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Habitat and Bio-Diversity:
Shortly after the acquisition of the first 10 acres for the parish, the Land Stewardship Committee secured a grant from the National Catholic Council of Bishops to perform an inventory and prepare a land use development plan with the goal of presenting a format or template to the Archdiocese. This template and field notes that followed clearly exhibited that the Church can be at the vanguard of land development that is consistent with the ecological movement.
The first architect assigned to ex[pore site development started out with the standard game plan of bull doze the ten acres and build from there. A second architect was employed.
The inventory showed that the church site was in the southwest corner of what was once a robust cypress head. Soil samples, aerial photographs and simple "walking the land" clearly revealed the natural history of the site and the promise it held for a land stewardship parish.
Animal tracks observed in the initial phase showed the possum, raccoon, bobcat, feral cats, turtles dove, egrets, herons and many other species were present and about the land. Skeletal remains also revealed that wildlife was very much a part of the ten acre tract. The goal was simple: develop a parish that is in harmony with the land. No liturgy has suffered from this goal and point of fact the land has become very much a part of many of the annual liturgies. Christmas Eve Mass in the Garden and Easter Sunrise Service being just two of the anticipated events.
Through the ensuing years a program of bird feeding in widely dispersed feeders has been initiated in an attempt to keep and attract many different species of birds. The various feeders are filled in three and five day regimens to give some support to the birds but not render them dependent upon the food source. Peanuts, both shelled and unshelled, are used for blue-jays, cardinals, brown thrashers. Grackles are also present but not intended to be part of the support program. White and red millet is used for dove and the feeders are both elevated and ground. Extra wide dispersion is used for dove to encourage their foraging and to eliminate some of the aggressive feeding habits displayed by these supposedly peaceful animals. Sunflower seed is used sparingly and mostly in the winter months. No bread or wheat products are used and the parishioners are instructed regularly in this regard. Occasional corn, safflower, and chicken feed is set out. This is usually in the winter months.Bird sightings include mockingbird, catbird, blue jay, painted bunting, red-shouldered hawk, mourning Dove, killdeer, osprey, grebe, brown thrasher, wrens, and red-winged blackbird, cooper's hawk, to name just a few. The church property is surrounded on two sides by South Florida Water Management District flood control canals and on one side by a private canal. The banks of the canals are home to egrets, herons, mottled ducks, wood ducks, otter, and ibis.
A survey of the water ways showed an active and healthy population of bass, sunfish, bream and some gar. Fish food is set out in the canal on the south border. The fish are fed about once or twice a week. No fishing is permitted within three hundred feet of the feeding area. Feed is generally set on in the early morning and late afternoon. A survey of fisher-people catches shows that the fish population is healthy and abundant.
Raccoon, opossum, and fox as well as squirrels and rabbit are some of the mammalian residents. Gopher tortoise were once with us but no longer as were deer. The last bobcat was sighted in 2007. Snakes are generally black racers, glass snakes, corn snakes and garter snakes. There has never been evidence of or a sighting of poisonous snakes.
Several honey bee hives have come and gone on the property and usually come in with the advent of the farming season on the lands north of the parish.
Truly, God has given us every manner of beast and place us in stewardship over them.
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