|
This management plan is intended to provide guidance in the future use and management of the Frenchman's Forest Natural Area. The natural area was acquired in December 1995 by Palm Beach County (the County) with funds from the Palm Beach County Environmentally Sensitive Lands Bond Issue Referendum of March 12, 1991. Negotiations for the acquisition and other acquisition-related services were provided by the County's contractor, The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The City of Palm Beach Gardens (the City) served as the County's partner in an application for State matching funds for the acquisition. The Florida Communities Trust (FCT) has approved matching funds through its Preservation 2000 Program. This acquisition represents part of a much larger effort to acquire the most important privately held natural areas left in Palm Beach County (Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management [ERM] and the City 1996). Palm Beach County endorsed the concept of a Wilderness Islands Program, which included an inventory of the remaining high-quality natural areas (Iverson and Austin 1988). Based on the results of that study and the recommendations of citizens' advisory committees, the Frenchman's Forest Natural Area and 13 other sites were given high priority for acquisition by the County's Environmentally Sensitive Lands Acquisition Advisory Committee in 1990. On March 12, 1991, the voters of Palm Beach County approved a $100 million bond referendum to purchase environmentally sensitive lands. The Frenchman's Forest Natural Area is located within the City of Palm Beach Gardens on the southern Atlantic coastal strip in Palm Beach County, approximately 0.75 miles north of PGA Boulevard (Figure 1) It is bordered on the east by Prosperity Farms Road, on the south by the Cabana Colony canal, on the west by undeveloped native vegetation and rough pasture, and on the north by the Frenchman's Landing development. A 120-foot-wide future road right-of-way strip containing approximately 7 acres cuts across the south-central portion of the site. This strip was retained by the previous owner, with a management easement given to the County. The total purchased area of this site is 149.09 acres. Common names are used in the text and in Appendix A (Natural Resources Inventory and Assessment) for species recorded on the Natural Area. Scientific names of plants are listed in Appendix B; those of animals are listed in Appendix C. The scientific name is used when a unique common name does not exist for the taxon or if the species has not been recorded for the project site. The Frenchman's Forest Natural Area is part of a broad coastal swale that was separated from the Atlantic Ocean by coastal sand ridges and from the Loxahatchee Slough by a broad pine flatwood ridge. It was part of the headwaters of the former Lake Worth Creek, a meandering blackwater creek that flowed northward to join the Loxahatchee River near its mouth at the Jupiter Inlet. The earliest accounts of the site date from the 1840s, and were from U.S. Army Topological Engineer reports made during the Second Seminole Indian War (Corbett 1993). Eighty men from Fort Jupiter moved up Lake Worth Creek in seventeen canoes. Approximately two miles north of the natural area, they reached the "rapids", a series of muck terraces that disappeared during periods of high water, but helped hold water at a higher level in the upstream sawgrass marshes. Another series of muck terraces may have been present 0.25 miles north of the natural area. After getting past these barriers, the troops entered a large sawgrass marsh, where they pulled the canoes for a mile to a haulover path over the sand ridge separating the marsh from Lake Worth. The southeastern portion of the natural area was part of the sawgrass marsh, and the soldiers may have crossed through the site. Once they reached Lake Worth, the soldiers raided Seminole Indian villages along its shores, capturing guns and canoes. The soldiers had followed an old Indian route for traveling between Jupiter Inlet and Lake Worth. When the last Seminole Indian war ended in 1859, pioneers began to use this route for coastal travel. Charles Pierce (1970) described his family's travel to Lake Worth by small boat via this route in 1873. He noted his father's difficulty in finding the right channel through the sawgrass to the haulover. Pierce and his family were among the earliest permanent settlers on the shores of Lake Worth. Pierce also provided the first direct reference to the natural area, noting that the bird rookery on Pelican Island (present-day Munyon Island) was the target of plume hunters in 1874 and that the rookery then moved to "the big cypress swamp west of the haulover" in 1875. This cypress swamp could only have been the strand swamp at the natural area. The rookery moved again the following year, after the plume hunters discovered its new location. By the late 1870s, enough homesteaders had settled on the shores of Lake Worth to cause the inland boat route to become well-used and marked. A tram with iron rails was constructed over the haulover to carry tomatoes and pineapples to boats for shipment northward. An 1884 U.S. Coastal and Geodetic Survey map (USCGS 1884) shows the boat route clearly. It roughly followed the present course of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway southward from the Jupiter Inlet until it skirted the scrubby flatwoods in the northeastern corner of the natural area. The boat route then turned to the southwest, crossing into the present-day tidal marsh and heading southward along the eastern edge of the site. The boat route continued to the south and then turned back to the east to connect to the haulover. Private and government engineers also visited this area in the 1880s to determine the feasibility of an inland transportation canal along the Atlantic coast. James E. Kreamer, who was employed by the Lake Okeechobee Land Company, noted that the water level in the sawgrass marshes was eight feet above sea level (Barbour 1964). Since nearly all of the site is below 10 feet in elevation, his statement indicates that the central and southeastern portions of the natural area probably were underwater most of the year. Even though the canal was determined to be feasible, the federal government declined to appropriate funds for the construction of the canal, citing the then-minimal population of south Florida. The State offered to provide thousands of acres of free swamp lands for each mile of canal constructed, inducing the Florida East Coast Canal Company to begin constructing the canal southward from Sand Point (present-day Titusville). Design dimensions for this canal were 50 feet wide and 5 feet deep. Dredging began at the mouth of Lake Worth Creek in 1892, with the dredge moving up the channel of the creek at a rate of 75 to 100 feet a day (Corbett 1993). The dredged spoil was piled on both sides of the canal. The dredge slowed down once it hit the rapids and left the channel of the creek. From there, it had to cut a straight line through the sawgrass marsh, which was much higher in elevation. The dredge also cut a straight line across the sawgrass marsh east of the natural area, bypassing the bend in the boat route that crossed into the site. By 1896, the dredge had almost reached the haulover when the dredging ceased. Henry Flagler, who had gained control of the canal company, then decided that a completed canal would benefit his Palm Beach hotels. The canal company cut though the haulover ridge and entered Lake Worth in 1898 (Corbett 1993). The dredging of a channel through the "rapids" and later through the haulover ridge eliminated the barriers that held water in the huge sawgrass marshes. Water levels fell to the level of Lake Worth and the Jupiter Inlet, which is several feet above sea level. A delta formed from the silt deposited by the water flow where the Florida East Coast Canal entered Lake Worth. Water also drained out of the cypress swamp, which previously had been at the same level as the sawgrass marsh, forming a channel that eventually would become the Archie's Creek canal. The draining of the sawgrass marsh exposed muck soils that were considered ideal for farming. As the Florida East Coast Canal dredging neared Lake Worth in 1897, a land company dug a ditch south of the haulover. The ditch drained the sawgrass marsh that was more distant from the canal and then emptied into Lake Worth. Initially called Dimick's Ditch, this drainageway is now known as the C-17 Canal or the Earman River. It also created much erosion and the deposition of a small delta where it emptied into Lake Worth. The land company named this area "Prosperity" and began to sell tracts of land. Flagler's Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad (present-day Florida East Coast Railroad) had been constructed one mile west of the natural area in 1894. It skirted the western edge of the sawgrass marsh, crossed it at the narrowest point, and continued on the coastal ridge to West Palm Beach. A railroad station known as Prairie was established west of Prosperity, and Monet Road (present-day RCA Boulevard) was established to bring the farmers' produce to the station. In the 1910s, Old Dixie Highway was constructed next to the Florida East Coast Railway, which provided the farmers with road access to West Palm Beach and the large Palm Beach tourist hotels. The portion of this road which lies west of the natural area is known today as Alternate A1A. Shortly afterwards, Prosperity Farms Road was established to provide a direct connection to Old Dixie Highway from the Prosperity settlement. In 1919, Harry Kelsey bought most of the land south of the natural area. He established Kelsey City (present-day Lake Park) on the scrub ridge, and encouraged farming in the muck lands surrounding the Prosperity settlement. In 1920, Peter Maheu, a Belgian immigrant, brought his family to the area and began farming. The Maheus had previously settled at Canal Point in 1917, but were driven out by repeated flooding. They were more successful at Prosperity, and Peter Maheu's sons began to establish their own farms. John Maheu's farm would eventually include all of the southern half of the natural area. It was accessed by Prosperity Farms Road, which terminated at that time in the vicinity of present-day Lone Pine Road, just south of the natural area. John Maheu initially grew vegetables for the Palm Beach hotels on the muck lands east of Prosperity Farms Road and east of the natural area (Gooding 1990). The Florida land boom in the mid-1920s and the widespread use of automobiles caused a surge in road construction. U.S. Highway 1 was built one mile east of the natural area and Monet Road was extended east to meet it. A bridge was built across the East Coast CanaI for this extension. The canal had silted up in many places by this time and was partially blocked by fallen tree snags. It was being used primarily by small pleasure boats, and only generated minimal tolls (Gooding 1990). The canal company went bankrupt and was bought in 1925 by Harry Kelsey, who planned to improve it to handle large freight barges. A devastating hurricane struck Miami in 1926, ending the land boom and ruining Kelsey's finances. The Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) was established in 1927 to buy the canal, and the canal was acquired in 1928. The canal was designated a federal project in 1929 and was incorporated into the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). The federal government removed the snags and restored the canal to its original five-foot depth. FIND obtained a 5.1-acre spoil disposal site from John Maheu next to the ICW, and placed dredged spoil material on it in 1932, when the ICW was widened by dredging to a width of 100 feet and a depth of 8 feet (Corbett 1993). After the collapse of the land boom and the onset of the Depression, very little happened in the vicinity of the natural area. Prosperity Farms Road was extended northward as a federal Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s (Gooding 1990), eventually reaching the ICW at the Paradise Point Area north of present-day Donald Ross Road in 1940 (USDI 1940). Paradise Point was the location where the ICW left the Lake Worth Creek channel and cut across the former sawgrass marsh. The undredged portion of Lake Worth Creek gave the appearance of a small stream flowing into the ICW. When the Hoyt family settled this area in the early 1940s, they put up a small sign with the name Frenchman's Creek on it where the creek entered the ICW. The name had nothing to do with persons of French origin, but was taken from the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, because the Hoyts liked the book. When federal mapmakers preparing the Jupiter topographical quadrangle traveled up the ICW in 1948, they saw the sign and added the name to the quadrangle (Gooding 1990). The natural area and several developments in the vicinity have all taken their names from the Hoyts' sign. World War II resulted in a spurt of development around the natural area. John Maheu expanded his farming operation to the west of Prosperity Farms Road, covering the areas classified today as disturbed hydric hammock, disturbed tidal swamp, and disturbed tidal marsh (Figure 2). The understory vegetation and shrubs were removed from this area, but the scattered cabbage palms, live oaks and pond cypresses were left. Although some vegetable farming may have occurred briefly in this area, the main use appears to have been pasture. A 1953 aerial photograph (USDI 1953) shows the area as improved pasture, and remnants of a fence and a corral have been found on site. The remainder of the natural area and the land to the west was also used as rough native pasture at this time. This farm expansion area contained wet prairie and former sawgrass marsh during the 1940s. The existing ditch system in the natural area was dug at this time to drain this area into the Archie's Creek canal under Prosperity Farms Road. These ditches have not been maintained since 1960, but still drain portions of the natural area, especially after a heavy rainfall. Other ditches were dug west of the natural area at about the same time to drain wetlands next to Alternate A1A for tomato farming. These ditches emptied into the cypress swamp, which drained into the farm ditch system and out the Archie's Creek canal. These drainage systems accelerated the drawdown of surface water on the site, eliminating the wet prairie and causing woody shrubs and vines to invade the depression marsh. The cypress swamp's hydroperiod was reduced, causing oxidation and loss of the accumulated peat and the toppling of many of the pond cypress trees. After World War II, people began to establish residences along the ICW north of the natural area. Dorothy B. Gooding was one of these persons. She recounted her experiences, including a 1949 wildfire on the natural area, in her book (Gooding 1990). The Monet Road bridge over the ICW was destroyed in the 1947 hurricane. Another bridge was built at Donald Ross Road when this road was constructed in 1956. In the late 1950s, John Maheu ceased farming, and began to develop his property. The loss of the muck soil through oxidation, and an inability to compete with the large corporate farms south of Lake Okeechobee may have influenced this decision. Maheu platted the higher elevation portions of his property, including the developed inset within the natural area west of Prosperity Farms Road, and began to sell off lots. He formed the Maheu Excavating Company and began to dredge finger canals from the ICW in the lower portion of his land east of Prosperity Farms Road. He also constructed bulkhead walls to retain the fill. This area was later platted as Maheu Estates and sold as waterfront lots. Maheu Excavating stored its equipment and materials west of Prosperity Farms Road, just north of the developed inset. This area required extensive cleanup to remove engines, pilings, and concrete rubble prior to the County's acquisition of the natural area. The development of the Cabana Colony subdivision southwest of the natural area by John D. MacArthur began in 1960 with the filing of a plat. This plat dedicated a proposed drainage canal to the County. Construction of this canal, which forms the southern border of the site, began shortly thereafter. A new bridge was constructed over the canal at Prosperity Farms Road . This canal connected directly to the ICW and excessively drained its basin, so a weir was constructed at the southwest corner of the natural area to hold the canal at a higher level than the ICW. A sewer plant was built just west of the natural area in 1962 to serve this development. Treatment tanks were built, and a spur canal was dug northward from the Cabana Colony canal along the west boundary of the natural area, either to drain the plant area or to dispose of treated effluent. Cabana Colony developed rapidly and was nearly built out by 1968. The lands east of the natural area along the ICW were rapidly being developed at this time, often with dredged finger canals. The ICW was expanded to 125 feet wide and 10 feet deep in 1962. The spoil appears to have been dumped to the east of the waterway. In the early 1960s, PGA Boulevard was built a half-mile north of Monet Road and 3/4 mile south of the natural area. This east-west state road also had a bridge across the ICW. Lone Pine Road, which is just south of the natural area, was also built in the early 1960s. John Maheu needed additional fill for Maheu Estates. In the early 1960s, he dredged a small depression that had been bisected by the Cabana Colony canal, creating a lagoon that is today's disturbed tidal swamp (Figure 2). He also widened the Archie's Creek canal west of Prosperity Farms Road at about the same time, for the same reason. When he completed his development activities, he sold the remainder of his land to the MacArthur interests. Because the property's fences were not maintained and the land was not patrolled, off-road vehicles trails were created and dumping of tires, junk cars, appliances, and construction debris became common, especially adjacent to Prosperity Farms Road. The abandoned farm lands began to revegetate, with oaks and cabbage palms next to existing clumps of trees, and with Brazilian pepper in treeless areas. A 1973 property appraiser's aerial photograph shows that most of the previously-farmed area had become covered with brushy vegetation . Development activities continued in the 1970s. The various Maheu subdivisions were nearly built out and construction had begun on the Maranatha Church of God property next to the southeast corner of the natural area. Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School was constructed near the southwest corner of the natural area in the early 1970s. In 1978, percolation ponds were dug at the Cabana Colony sewer plant, and utility lines extended northward in an easement next to the western border of the site. These changes may have been caused by the construction of the Frenchman's Creek development to the northwest of the natural area. Also in 1978, a winding drainage canal was dug to drain the lands north and south of PGA Boulevard that were south of the natural area. This canal emptied into the Cabana Colony canal west of the Maranatha Church of God, and also had a weir installed near its mouth to prevent overdrainage of its basin. In 1981, construction began on the Frenchman's Landing development north of the natural area. This development was nearly built out by the mid-1980s. The tract between the natural area and Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School was partially cleared, and a baseball field established on a portion of it, in the early 1980s. Dumping increased on the natural area in the 1980s and became a major problem. The regrowth on the previously-farmed areas became a closed canopy forest, approximately 50% native hydric hammock vegetation and 50% Brazilian pepper, with a clumped distribution. In 1986, a 100-foot wide strip of mostly Brazilian pepper was cleared west of Prosperity Farms Road between the Cabana Colony Canal and the developed inset. This clearing apparently was done to facilitate the installation of a water main, and the cleared vegetation was pushed westward into the natural area. Construction began on the Gardens Mall south of the natural area in the mid-1980s. The mall and its associated development drained into the Cabana Colony canal through the existing canal dug in 1978. In the late 1980s, development approval was sought for the natural area and the lands west of it for the Wynfield residential development. The developers were unable to get financing for their project, and its approvals expired. The project was abandoned in the early 1990s. In 1991, the perimeter of the natural area was cleared and fenced by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which was now in control of the property. The fencing was installed 15 to 25 feet inside the property line, and the cleared vegetation was pushed into the natural area. The setback of the fencing encouraged adjacent residential property owners to encroach into the natural area with landscaping, play sets, and wood privacy fences. The Foundation removed most of the obvious dump piles along Prosperity Farms Road at this time. More extensive cleanups were done in 1994 and 1995. In 1992, the County reserved a right-of-way for the extension of Hood Road to Prosperity Farms Road. This right-of-way ran northwest to southeast, bisecting the site and separating the northern three-quarters of the site from the southern quarter (Figure 1). Also in 1992, the Cabana Colony sewer plant was demolished and the percolation ponds filled in. Cattle corrals and feeders were constructed, and the property west of the natural area was leased as rough native pasture land. In May 1995, a wildfire burned several acres of pine flatwoods in the northeastern corner of the site. In December 1995, the County purchased 149.09 acres of the natural area from the MacArthur Foundation for $5,676,987. The Foundation retained ownership of the Hood Road extension right-of-way, but gave the County a management easement over it. The Foundation also retained a 25-foot-wide strip next to Prosperity Farms Road, and gave the County access rights across this strip. In August 1996, the County and the City submitted a joint application to the Florida Communities Trust (FCT) for matching funds for this purchase through FCT's Preservation 2000 Program. In January 1997, the FCT Governing Board gave conceptual approval for $2,868,282 in matching funds for this acquisition. |
|
 |
 |
 Coastal Resources |
|
Lakes,
Estuaries and Lagoons |
|
Mosquito Control |
|
Natural Areas |
|
Permitting and Regulation |
|
 |