zoo Miami's imperiled butterfly program was to establish captive assuranace colonies of some of the regional imperiled butterfly species for possible future reintroductions/population augmentation and conduct research to fill in some of the life history knowledge gaps. But, it is difficult to have shade houses and lightweight structures in Miami-Dade County due to the frequent tropical storms, hurricanes, and stringent building codes. We needed a hurricane resistant structure that these colonies could be safely housed in and the answer lied right in front of us.

The bunker was an underutilized space that was infrequently used for storage. The vast majority of the materials inside the bunker were outdated or degraded. Volunteers from HandsOn Miami helped us out again and two dump trucks full of materials and over 70 years worth of dust and debris were removed from inside the bunker.

Inside the Bunker

Imperiled Butterflies of...

Imperiled Butterflies of South Florida

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Giving Some Atalas a New Home

Butterfly Blog

The Butterfly Bunker Laboratory

Bunker Before and After Invasive Plant Removal

Inside the Bunker

Imperiled Butterflies of...

Imperiled Butterflies of South Florida

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Giving Some Atalas a New Home

Butterfly Blog

The Butterfly Bunker Laboratory

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Bunker Before and After Invasive Plant Removal

Inside the Bunker