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depending on weather conditions. South Florida has several areas of spot building where homes are built in neighborhoods with large, unmanaged properties nearby where little or no regular landscape maintenance is conducted. Local governments often require neighborhoods to maintain designated preserves or conservation areas where plants and wildlife must remain untouched. Work in the preserves is often restricted to minimize the impacts for wildlife and native vegetation. Yet these preserves must still be managed. Fire plays an important role because Florida plants and animals rely on it. If the conservation areas are left unmanaged the accumulation of dead fuels and untreated new growth can create an undesirable effect, such as extreme fire behavior and habitat loss for the wildlife. Regular maintenance of preserves improves the chances for new growth. Otherwise, dead vegetation accumulates and causes fire danger to increase. These unmanaged areas force animals to forage outside their normal habitat. Regular food supplies run low for gopher tortoises and other species that rely on periodic fire to burn off the excess vegetation often found in these preserves. Large undeveloped properties owned by city, county, state or federal agencies might have set as these areas as preserves or natural areas. A management plan is needed to reduce the hazardous buildup of dead vegetation. The Florida Forest Service continues to work together with municipalities in Indian River County to educate and facilitate mitigation in identified high risk areas. A muck fire is a fire that consumes all the organic material of the forest floor and also burns into the underlying soil. It differs from a surface fire by being invulnerable to wind. If the fire gets deep into the ground, it could smolder for several years. In a surface fire, the flames are visible, and burning is accelerated by wind. Whereas in a muck fire, wind is not generally a serious factor (Canadian Soil Information System, 1996). Another extraordinary fact about muck fires has to do with their release of carbon dioxide. A peat bog that is on fire can release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all the power stations and car engines emit in Western Europe in 1 year (Pearce, 1997). This type of fire could have a Indian River County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan Basic Page 33