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104 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2006 BURTON

Fire on the reserve side of the wetlands.

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Mid-May brought an unexpected threat to the Bue Iguana
Recovery Program (BIRP) in the form of a large-scale

fire that started in a small agricultural plot and swept out of
control into the Salina Reserve’s sedge wetlands. There, it
burned fiercely along the southern margins of the swamp,
fueled by green Cladium leaves, and then unexpectedly started
to spread east into the dry forest where Hurricane Ivan had left
large amounts of dead wood on the forest floor in 2004. Local
fire services are not equipped to deal with blazes in remote
areas, and were initially inclined to let it burn, but when the
flames worked around the east end of the Salina wetland and
started to threaten the Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi) release site,
action had to be taken. With considerable support from the
Department of Environment (DOE), BIRP managed to get
permission for a helicopter to airlift staff and volunteers into
the fire zone. This brought the fire services on board, and a
joint team effectively tackled the blaze with a water bucket
chain, shovels, and machetes. The main fire was doused quickly,
and residual smoulderings were eventually extinguished using
“water bombs” dropped from the government’s mosquito spray
plane. The Cayman Islands' dry forests are not a fire-adapted
ecosystem, and it is rare for fires to spread so far beyond the
man-made grasslands where this fire began. Ground-nesting
birds, terrestrial and epiphytic orchids, and small reptiles are
among the forest flora and fauna which are likely to have been
impacted. In contrast, the sedge community around the mar-
gins of the Salina wetland do burn once every few years, and
the critically endangered endemic wildflower Agalinis kingsii
often thrives in the year after a major burn. The Blue Iguana
habitat, fortunately, escaped all harm.

Fire in the Salina Reserve, 
Grand Cayman

Frederic J. Burton

Blue Iguana Recovery Program 
National Trust for the Cayman Islands

IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2006 105FIRE IN THE SALINA RESERVE

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West Indian Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna arborea) in the aftermath.

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Fred Burton, Blue Iguana Recovery Program, working toward the fire line to assess the situation.

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106 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2006 BURTON

Recent fire area aftermath.

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Small hot spots often reignited in the heat of the day.

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Map of the Salina Reserve showing extent of the fire in relation to the
Blue Iguana release site. 1 = Salina Blue release site; 2 = area burned; 
3 = wetlands.

Burned out area.

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2006 107FIRE IN THE SALINA RESERVE

Recently released Blue Iguana (Cyclura lewisi) in the Salina Reserve.

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H O R N E D  L I Z A R D  W O R K I N G
G R O U P  M E E T I N G

The next meeting of the Horned Lizard Working Group
will be held September 15 - 17, 2006, on a private

Ranch near Snyder, Texas. The meeting will include presen-
tations about recent research, discussions of management
and research priorities, and a field trip. The meeting will be
held at the Windmill Ranch (http://www.windmillranchp-
reserve.com/), which has accommodations for staying
overnight, presentations and food service. Additional accom-
modations are available in Snyder, less than 10 miles away.

We are currently working on the program for the meet-
ing. If you would like to present or just participate, please con-
tact Dr. Wendy Hodges (hodges_w@utpb.edu) or Dr. Gad
Perry (Gad.Perry@ttu.edu), as soon as possible. If you would
like to speak, please indicate so and provide a tentative title.

Hope you can make it.

Wendy Hodges Gad Perry
University of Texas – Permian Basin Texas Tech University

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