U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News

s p o t l i g h t 50 Years of The Wilderness Act 8

Refuge Therapy 24 Who Cares About Smoke 22 what’s inside

Departments Features

From the Directorate / 1 s p o t l i g h t news / 2 Around the Service / 29 curator’s corner / 28 our People / 37

50 YEARS OF THE WILDERNESS ACT 8 escaping the confines of civilization We needed the Wilderness Act in 1964 and still need it today

by nAnCy RoepeR

Adventure Awaits / 12 Wild Lands in the Think Minimally / 16 Many Heed Call to Enjoy Arctic / 14 Traditional skills help Areas ‘Untrammeled People are enriched by the preserve wilderness by Man’ knowledge that it exists character

by deBoRAH JeRome by BRiAn glASpell by STeve HenRy

Who cares About refuge Smoke? / 22 Therapy / 24 When fire threatens, Preschoolers air quality often connect to nature on The cover: WildeRneSS AT Big overlooked by kATHeRine TAyloR lAke nATionAl Wildlife Refuge in ARkAnSAS. JeRemy BenneTT/uSfWS by kARen miRAndA from the directorate

Wilderness: values Beyond Its Land Boundaries

It’s hard for me to believe that it has been 20 years town were growing as bowhead whale carcasses from since I moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, to begin my the fall hunt were becoming a more important food assignment as manager of Arctic National Wildlife source and the sea ice receded farther and farther Refuge. The refuge is a world-class natural area and from shore. the preeminent remaining American wilderness. The experience changed my life; it deepened my As I was reflecting on my experiences in the Arctic understanding of the natural world and the human and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Jim kurth experience in it. Act, I remember some words my friend Roger Kaye wrote about wilderness in Fulfilling the Promise, The place evokes a sense of timelessness. When you the 1999 document that set the path for the Refuge find fossilized coral on the refuge’s coastal plan, you System for the forthcoming decade: “Central to the can imagine the ancient ocean that once covered it. experience and awareness of wilderness is humility, Read current Arctic Billion-year-old rocks are exposed in the upthrust with its corollary, restraint; restraint in what is Refuge manager of the Brooks Range. Muskoxen and caribou remind appropriate for visitors to do, as well as managers. Brian glaspell’s take you that the Pleistocene Epoch—the Ice Age—was Restraint is the reason for the ‘minimum tool’ rule, on the refuge p. 14. yesterday in Earth’s history, and that people who limiting use of our mechanisms to that which is once crossed the Bering land bridge encountered the necessary, and necessary not only to manage these mastodon and the scimitar cat. Those people’s areas, but to manage them as wilderness. descendants—the Inupiat and Gwich ‘in people— still live there; their cultures thrive. “Beyond its tangible resources and experiential opportunities, wilderness is a symbolic landscape. It encompasses values and benefits that extend [Wilderness] encompasses values and beyond its boundaries, to the millions of Americans who will never visit, but find satisfaction in knowing benefits that extend beyond its boundaries, these vestiges still exist. Wilderness areas are valued as remnants of our American cultural heritage to the millions of Americans who will never as well as our universal evolutionary heritage, visit, but find satisfaction in knowing these symbolically enshrining national as well as natural values. Wilderness protection serves as the most vestiges still exist. —roger Kaye visible symbol of our generation’s willingness to pass on some natural treasures as we found them. It is the finest example, perhaps, of our sense of stewardship It is impossible not to feel small there. It is hard not of the system.” to feel spiritual there. The place seems to compel an understanding that there are forces beyond our I wonder whether we have fulfilled the promise of comprehension, perhaps a power of some kind that that last sentence? Perhaps. I suspect we have more is bigger than our own species. I always prayed work to do. I wonder what a Chief of the National when I was there. The Earth is a very good place. Wildlife Refuge System, reflecting on wilderness and our stewardship, might write 50 years from now. My experiences in the Arctic always made me think I hope we can be humble stewards who will provide of our stewardship of both the refuge and the planet— inspiration in the future. of our progress and our failures. The Arctic Refuge remains protected and its wilderness character Jim kuRTH is Chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System remains. I believe that it will always be so. But during my time there, an elder from Kaktovik told me he had water in his ice basement and that no one had ever seen that before. The numbers of polar bears around

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 1 news

Partnerships help a Small Lizard Stage a Big comeback Keeping America’s Duck Factory Going Two of the Channel islands— San Clemente and San nicolas— n the 1930s, the dust Bowl are administered by the u.S. Ibrought widespread ruin, but in navy. Santa Barbara island is north dakota, the ecological managed by the national park disaster had one good outcome: Service. By the mid-1990s these the establishment of a slew of Service partners removed all national wildlife refuges. Without goats, sheep and rabbits from the construction of reservoirs the islands. feral cats were and the restoration of habitat successfully removed from San completed under the direction nicolas island in 2010, and while of the Service, many wildlife cats remain on San Clemente species might not have survived. island, they pose no significant risk to the survival of the island in may and June, 29 of night lizard. these refuges marked their 75th anniversaries amid a new Today, there are estimated to ecological crisis: the rapid be 21.3 million lizards on San conversion of surrounding prairie nAvy nAvy

u.S. Clemente island, 15,300 lizards on grasslands and wetlands to San nicolas island, and 17,600 agriculture, energy development fter 36 years of protection The status of the island night lizard, a lizards on Santa Barbara island and other uses. Aunder the endangered small lizard known only to islands off (including Sutil island). The Species Act (eSA), the island the coast of southern California, has national park Service and the “These refuges were established night lizard has successfully improved so much that the species no u.S. navy have established native in recognition of the importance recovered and will be removed longer needs endangered Species plant nurseries and are actively of the landscape as a whole in from federal protection. Act protection for survival. cultivating native plants to further sustaining waterfowl and other restore the habitat on these species,” says Will meeks, island night lizards, found only on islands. Assistant Regional director the Channel islands off the coast for Refuges in the Service’s of California, average just two to The island night lizard was first Thanks primarily to the work of mountain-prairie Region. “As our four inches in length excluding listed under the eSA in 1977 as a partners at the u.S. navy and native prairie lands vanish, the the tails. Their coloration varies result of severe habitat degra­ national park Service to remove refuges are becoming more vital from pale ash gray and beige to dation on the Channel islands. non-native species from the than ever as natural oases.” shades of brown and black, with These islands were severely islands, protect habitat for the varying uniform, mottled and impacted by ranching and lizard and promote the restoration in late march, the Service striped patterns. The lizard grazing, in particular, the intro­ of native plants that provide and several conservation usually lives about 11 to 13 years. duction of non-native herbivores, habitat for the lizard, the island partners launched the prairies including goats and pigs on San night lizard is flourishing. Conservation Campaign to call island night lizards are found only Clemente and San nicolas attention to the rapid loss of on three of the Channel islands— islands, and rabbits on Santa JAne HendRon, public Affairs, prairie habitat (See Conservation San Clemente, San nicolas and Barbara island. These animals pacific Southwest Region, and organizations Join forces to Santa Barbara. A very small stripped the land of vegetation vAleRie felloWS, endangered Support Conservation in the number of lizards are also found and caused significant erosion. in Species, Headquarters prairies, p. 34). on Sutil island, several thousand addition, feral cats introduced to yards from Santa Barbara island. San Clemente and San nicolas islands preyed on the lizard.

2 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 news

Beating Back extinction one Plant at a Time

eeking out from an unassuming ■■ originally proposed for listing in Phillside along a well-traveled 1976, by the time the species was road north of the San francisco listed on January 26, 2000, two of Bay is one of California’s most those three locations had been endangered plants, Baker’s lost to the plant, leaving the steep larkspur. from theft to fire to roadside embankment as the flooding, the plant has been plant’s only home. through the ringer. lAuRA HuBeRS/uSfWS ■■ By 2001, the one remaining Snow geese and white-fronted geese of these 29 north dakota refuges, luckily for this lonely flower, site had only 55 flowering plants. fly out over a dakota cornfield. Rapid the Service owns 11. The botanists from the university of conversion of land for farm and energy remaining 18 are protected by California Botanical garden at ■■ in 2002, local work crews production is shrinking wildlife habitat in conservation easements. That Berkeley have been working gouged the slope, removing the the prairie pothole Region. means the Service contracted closely with biologists from the largest plants before new seeds with private landowners, paying Service’s Sacramento field office were fully developed. them in return for their agreement to improve its chances of survival. to provide important migratory ■■ in September 2004, fire-fighting north dakota sits in the country’s duck habitat. Where does one go to find the crews set backfires on the slope prairie pothole Region, a plant worthy of a Shakespearean above the larkspur’s location to glaciated landscape of shallow Together, north dakota’s wildlife tragedy? To protect the remaining control a wildfire. few individuals basins covering 5.3 million acres refuges account for only 1 plants, the Service doesn’t survived. in parts of montana, the dakotas, percent of lands in the state. give out specific locations, but minnesota and iowa. millions of But by partnering with farmers, the only remaining naturally ■■ one month later, local road migrating canvasbacks, mallards, ranchers and other landowners, occurring population of crews removed most of the pintails, gadwall, teal and other the Service has been able to Baker’s larkspur is on a steep remaining plants from the slope waterfowl flock to seasonal revive damaged habitat on a embankment in West marin while clearing out a culvert wetland ponds to breed, earning much wider scale. County. not long ago, this was below the population. the area the nickname of the only place on the planet that America’s duck factory. Refuges are “not just small this beautiful flowering plant, a ■■ By 2007, only seven plants isolated parcels,” says lloyd perennial herb in the buttercup appeared, and only two of those Biologist J. Clark Salyer, hired Jones, who retired in 2013 as family, was found. flowered. But both of those plants in 1934 to manage the national refuge manager of Audubon lost their flowers before seeds Wildlife Refuge System, national Wildlife Refuge in north Here’s a quick look at what led were fully developed. handpicked many of north dakota. “They play a bigger role to the plant’s life on the edge: dakota’s dustbowl-era refuges. [by working] in association with Thankfully, the story of Baker’s He crisscrossed the drought- the Small Wetlands Acquisition ■■ Considered rare when it was larkspur doesn’t end there. parched state in his station program that acquires waterfowl formally described in the late wagon, sometimes driving 600 production areas and wetland 1930s, Baker’s larkspur has Because the plant is so rare, little miles a day, to find distressed and grassland easements… only ever been found in three is known about what specifically farmlands and buy those he so people have more opportunity locations, one in Sonoma County the plant needs to pull itself back could. in spring 1939, president to enjoy wild things and wild and two in marin County. from the brink. garden staff and franklin Roosevelt signed places.” Service biologists put their heads executive orders establishing ■■ in 1992, all the seed pods together to carefully select new 29 new purchases as wildlife SuSAn moRSe, national Wildlife were collected by unknown planting sites, based upon what is refuges. Refuge System, Headquarters individuals, which meant no known of the species’ habitat reproduction that year. requirements, conditions required by similar species and the availability of willing and interested landowners.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 3 news

Damages Assessed, nrDAr Program, Partners restore colorado’s Upper Arkansas river Basin—Part 1

or more than a century, waste high concentrations of cadmium, Ffrom historic mines leached copper, lead and zinc. The into adjacent lands and waters concentrations tracked those of the Arkansas River, contami- measured in the bird’s insect nating more than 15 square miles food source, indicating that of the upper Arkansas River such aquatic-dependent birds basin in lake County, Colorado, were exposed to the release of which includes the California hazardous substances from vAlARy Bloom/uSfWS vAlARy gulch Superfund site. The mining the mining. in 2009, garden staff, led by Holly These plants have been raised at the waste posed a serious threat to forbes and under contract with nursery. Raising and collecting seed from human health and safety because After determining the extent the Service, introduced plants plants in the nursery is not a good long­ heavy metals, including lead, of the injuries and calculating propagated from wild seed to term strategy because plants that thrive seeped into drinking water damages (dollars), nRdAR teams And Wildlife ColoRAdo pARkS three sites within its historic in an artificial setting are different from sources and soil. The heavy negotiate legal settlements with range: two on private ranches those that do well in the wild. it also may metals also injured such wildlife the parties responsible for the and a third site on marin over time compromise the gene pool. as the American dipper, tree hazardous releases. funds municipal Water district’s land swallow and brown trout, and received from the settlements near Soulajoule Reservoir. All their supporting habitats. are used to restore, replace or are within three miles of the last Working without federal funding acquire the equivalent of the remaining wild occurrence in since 2013, garden staff and While the environmental injured natural resources. marin County. volunteers continue to monitor protection Agency worked to the original and experimental clean the area up, a team of once funding is available for Between 2009 and 2011, more sites. Counting starts in early state and federal agencies and restoration, the physical work than 200 plants raised in the spring just as the first leaves academics began to determine begins, and the team works with nursery by the garden were burst bright green from the soil. whether natural resources were interested conservation partners planted in those experimental periodically, new plants are injured and how badly. Starting in who undertake restoration locations. Although the sites propagated in the nursery and 1992, the team in the Arkansas projects based on a Restoration all had some success, the are replanted in the wild. River basin, led by the Service’s plan/environmental Assessment challenges facing the species mountain-prairie Region, began by the nRdAR team. weren’t left by the side of the in the meantime, a draft recovery the natural Resource damage road. many of the plants were plan for the species is in devel­ Assessment and Restoration for this site, the 2008 nRdAR eaten by banana slugs or other opment. it describes what is (nRdAR) process settlement was with ASARCo llC animals. Some reached maturity known about the species’ and Resurrection mining but didn’t flower. even those needs and lays out the recovery laura Archuleta, a Service Company/newmont uSA ltd. that did flower often lost their strategy, with detailed steps and project manager and environ­ for $20.5 million. flowering stems before their estimated costs for immediate mental contaminants specialist, seeds were viable. Adding insult action. Release of this important has been working on the site for in the upper Arkansas River, to injury, trees fell at two of the document and invitation for more than 17 years, and she said several restoration projects aim three sites, changing the micro- public comment are expected she’s excited to see the team and to improve aquatic habitat for climate of the locations. by the end of this year. its partners restoring the injured wildlife and invertebrates, and natural resources. increase brown trout populations nature may be beautiful, but it Recovery is the ultimate goal of by providing feeding areas, is seldom kind. the endangered Species Act. As far back as 1997, Archuleta overhead cover, spawning areas Sometimes success needs to be and others began documenting and overwintering refuge habitat. But garden and Service staff measured one plant at a time. injury to American dippers, tree partners such as Colorado members have persevered. swallows and supporting habitats parks and Wildlife, lake County SARAH SWenTy, external Affairs, in the basin. Tissue and blood Conservation district and the pacific Southwest Region samples from the birds showed natural Resource Conservation

4 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 news

Saving coral reefs: 1 Million Pounds of Shipwreck at a Time

he Service, partners and part of the pacific Remote islands Tmarine salvage experts— marine national monument. Curtin maritime and global diving and Salvage—have removed The iron in the shipwrecks had nearly 1 million pounds of fueled the growth of invasive shipwrecks in the pacific ocean organisms— anemone-like coral­ to protect some of the most limorph at palmyra Refuge and pristine coral reefs in the world. filamentous algae, a long stringy hairlike marine plant, at kingman “due to their isolation and Refuge—and the invaders protected status, the reefs of smothered a large amount of palmyra Atoll and kingman Reef once-healthy, diverse coral. This Refuges are healthy and resilient, is known as “black reef”—when and experience few manmade a reef with high coral diversity Service have been working on A fisherman tries his luck amid the stressors besides these wrecks,” transforms into a brown or black stream restoration by excavating restoration equipment. says Amanda pollock, former reef dominated by a single, pools, creating stream riffles, refuge manager of palmyra Atoll invasive species. adding logs or root wads, and kingman Reef national installing boulders, planting and impacted areas with native Wildlife Refuges, and now deputy now that the wrecks are gone, re-seeding riparian vegetation vegetation. project leader for the managing the otherwise healthy reefs will along banks, and installing refuge complex. The refuges are be better able to deal with the livestock exclusion fencing. The nRdAR team may have 1,000 miles south of Honolulu and invasive species. But the Service started the work, but the resto­ The in-stream restoration, which ration could not take place began in 2011, is already showing without partners from all parts All debris from the improvement, and it benefits not of the upper Arkansas River three wrecks will be only fish and birds but also the basin working together to restore recycled or properly public, which now has a fish and wildlife habitat, and disposed of in SuSAn WHiTe/uSfWS resource to enjoy—whether public places for recreation California. fishing, bird watching or simply and other uses. enjoying the beauty of the basin. part 2 of this article, which Anglers have special reason to focuses on those partnership be happy with the restoration. in efforts, will be in the next issue the early 1990s, fish couldn’t live of Fish & Wildlife News. even three years. Today, trout are thriving and living up to 10 years. in fact, Colorado parks and Wildlife named the upper More InForMATIon Arkansas River as gold medal ? Trout Waters, indicating it offers the greatest potential for trophy To learn more about the trout fishing. nRdAR program and the upper Arkansas River other projects are also basin restoration projects, underway, including work to please visit the website at: permanently protect important <1.usa.gov/1nSveex>. areas and projects to re-seed

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 5 news

AmAndA polloCk / uSfWS

will work to remove the coralli­ At palmyra Refuge, a spent days dismantling and Above: one of the project crew collects morph and algae, and restore the 40-by-20-foot floating barge hand-shoveling 277,800 pounds debris by hand at a shipwreck on lively, colorful, diverse coral served as the work platform for of debris into buckets and lifting palmyra Atoll national Wildlife Refuge. reefs. commercial divers removing a it onto the small vessels for 618,350-pound Taiwanese fishing transport back to the derrick Left: Both palmyra Atoll and kingman “By removing the wrecks and vessel. five divers spent 880 barge. Reef nWRs are home to rare giant clams. invasive species, the Service hours cutting up the 121-foot ship is giving these reefs the best with exothermic torches, burning The final and most dangerous chance to adapt to global rods, underwater chainsaws phase was at kingman Refuge, climate and oceanographic and jackhammers. They also an extremely remote location “This team’s unique attention to changes,” pollock says. safely removed 605 gallons of with only a couple of unvegetated detail, professional integrity, fuel products discovered in tanks coral rubble islets, which offer skills and tenacious ability to The salvagers may have started onboard. The crew carefully little protection from volatile work through the extreme out as just contractors but quickly rigged and loaded each piece— pacific weather conditions. challenges together were the became key partners in a project some weighing more than despite a lack of accurately defining factors for this project’s that Susan White, monument 30,000 pounds—onto specially plotted navigational charts, success,” White says. superintendent and refuge constructed shallow water pounding surf, driving rain and project leader, calls “expertly transport vessels. A 150-foot unreliable weather forecasts, Throughout the project, scientists planned and handled.” crane then loaded them onto a team members manually retrieved and refuge managers monitored derrick barge for removal. 44,000 pounds of iron, teak and the status and health of the reef The 16-person shipwreck removal fiberglass from an unmarked ecosystems, and the monitoring team used a full range of tools A second shipwreck, a pontoon vessel that grounded at kingman will continue as phase two, and techniques, from state-of­ barge grounded in three feet of Refuge in 2007 and had since treatment of the invasive species, the-art equipment to sheer water at palmyra Refuge in the broken apart and scattered on begins. brawn and grit, all while ensuring 1950s, had disintegrated over the reef. protection of the fragile decades into small shale-like environment. pieces of rust. Team members

6 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 news

Quick Action Stops Mouse Invasion of St. George Island, Alaska

ouse mice were never meant “it was a surprise,” says wild bird eggs, kill chicks, alter Hto be on the remote and merculief, “and not a nice one.” native vegetation, and could have windswept Bering Sea island threatened the native lemming of St. george, Alaska. So it was Recognizing the threat, the city species that’s found only on St. quite a shock for mark merculief workers immediately contacted george island. in addition, eradi­ and his co-workers from the City Chris merculief, president of the cating mice once they’ve become of St. george when they opened a St. george Traditional Council, established is expensive and in shipping container of grass seed the organization charged with and straw, and found house mice protecting the island from rodent scurrying around inside. introductions.

St. george is one of the few Chris merculief and a crew from populated islands in the world the Traditional Council set traps where house mice have not and spread the news to Alaska become established, and the maritime national Wildlife Refuge residents of the island (both because part of the island is a people and wild animals) want to national wildlife refuge and home keep it that way. no nuisance to 2 million nesting seabirds. mice, gnawed food packages or The refuge and the Traditional uSfWS threats to native wildlife for them! Council have long been partners working to keep St. george free of invasive rodents, so once the mice were discovered, the refuge worked with the city to come up with a plan to remove the mice.

Two experienced rodent trappers from the refuge, Steve ebbert and greg Thomson, flew to St. george as soon as possible, thanks to financial help provided by the national fish and Wildlife foundation. once the biologists made it to the island they got to work eradicating the mice. many circumstances nearly Above: St. george is one of the

When the dust cleared, more impossible. few populated islands in the world uSfWS than 50 mice were trapped. where house mice have not become But the strong partnership established. Left: St. george is home to fortunately, all the mice were between the people of St. 2 million nesting seabirds, including the AlCoWlS / uSfWS inside the shipping container and george island and Alaska crested auklet. had not yet spread to adjacent maritime Refuge—with help containers or the tundra. from the national fish and Wildlife foundation—prevented “We got really lucky here” says that, and helped make this into Alaska maritime Refuge biologist a success story. marc Romano. “if mice had established themselves on St. george, they could have threatened the wildlife and gotten into the village.” mice can eat

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 7 spotlight 50 years of THE

wildErnEsswildernessInSIDe SPoTLIGhT escaping the confines of civilization / 9 We needed the Wilderness Act in 1964 and still need it today | by nA n C y Roepe R Adventure Awaits / 12 many heed call to enjoy areas ‘untrammeled by man’ | by d e B o RAH Je R ome act Wild Lands in the Arctic / 14 people are enriched by the knowledge that it exists | by B R i A n g l AS pell Think Minimally / 16 Traditional skills help preserve wilderness character | by S T eve Hen R y Spirit of Wilderness Act Unites Us / 20

by J A mie Willi A m S

uSfWS

Wilderness pioneer mardy murie in Alaska.

8 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 spotlight

escaping the confines of civilization We needed the Wilderness Act in 1964 and still need it today

Wilderness Act in 1956 and over nine by nAnCy RoepeR | The National Wilderness Preservation System turns 50 years, shepherded it through 18 public this year, significantly younger than three other federal systems of lands hearings and 65 rewrites. Congress and waters that begin providing varying levels of protection before 1964. finally passed and President Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on So why did the United States need to create a new national system, September 3, 1964. composed of elements from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National No Refuge System wilderness was Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service? designated by the Wilderness Act. Instead, the law gave the three agencies roponents of wilderness in the early protect valuable places. As Zahniser said, 10 years to review their lands and make p1900s saw changes throughout the “Let’s try to be done with a wilderness wilderness recommendations. However, nation’s wild lands that were altering preservation program made up of a at public demand, Congress designated the land’s nature. National parks sequence of overlapping emergencies, wilderness at Great Swamp National focused on building roads, hotels and threats and defense campaigns! Let’s Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey only four visitor centers to encourage tourism make a concerted effort for a positive years later in 1968—the first wilderness via automobile. National forests were program that will establish an enduring designated for the Refuge System and building roads to facilitate large-scale system of areas where we can be at the Department of the Interior (See logging. Huge dams were going up peace and not forever feel that the “Great Swamp: Interior’s First on major Western rivers for energy wilderness is a battleground.” Wilderness” p. 19). production. The Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System was focused Leopold felt much the same way: “Let no Since then, Congress has designated on creating waterfowl and game man think that because a few foresters wilderness on 62 additional refuges and habitat, often through major ecological have tentatively formulated a wilderness one fish hatchery. There are also almost intervention. policy that the preservation of wilderness 2 million additional acres of Refuge is assured.” System lands proposed as wilderness Key wilderness supporters such as in the 1970s; Congress has neither Aldo Leopold, Arthur Carhart, Bob The U.S. Biological Survey, which became designated the lands as wilderness nor Marshall, Olaus and Mardy Murie, and the Fish and Wildlife Service, bred some released them from further wilderness Howard Zahniser recognized a need to of the most passionate proponents of consideration. As a result, the Service preserve lands in their natural and wild wilderness protection. Olaus Murie was a manages about 22 million acres of form to balance this utilitarianism. wildlife biologist for about 25 years. He designated and proposed wilderness in They recognized the benefits of the and his wife, Mardy, worked tirelessly to accordance with the provisions of the undeveloped and wild nature of rapidly protect Alaska’s Brooks Range and the Wilderness Act. disappearing places such as the Sheenjek River. Zahniser was a writer headwaters of the Gila River in New and editor with the Service’s forerunner What are the consequences of Mexico, Trappers Lake in Colorado and for 10 years. wilderness designation in the Refuge vast expanses of the Arctic in Alaska. System? In essence, wilderness But it wasn’t until he became executive areas have dual citizenship: They are Advocates longed for permanent director of The Wilderness Society that members of the Refuge System and of protection as they feared people might Zahniser began his tireless battle to pass the National Wilderness Preservation tire of the need to fight repeatedly to legislation. He wrote the first draft of the System. As the Refuge System manages

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 9 spotlight

We are not dealing with a vanishing wilderness. We are working for a wilderness

forever.” —howard Zahniser

these areas to achieve the wildlife conservation purposes for which they were established, the Service does it in ways that keep them primarily natural, undeveloped and wild, or as Howard Zahniser explained, “exhibiting the free play of natural forces.”

Managers use temporary roads, motorized equipment and vehicles, mechanical transport, structures and the landing of aircraft sparingly, and only when their use has been carefully evaluated and determined to be the minimum kRiSTine SoWl/ uSfWS requirement for managing the area to As he so often did, Howard Zahniser preserve its wilderness character. The “dual citizenship” aspect of wilderness summed up the strength of a single allows Refuge System staff to take National Wilderness Preservation System: Use and enjoyment of wilderness is advantage of the wilderness training, “Working to preserve in perpetuity is a another important principle of the information and education offered by the great inspiration. We are not fighting a Wilderness Act, which identifies interagency Arthur Carhart Wilderness rear-guard action, we are facing a frontier. outstanding opportunities for solitude Training Center and wilderness research, We are not slowing down a force that or a primitive and unconfined type monitoring and scientific knowledge inevitably will destroy all the wilderness of recreation as a key descriptor of amassed by the interagency Aldo there is. We are generating another force, wilderness character. The Service Leopold Wilderness Research Institute. never to be wholly spent, that, renewed encourages visitors to hunt, fish, observe Coordinated training, education and generation after generation, will be always and photograph wildlife, and engage in research means all four agencies effective in preserving wilderness. We are other activities as long as those activities that manage wilderness—now including not fighting progress. We are making it. are non-motorized, non-mechanized and the Bureau of Land Management— We are not dealing with a vanishing compatible with wilderness preservation. do so in a coordinated manner to protect wilderness. We are working for a Wilderness areas can also be great for a single Wilderness System. wilderness forever.” snowshoeing, kayaking and camping.

10 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 spotlight uSfWS

My passion for wilderness began at an incredible scenery, unexpected Left: Andreafsky early age. I grew up exploring nearby wildlife encounters and the exertion of Wilderness, at yukon fields, woods and swamps without my transporting oneself with necessary delta national Wildlife parents worrying about my safety. food and shelter, but also from the feeling Refuge in Alaska. Above: Growing up on Long Island, I found these that I had escaped the confines of president Johnson Signs relatively small areas constituted my own civilization; I could be wild! Even if only the Wilderness Act. personal wilderness. I knew the best temporarily. I want future generations to hiding places, trees to climb, blackberry experience that feeling. patches and spots to catch pollywogs. From that beginning, I just scaled up to During this 50th anniversary year, I look feel connected to truly undeveloped and forward to the Service continuing and wild areas as I camped and backpacked expanding upon its proud heritage of during graduate school. But it wasn’t until wilderness stewardship to preserve I began my current position and my book the special lands and waters that the learning about wilderness that I realized American people have entrusted to it. that some of my trips had been to areas that were Designated Wilderness. I now nAnCy RoepeR, national Wilderness Coordinator, know that the exhilaration I felt in these national Wildlife Refuge System, Headquarters places resulted not only from the

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 11 spotlight

AdventureMany heed call to enjoy areas ‘untrammeled by man’ By deBoRAH JeRome

Not long after we began our canoe trip in Okefenokee National Wildlife Commercial outfitting and guiding are two of the few commercial services permitted Refuge Wilderness in Georgia, I spotted my first alligator—its enormous by the Wilderness Act to enhance the head visible above the water’s surface, its body hidden under the tea-colored recreational experience in some areas “to the extent necessary,” as the act says, bog. You usually gauge a gator’s length by estimating in inches the distance and if found compatible under the between its eyes and snout and converting that to feet. In this case: National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997. Commercial a gator about 10 feet long. guided boat tours led by experienced naturalists are offered at Okefenokee, as well as boat and camping equipment y companions and I paddled (quickly) Wilderness areas are ideal for hiking, rentals, food and supplies. mpast the big gator and headed south canoeing/kayaking, camping, photography, into the Grand Prairie. Our canoe was environmental education, interpretation, The boat tours take advantage of the 120 suddenly bombarded with a brown geyser hunting, fishing and more—as long as miles of boat trails Congress requires be

of water, peat and mud. Peat blowouts, those activities are compatible and maintained. The boat trails are the only SHelTon/uSfWS STACy SHelTon/uSfWS STACy caused by the release of methane gases appropriate with preserving wilderness access into the wilderness and would from below, had blocked our route with character. But wilderness can be “loved quickly become overgrown and impassable an impassable island, filling in the once to death” only too easily. As a result, unless maintained year-round by staff recognizable, open trail. We lost all sense wilderness administrators face many and volunteers. Depending on the location of direction. Not knowing whether we challenges. of a trail, water level and other factors, were on solid footing or a floating island, the “minimum necessary” requirement we stayed in our boat and wedged our way The Wilderness Act specifies that as for clearing a trail may be hand tools and free. Thankfully, we maneuvered our way managers we maintain the natural setting canoes or it may involve motorized boats back to the trail. and provide outstanding opportunities and equipment. for solitude or primitive and unconfined The Wilderness Act of 1964 made my recreation without diminishing the Every dip of my paddle through the experience possible. This definition in wilderness character. So, those who Okefenokee Wilderness brought a new the act explains why: “A wilderness, in manage wilderness may adjust the experience that trumped the last: the contrast with those areas where man and number and distribution of visitors at sweet smell of flowering water plants, his own works dominate the landscape, any given time to maintain the experience the amazing starlit night undiminished is hereby recognized as an area where and achieve wilderness objectives. by city lights, the quiet swooshing sound the earth and its community of life are of sandhill cranes overhead. Like most untrammeled by man, where man himself Wilderness administrators also manage wilderness experiences, the trip was is a visitor who does not remain. An area... each unit in the National Wilderness unforgettable. of undeveloped federal land retaining its Preservation System as the most wild primeval character and influence, without and undeveloped extreme within the deBoRAH JeRome, Regional Wilderness permanent improvements or human spectrum of a wildlife refuge—applying Coordinator, national Wildlife Refuge System, habitation, which is protected and the “minimum necessary” standard before Southeast Region managed so as to preserve its natural taking administrative action in wilderness. conditions…”

12 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 spotlight Awaits

it takes careful planning to visit wilderness. The Service has 75 wilderness areas on 63 refuges in 26 states. find the perfect adventure by going online to find wilderness in the Service:

Above: Boat trails are the only access into okefenokee Wilderness. Below: Alligators are common in okefenokee Wilderness in georgia.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 13 Wildspotlight Lands in the Arctic

The walls of the conference room at Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, headquartered in Fairbanks, Alaska, are hung with wood-framed photos of “the Founders,” conservation giants whose vision and tireless struggle led to the refuge’s establishment in 1960. More than an effort to protect a specific place, the Founders’ campaign to establish Arctic Refuge was also about recognizing and preserving a set of values—unrestricted natural processes (wildness) and opportunities for exploration and discovery, solitude and challenge—that was later codified in the 1964 Wilderness Act.

n the decades since Arctic Refuge was and virtual experiences that reveal

Left to right: 1. A mom and three iestablished, issues never imagined by the the mountains’ mysteries with a few uSfWS, fRAnklin dekkeR HAveRkAmp, uSfWS, pAul lefT To RigHT: children fetch water at Arctic Refuge. Founders have emerged. As a kid growing quick keystrokes. The wilderness provides subsistence up near Anchorage, Alaska, Arctic Refuge opportunities for some native Alaskans. featured prominently in my classroom However, the role of the refuge as a 2. you’ll find no roads or constructed lessons and family discussions around symbol and exemplar of wilderness trails within Arctic Refuge. 3. A visitor the dinner table. For me, like millions values has only grown. crosses a river in Arctic Refuge. 4. The of others from Alaska to Florida, the mollie Beattie Wilderness encompasses persistent national debate about potential At nearly 8 million acres, Mollie more than one-third of the total oil and gas resources in one small portion Beattie Wilderness, as the Arctic Refuge wilderness acreage in the national of the refuge provided an introduction wilderness is called, encompasses more Wildlife Refuge System. to the vast world of wilderness, wildlife than one-third of the total wilderness and cultural resources found in northeast acreage in the National Wildlife Refuge Alaska. System. It supports such animals as polar bear, wolf, wolverine, Dall sheep Now, climate change and other large-scale and caribou, as well as more than 200 human influences challenge the very other species of birds, mammals and fish. notion of “natural,” not only in the Arctic In addition, the wilderness provides but across the world. And information subsistence opportunities for Inupiat technology allows for armchair exploration and Gwich’in native peoples, who mix

14 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 People are enriched byspotlight the knowledge that it exists Wild Lands in the Arctic By BRiAn glASpell

traditional and modern lifestyles in The value of symbols lies in their ability to I do believe that wilderness stewardship villages on the periphery of the refuge. evoke meanings and emotions, and therein demands a thoughtful, humble approach, lies a principle wilderness stewardship and our response to the “real problem” There are no roads or constructed trails challenge at Arctic Refuge. identified by Murie is ultimately within the wilderness, or anywhere within demonstrated in the cumulative effect the larger 19.6 million-acre refuge, an area As a refuge manager, most of my of myriad daily decisions. about the size of South Carolina. Most management tools are designed to visitors as well as refuge staff travel by evaluate and address the effects of people Many of those decisions involve choices bush airplanes equipped with oversized on wildlife and habitats—but what about between “could” and “should.” In the “tundra tires” for landing on unimproved the effects of wild places on people? Arctic Refuge wilderness, unlike many airstrips. Just getting to the refuge is a How do we share the refuge with millions other refuge settings, we have managed multi-day affair, and a typical wilderness who will never visit but also preserve to preserve a functional, wild, natural visit lasts for a week or more. This opportunities for personal discovery and setting. What we could do in that setting challenging travel and access situation exploration? How does one meet legal changes as fast as technology; what we limits both recreational visitors as well as and policy mandates for managing should do is governed by a more stable scientists and wildlife managers. Despite resources while stewarding the idea of a set of rules. The Service’s National its attractions as a unique natural place? These are messy questions that Wilderness Stewardship Policy directs laboratory and wilderness recreation defy easy answers. us to “set a high standard and provide paradise, Arctic Refuge receives fewer an example for the public to follow.” than 2,000 visitors a year. Perhaps the best we can do is to frame That sounds to me like good advice for each question in the context of a larger stewarding a symbolic resource. As a The truth is, most Americans will never purpose. Olaus Murie, one of the principal symbol and example for the public to set foot in Mollie Beattie Wilderness, refuge Founders, wrote that preservation follow, Arctic Refuge, and its wilderness, but many are enriched by the knowledge of what is now Mollie Beattie Wilderness may be more important to us than we that it exists. The refuge is a real, tangible is about “the real problem of what the are to it. place that serves as both habitat and human species is to do with this earth.” homeland. It is also an intangible BRiAn glASpell, Arctic national Wildlife Refuge, and powerful symbol of wildness and I’ll be the first to agree that framing every Alaska Region wilderness values for people across wilderness choice in such grandiose terms the country. may be a little over-the-top. However,

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 15 spotlight Think

Traditional skills help preserve wilderness character

dorothy fecske, wildlife biologist at by STeve HenRy great Swamp national Wildlife Refuge, stands with Steve Henry, deputy refuge manager, in front of the beech tree taken teely gray skies and gusty moans like those of a great wounded beast down with a crosscut saw and moved Sbrought on the ominous dark. Throughout the night of October 29, 2012, off the trail. the forest exploded as trees were ripped from the ground and shattered against one another like giant jackstraws. When the sun finally rose the next morning, it was clear Hurricane Sandy deserved the title “superstorm.”

Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic storm ever recorded and the second most costly after Katrina. The mid-Atlantic Coast was particularly hard hit, with New Jersey suffering a heavy blow. Although coastal by nature, the size and strength of Sandy caused massive damage far inland, including at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey.

The days after the storm brought unprecedented challenges for refuge staff and volunteers. In the immediate aftermath, massive trees blown down by the wind blocked roads and brought down wires. The refuge was closed to the public for a week; power was not fully restored for nearly two. Emergency repairs were made to prevent further damage, but it would be weeks before service roads and boardwalks could be cleared to reopen.

The eastern half of Great Swamp Refuge has the distinction of being the first wilderness area designated within the Department of the Interior (DOI) (See “Great Swamp: Interior’s First Wilderness” p. 19). In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the act adding part of Great Swamp to the National Wilderness Preservation System, recognizing the “attractiveness of undisturbed solitude” that was “so sorely needed in the middle Atlantic BoB BeCkley / foReST SeRviCe

16 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 spotlight

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 17 spotlight

Miniature wildernesses a stone’s throw from megalopolis — a Fire Island seashore, a Great Swamp of New Jersey — may be as important to the future as the preservation of Yellowstone Park.”

—Stewart L. Udall, Secretary of the Interior (1961–69)

region.” Such solitude and its many related benefits would be “perpetually protected and enhanced” by Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness. This wilderness designation is astounding given how radically different Great Swamp was from previously designated areas. At less than the 5,000 acres generally requirement and that we needed a better required by the Wilderness Act and lying should be the rare exception, only when option—an option that preserved in the heart of the most heavily developed absolutely necessary and only when wilderness character while also building and densely populated area in the nation, non-prohibited uses are unavailable or in-house skills to deal with future storms. the area’s designation as wilderness unworkable. Service policy goes further, speaks volumes about the commitment eliminating cost or convenience as factors Staff from the interagency Arthur Carhart and vision of those who fought for its in determining the minimum requirement. National Wilderness Training Center put preservation. us in touch with Forest Service employees, Great Swamp Refuge Wilderness contains who had years of experience using hand Federal agencies that manage wilderness more than eight miles of primitive hiking tools to maintain wilderness trails. Four have a mandate to preserve “wilderness trails, and Hurricane Sandy affected them months after Sandy, a team of three character.” Such character emerges from all. In several places, massive trees fell in experts spent a week at Great Swamp the unique conditions and resources in huge tangles, completely blocking the Refuge, training staff and volunteers in each wilderness. To preserve character trail. After the storm, the refuge staff the use of such “traditional tools” as axes the Wilderness Act prohibits motorized focused on the emergency stabilization and crosscut saws. It was both exciting equipment, motor vehicles, permanent of structures and opening primary roads and humbling to learn their woodsman’s roads and structures, among other things. and visitor facilities. Attention then shifted skills, skills that are unfortunately being Some discretion, however, is given to to clearing wilderness trails. lost in modern society. Beyond the use of agencies to employ prohibited uses or tools, they taught us the importance of activities in cases of emergency or In light of the extent of the damage, it balance, leverage, angles and careful “when necessary to meet the minimum was tempting to grant an exception to use planning to work smarter with less effort. requirements for the administration of the chainsaws. Refuge staff and volunteers It was as much about physics as swinging area” as wilderness. By policy, agencies simply did not have the expertise or an axe or pulling a saw. With their help, are required to conduct a “minimum equipment to tackle the challenge any many blockages, including the worst, were requirements analysis” to determine other way. After much thought and cleared and the trails were safely if a prohibited use may be allowed. The discussion, however, we decided that reopened for the public. Wilderness Act’s intent is clear: Such uses chainsaws weren’t really the minimum

18 / Fish & Wildlife News Winter 2014 spotlight

lynn Wolfe from Rachel Carson national Wildlife Refuge in maine (left) and dorothy fecske of great Swamp use a crosscut saw to cut up a large tree that came down across a wilderness trail during Hurricane Sandy.

Providing training in wilderness stewardship is really no different from other refuge disciplines that require training: Biologists spend years getting college degrees in wildlife conservation fields; maintenance personnel must be trained and licensed to operate heavy equipment; managers must learn in 1968, 3,660 acres of great Swamp supervisory and budgeting skills. It’s no national Wildlife Refuge became a surprise that the ability to effectively designated wilderness area.

preserve wilderness character will also uSfWS necessitates training. Great Swamp: Interior’s First Wilderness In the time since Hurricane Sandy, refuge staff and volunteers have continued to Who would have thought that just 26 miles west of new york’s Times clear trails monthly. Our new skills and Square, you will find a federal wilderness area? Thanks to the hard work of BoB BeCkley/foReST SeRviCe tools have given us the confidence to do a passionate community and support from Congress, 3,660 acres of great the job safely and efficiently. In fact, good Swamp national Wildlife Refuge became in 1968 the first wilderness area hand tools properly used have numerous designated in the department of the interior. advantages over motorized equipment. We take pride in using traditional methods in the late 1950s, the port Authority of new york and new Jersey determined in a way that preserves wilderness that the area was an ideal location for a major international airport. The character. And the public is taking notice. proposed 10,000-acre airport was met with grassroots opposition. Helen A visitor to our wilderness area recently fenske, a local homemaker, was among the leaders who rallied the community stopped by refuge headquarters to in favor of conserving great Swamp as a national wildlife refuge, and she congratulate us after spotting several played a key role in seeking out wilderness designation. large trees that had been cleared using crosscut saws rather than chainsaws. The new Jersey refuge has grown to more than 7,700 acres, and just under half of that is designated wilderness, with 8.5 miles of trails that offer visitors a Great Swamp Refuge, like many refuges primitive recreation experience. in the region, continues to recover from the devastating effects of Hurricane The refuge wilderness area is also a hotspot for ecological integrity. each Sandy. If there is a silver lining, it is that spring biologists monitor vernal pools and wetlands to track breeding trends. our response has better prepared us to The refuge has become an important resting and feeding area for more than handle future events in a wilderness- 244 species of birds. fox, deer, muskrat, turtles, fish, frogs and a wide variety appropriate way. As we celebrate the of wildflowers and plants can also be found on the refuge. 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, DOI’s first wilderness is better positioned dAve S A g A n , great Swamp national Wildlife Refuge, northeast Region than ever to handle whatever the future may bring.

STeve HenRy, great Swamp national Wildlife Refuge, northeast Region

Winter 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 19 spotlight

Spirit of__ wilderness Act Unites Us

by JAmie WilliAmS other refuges are intimate, offering quiet sanctuary for humans and wildlife near From snowy Alaska to the humid tip of Florida, densely populated communities, such as the Parker River National Wildlife every wild place in America that has been Refuge north of Boston, where wilderness designation is proposed. A personal favorite saved owes its enduring character to someone who loved it. Our world- is the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National renowned national parks, monuments, forests and refuges embody the Wildlife Refuge Complex, which protects two critical habitat areas for migratory heart and exceptionality of the people who strive to protect them. Since pronghorn antelope and other native 1964, the Wilderness Act has enabled citizens to work locally and advocate species—such as bighorn sheep, mule deer, sage-grouse and redband trout—in in Congress to include treasured wild places in the National Wilderness southeastern Oregon and northern Nevada. Preservation System. Beyond the United States, the act’s passage set a There, wilderness designation is proposed for both Hart Mountain National Antelope conservation gold standard for the rest of the industrial world. Refuge and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

he Wilderness Society was founded Wilderness lands remind us that human Tin 1935 to ensure that wild places development doesn’t belong everywhere. had equal voice amidst the onslaught of Late last year, Secretary of the Interior development happening across America Sally Jewell reaffirmed a key Fish and at that time. Visionaries such as Aldo Wildlife Service decision to forbid the Leopold, Bob Marshall and Benton construction of a road through Alaska’s Mackaye were intimately familiar with Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, wild lands and pushed for a legislative protecting this sublime wilderness where measure that would help balance human sea otters and Steller’s sea lions, wolves, needs with those of the natural world. We caribou, brown bears, salmon and hundreds all benefit today from the more than 109 of thousands of shorebirds and seabirds million acres of federal lands that have thrive. A road would have permanently

been protected by the Wilderness Act. uSfWS bisected the narrow strip of land that runs In the National Wildlife Refuge System A visitor enjoys the view from atop Chupadera peak between two lagoons teeming with birds, alone, 63 refuges in 26 states host 75 in the Chupadera Wilderness at Bosque del Apache fragmenting this irreplaceable wildlife area wilderness areas—about one-fifth of the national Wildlife Refuge in new mexico. beyond repair. designated wilderness acres in the United States. The spirit of the Wilderness Act unites Last year’s government shutdown showed us around an inherently American idea: Large protected areas such as designated us how much Americans value their public By securing “an enduring resource of wilderness are vital for safeguarding lands legacy. In wilderness, visitors can wilderness,” it reminds us of our nation’s the natural systems that produce clean find solitude and peace and quiet, a chance rich heritage, humanity’s dependence on drinking water and protect wildlife. But to explore by foot or boat, traditional healthy natural systems and our ability today’s development pressures coupled forms of recreation such as hunting or to ensure a sustainable environment for with a troubling trend in inadequate backpacking, or an opportunity to teach a future generations long after we are gone. congressional funding for our public lands child about different cultures that thrived puts these wild places at risk. Budget off the land. shortages can cause significant delays in JAmie WilliAmS is president of The Wilderness mandatory recreational and conservation Some places, such as Arizona’s Kofa Society, the leading wild public lands planning, and hamper field monitoring on National Wildlife Refuge, are conservation organization working to protect wildlife, fire conditions, archaeological predominantly designated wilderness, wilderness and inspire Americans to care for sites and trail use. and astound us with their vast terrain; our wild places.

20 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 spotlight

To understand the Wilderness Character Service) and the u.S. geological Survey Preserving wilderness monitoring initiative, you first need some developed an interagency monitoring Character for the Ages understanding of wilderness character itself. strategy. The term, “wilderness character” comes by nAnCy RoepeR directly from the Wilderness Act. for its part, the Service began an effort to conduct wilderness character baseline in directing wilderness-managing agencies assessments for all designated wilderness to preserve wilderness character, Congress in the Service by the end of 2014, the 50th defined it in somewhat poetic terms, but with anniversary year of the Wilderness Act. key qualities mentioned. The act states that wilderness is: from 2011 to 2014, the Service hired groups of Wilderness fellows to conduct ■■untrammeled—where the forces of nature assessments for the 63 refuges with are allowed free play; wilderness areas, one fish hatchery and several proposed wilderness areas. The ■■undeveloped—where the land retains Service has also worked with the other its primeval character and permanent three agencies to develop an interagency improvements are lacking; and online wilderness character monitoring database. ■ natural—where the area is managed to preserve natural conditions. Hiring fellows made this initiative possible. The approach was affordable and has it also must offer outstanding opportunities for been an excellent way to familiarize recent Bill CRouCH/uSfWS solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of college graduates with the Service and the monica patel, a 2011 Wilderness fellow, does recreation. national Wilderness preservation System. shoreline inventory and monitoring work at edwin B. The fellows have been energetic and ready forsythe Refuge in new Jersey. A complete definition of wilderness character to help on non-wilderness projects such would incorporate many additional aspects as banding birds, surveying amphibians, such as the natural soundscape, dark skies, removing invasive plants, planting cultural values and the capacity to provide experimental plots of a host plant for a a temporary haven from the pressures of rare butterfly, and assisting in education modern civilization. programs for local schools.

With the encouraged public use and Refuge staff learned a great deal about enjoyment of wilderness, as well as the the status of wilderness by working with stressors of pollution, nearby development, the fellows to identify and prioritize the climate change and more, it has become elements of wilderness character that clear that key qualities of wilderness must be were most important to measure. Although monitored over time to determine whether it is too early to draw conclusions about wilderness character is degrading, remaining wilderness character, over the next several stable or improving. years, the Service will be better able to see how wilderness character is changing With leadership from dr. peter landres of the over time and understand how stewardship Aldo leopold Wilderness Research institute, actions affect wilderness character. the u.S. forest Service developed protocols for wilderness character monitoring. Building With hard data in hand, better stewardship on this effort, landres and a team from the decisions will help preserve wilderness wilderness-managing agencies (fish and character for the American people. Wildlife Service, national park Service, Bureau of land management and forest nAnCy RoepeR, national Wilderness Coordinator, national Wildlife Refuge System, Headquarters

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 21 When fire threatens, air quality is an important but often overlooked detail

by kARen miRAndA

22 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 Lightning from a thunderstorm sparks a fire—winds quickly spread the fire through dry grasses, brush and timber. Fire crews are called in, and strategies are developed and implemented to protect homes, businesses and resources. When wildfire threatens, who really cares about smoke and air quality?

s it turns out, many folks do. Up until Up-to-date information is key. Parents Arecently, smoke has simply been a want to know whether they can send their little-addressed consequence of wildfires, kids outside to play. People with heart the main focus being the threat to lives or respiratory conditions must minimize and property from the blaze itself. But impacts to their health. Transportation for communities downwind, travelers on officials need to know whether smoke-impacted highways and firefighters roads should be closed or monitored. who sometimes must camp in smoke- Firefighters need periods of clean air choked valleys, air quality takes on great to operate safely and efficiently. importance. Broughton and his fellow ARAs use While smoke from wildfires cannot be many tools to forecast and communicate controlled, planning for its impacts can smoke impacts. A network of particulate certainly be considered. An interagency monitoring stations gathers data program of deploying Air Resource and relays them through satellites Advisors (ARAs) to large, long-duration to specialized websites. Monitors can wildfires has gained some traction in the be permanent—typically set up and last few years. Fewer than 20 ARAs are maintained by each state’s air quality available in the country, although plans agency—or portable—temporarily are in place to increase this number. installed at desirable locations for the duration of the fire. Carbon monoxide Mike Broughton, a smoke management monitors have been set up in some base specialist for the Service, is one of the camps. A computer program called the ARAs to have been deployed. He worked Blue Sky Smoke Modeling Framework, on about 20 fires in 2012 and 2013 as operated by the U.S. Forest Service an ARA, including the High Park fire AirFire Team in Seattle, can model (87,000+ acres) near Fort Collins, ground-level fine particulate Colorado, the Halstead fire (181,000+ concentrations based on meteorology, acres) near Stanley, Idaho, and the West fuel types and anticipated changes in Fork Complex fire (109,000+ acres) near fire behavior. Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Broughton’s primary position is with the Branch of Air Broughton’s experiences as an ARA have Quality in Lakewood, Colorado, and is helped him in his regular duties as well, funded by the Fire Management Branch making certain that the Service can plan

out of Boise, Idaho. When the call comes for and complete necessary prescribed mike BRougHTon,/uSfWS in, Broughton gathers his gear and heads burning without running afoul of local, A smoke monitor deployed in del norte, Colorado, to to where the action is. state and federal air quality regulations. monitor emissions from the West fork Complex fire in June 2013. While each incident is unique, an ARA “Many times our issues are not associated typically gathers firsthand data on the with actual exceedances of air quality fire’s behavior, translates that to smoke standard, but simply getting prior and air quality impacts, then coordinates approval from the agencies to conduct the distribution of the air quality message the burns, especially when we’re near to local and state air quality and health populated areas,” he says. “But the ARA officials, transportation departments and program has furthered the cooperation the fire’s Incident Management Team. necessary to enable both the prescribed burners and the air quality regulators to achieve their goals.”

kAR en m i RA nd A, fire management Branch, About 50 miles of smoke from the West fork national Wildlife Refuge System, Headquarters Complex near pagosa Springs, Colorado, as seen from the international Space Station on June 20, 2013. This smoke—from fires burning more than 109,000 acres—reached almost 700 miles downwind on this day.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 23 refugePreschoolers therapy with developmental delays learn to love what nature has to offer

by kATHeRine TAyloR

Left: Students from the Carousel School When you hear the word “classroom,” what image comes to mind? Is it a get the feel of gumballs. right: A paper room lined with rows of desks, posters of famous authors on the walls and a tree, a nature banner and a drawer of natural objects grace the “outdoor chalkboard at the front of the room? What sounds would you expect to hear? corner” in the classroom. Perhaps the shuffling of books and papers, the bell signaling it’s time to change classes, or announcements blaring from the intercom?

ow what if this classroom was an open forest, and instead of rows of desks, trees and nlush plant life surrounded you? There are no posters or chalkboards, and the only sounds you’ll hear are a stream flowing, the shuffling of earth beneath your feet or birds singing a beautiful melody.

The lessons learned in this classroom date back to the dawn of humanity—the delicate balance of nature that connects us with every living thing. These are the lessons Amanda Wilkinson, public use specialist for the Service’s South Arkansas Refuge Complex, is instilling in 13 preschoolers with developmental delays through a program she created known as “Refuge Therapy.”

24 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 The goal of the program is to introduce that only two months prior some of the Thanks to the willingness of the Carousel children to nature while helping them kids would not go on. We fished with live School to pilot this experience, Refuge to grow both mentally and socially in crickets!” Wilkinson says. Therapy has given these children a new the process. All of the participants are way to look at the world around them. students at the Carousel School, whose Those initial field trips helped make mission includes to “strive to effectively Refuge Therapy a year-round program “From the very first time until now, I’ve transition developmentally delayed that couples improving early childhood noticed the increased awareness the kids children into a regular kindergarten fundamentals with the natural world. have gained for the world around them,” classroom setting with positive Monthly visits, bringing nature to the says Wilkinson. “They are stopping to expectations.” classroom and summer field trips are hear the birds sing, asking about various now the components of the program. plants and flowers they find, and are Refuge Therapy was first conceived when excited to talk about it all during my next the school called the refuge to schedule a There is even an “outdoor corner” in the visit. The word “nature” is now a part of field trip last summer. Upon arrival, some indoor classroom, which consists of a their vocabulary, and they are constantly of the children were apprehensive, highly paper tree, a nature banner made during connecting it to all things.” anxious or very introverted. The trip the first visit to the refuge and a collection began with a tour of the Visitor Center, The children’s teacher, Shalanda allowing the children to explore and learn Thompson, has also noticed positive about the refuge. A child’s world is changes since the beginning of the program. “Because of the kids’ anxiety, it was fresh and new and clear that every child could use a hand to beautiful, full of wonder “Wow! The changes are so dramatic. We hold for the remainder of the trip,” says collect leaves now, to place in our touch Wilkinson. Their tour of the refuge ended and excitement. It is our center,” she says. “We are so amazed at with a nature walk along a short trail the change in our students’ ability to behind the Visitor Center. Here, the misfortune that for most of adapt to the feel of objects in nature and children were encouraged to touch the that they are open to experience the bark of the trees, pick up leaves and other us that clear-eyed vision, environment surrounding us each day.” objects, look out over the pier at the pond, that true instinct for what and smell the wildflowers growing in the Perhaps one of the most noticeable butterfly garden. Some of the children did, is beautiful and awe- developments has been in a little girl but most did not. named Caelynn, who at the start of inspiring, is dimmed and Refuge Therapy was terrified to be “The hurdles for them were getting off even lost before we reach outside and overwhelmed during her the paved trail, touching the dirt-covered first visit. By the end of the summer she objects, walking out onto the pier, or adulthood.” was holding a bucket full of live crickets, trusting that the dragonflies that hovered and she is excited to participate in regular over the garden were harmless,” says —rachel carson, The Sense of Wonder nature walks with her class and discover Wilkinson. new things.

“At that point, I realized that many of natural objects that allow the children It’s not just the children who have been of these kids never had an outdoor to engage with nature while they’re impacted by the program. “As a mother experience like this,” she adds. “I indoors. myself, to two small children, I find it felt compelled to offer more trips, to fascinating that their minds are like little encourage the connection with nature With each lesson Wilkinson adds pieces to sponges, soaking in everything around and fill them with positive reinforcement the outdoor corner, changing the leaves on them, just waiting for the opportunity when came to the natural world.” the tree depending on the season and to use their knowledge,” says Wilkinson. laying out “nature spots.” “For me, it has been an awesome There were four additional refuge field experience; to not only introduce nature trips that summer. Each time the children “Nature spots are laminated pictures of to these children, but to be there during took nature walks along the same trail, the earth. Once they sit, I ask them to such an instrumental time in their lives.” and with Wilkinson’s guidance, focused on hand me their earth and tell me something different hurdles and elements to conquer. they saw, heard, touched, smelled or tasted kATHeRine TAyloR, external Affairs, in nature that week. I then go into the Southeast Region “We fished in the pond from the very pier lesson for the month,” explains Wilkinson.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 25 Reaching Out tO the cities

About 80 percent of Americans live in urban L.A. river rover Urban Wildlife refuge Partnership communities, and one of the challenges the loS AngeleS, CAlifoRniA Service faces is to make sure that they—and all Americans—have opportunities to connect with nature. A personal connection will help make clear the value of the world’s natural resources to everyday life and the importance of conserving them.

o connect city dwellers to nature, the National uSfWS TWildlife Refuge System has created an Urban The River Rover, a bus that houses interactive exhibits including Wildlife Refuge Program and established eight a model of the Los Angeles River watershed, provides pilot Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnerships. With opportunities to educate families and children in one of the these partnerships, the Service is reaching out to most diverse and densely populated regions of the country by people where they live, work and play, whether “Bringing the River to the People.” Through the Rover, partners that’s a schoolyard habitat or a community park. can engage with an audience who may not be comfortable going The Service relies on the partners in this program— to the river on their own or may even be unsure how to get there. community organizations that are already practicing conservation—to share their community expertise, their knowledge and their relationships. Masonville cove Urban Wildlife refuge Partnership In this way, the Service can not only encourage and BAlTimoRe, mARylAnd nurture an appreciation of wildlife conservation in urban audiences but also learn and appreciate the A cooperative diverse perspectives and values of urban communities. venture between the Service’s Chesapeake Bay Ecological Services Office and Patuxent Research Refuge and partners has restored an abandoned and uSfWS contaminated area near Baltimore Harbor—the Masonville Cove Nature Area on the Patapsco River—in a lower-income, high-crime neighborhood, and is continuing its upkeep. Partners such as the National Aquarium have also reached out to students with environmental education, internships and volunteer programs.

26 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 valle De oro Urban Wildlife refuge Partnership Reaching Out tO the cities AlBuqueRque, neW mexiCo

Providence Parks Urban Wildlife refuge Partnership pRovidenCe, RHode iSlAnd

Rhode Island uSfWS National Wildlife Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge and partners will establish Refuge Complex an urban presence before the refuge officially opens in 3-5 years. and the Service’s It will include a community garden and conservation education. Southern New England/New York Bight Coastal Program houston Urban Wildlife refuge Partnership are working with HouSTon, TexAS partners to develop and The Texas Mid-Coast uSfWS implement an National Wildlife Refuge environmental awareness and education program by bringing Complex will work with messages to more than 100 parks, schools and a zoo. Houston Wilderness, an alliance of business, environmental and government interests, Forest Preserves of cook county Urban to create a coordinated Wildlife refuge Partnership conservation presence

mARC Reid/HouSTon WildeRneSS in the metro area. CHiCAgo, illinoiS

This project teaches people about nature and offers opportunities Lake Sammamish Urban Wildlife refuge Partnership that start in urban SeATTle, WASHingTon neighborhoods and expand to the forest This partnership works to preserves and increase awareness, ultimately, refuges. understanding and Partners connect to support of the Service uSfWS target audiences in and the conservation of nature-based presentations (birds and habitat restoration), aquatic ecosystems and guided bird and nature walks, field trips, outdoor activities and native species at Lake restoration workdays. Sammamish State Park and the Issaquah State Hatchery, as well as city

uSfWS parks and trails.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 27 curator’s corner

muSeum Ancient Plastic? no Funny Business oBJeCTS one often admired object in the collection is Tucked away in the corner is a suitcase made of ugly Come To a sideboard or credenza made of elephant yellow metal. upon opening it, one sees two rows of bone and ivory. it is beautifully carved with mallard ducks, each on either half of the case. They are ornate, detailed figures on cartouches along real taxidermied mallards, with their little feet cut off and life the sides. A woman tried to bring it into their bottoms tarred. Back in the day, some hunters used the country under the description of “ming real ducks as decoys to bring in waterfowl. This was This is the fourth dynasty plastic.” The wildlife inspector was common enough that even Abercrombie and fitch made in a series of curiosities quite sure that plastic did not exist during the such decoys, as the metal tag on the case proves. Seems of the Service’s history ming dynasty (1368-1644)! it was confiscated the company made real sporting equipment, in the days from the national and ended up here. By the way, the drawers before they specialized in teen clothes! my favorite thing Conservation Training are lined in plastic contact paper. i guess this about the case, though, is the fact that they Center museum. was an separated the boys from the As the first and only curator of the museum, attempt girls in the case. guess they Jeanne m. Harold says to fool didn’t want any mallard the history surrounding us into fraternization going on the objects in the believing when the case was museum give them life. that the ming closed. dynasty folks really did have plastic!

Story Behind the Badge? Art Meets the eSA – eSA Wins A lovely woman named Judy lawrence donated her father’s badge collection to Ah, art! it can be inspiring, the nCTC museum early last year. Her breath-taking, quirky, provocative father, Charles “Chuck” lawrence, was or just plain weird. We have a few the Chief of law enforcement from the examples of just plain weird. last 1940s through the 1960s. The badges are year we received two large cases absolutely splendid, and date from the holding a baby grevy’s Zebra and first half of the Service’s lifetime, when a baby Bactrian camel, both in it was still part of the department of strange poses. Wearing colorful Agriculture. one badge, in particular, may bows, party hats, dressed-up with be very significant. it dates from 1919 –1939, endangered birds and harnesses, and is bent and riddled with #6 shotgun pellets, these unfortunate little creatures it may have been the badge carried by edgar lindgren, were french “artworks” destined the first Service law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of to adorn a boutique or gallery in duty. in 1922, lindgren approached three men near Big lake, iowa, for Washington state. Ah, destiny! shooting a bittern out of season. Asking to see their hunting licenses, They were really destined lindgren was hit by a shotgun blast. Two of the hunters then shot him to adorn our museum, because even artists at point blank range as he lay disarmed and bleeding on the ground. cannot use and abuse species protected by the lindgren died four days later. no records of his badge number can endangered Species Act or CiTeS. be found, but the badge has all the right hallmarks, and it would have been available to Charles lawrence. oh, what a tale that badge might tell. if you have any knowledge of lindgren’s badge or Charles’ collection, please let me know.

28 / Fish & Wildlife News Winter 2014 around the service

The Hawaiian goose was driven pacific to near extinction in the early 1950s. Approximately 30 birds were left in the world—all on Getting_ _ Goosebumps as ne ne return to oahu Hawaii island. However, Hawaii’s state bird is on the comeback endangered_ _ Hawaiian geese, with statewide totals estimated or nene, have moved into James between 2,450 and 2,550 birds on Campbell national Wildlife the islands of Hawaii, maui, Refuge on _oahu _ in Hawaii—the molokai,_ _ kauai and, now, oahu. first time nene have been spotted ne ne population increases and on the island since the 1700s. recovery are due to cooperative management by federal and state The pair of endangered Hawaiian agencies, including the Service, geese have nested and success­ Hawaii division of forestry and fully hatched three goslings on Wildlife, national park Service the refuge near kahuku, oahu. and San diego Zoological park. it is possible more birds will arrive in the future, particularly _ _ in places that provide safe and ne ne have reared three chicks at James protected habitat such as Campbell national Wildlife Refuge on _ _ reaching Students with national_ _ wildlife refuges. The oahu in Hawaii, the first time nene have fourth-graders at Boise-eliot-Humbolt nene were first observed on been spotted on the island since the Salmon in the classroom elementary visit Spring Creek national oahu in early January. 1700s. fish Hatchery. The Service is committed to working with partners and the public to promote stewardship of partners in the Black of natural resources. With parent initiative, oregon youth that goal in mind, biologists at development Council and Spring Creek national fish portland public Schools, the Hatchery in the Columbia gorge Service brought this program in Washington developed the to the students at Boise-eliot- Salmon in the Classroom Humboldt elementary School program. and Chief Joseph-ockley green elementary. Twenty years and 29 fish tanks later, this innovative cross-curric­ using a curriculum developed ular program is going strong, and implemented by the Spring helping students raise salmon Creek information and education from egg to fry stage in their office, Salmon in the Classroom classroom. Service biologists is designed to meet the new

uSfWS work with teachers to provide standards of education and guidance at each stage of ties environmental education growth, lead activities that build objectives to the grade level an understanding of salmon’s expectations in all subject areas. importance, and foster greater environmental awareness. Some students blogged about their experience. See Salmon in for the first time, students in the the Classroom through the eyes portland public School system of these citizen scientists: engaged with Salmon in the . Classroom. Thanks to the support AmAndA SmiTH, external Affairs, pacific Region

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 29 around the service foReST SeRviCe u.S. Getting Arizona Wet — Center project, and the City of ecological Services Is Sedona project. creating Wetlands in an Arid region The Black Canyon City restoration project, a cooperative effort Wetlands provide important habi­ involving the Black Canyon tat for fish, wildlife and plants, as Community Association, Arizona well as recreation and wildlife game and fish department, viewing opportunities for many friends of Agua fria national people. in otherwise arid environ­ monument, national park ments, riparian areas and Service, Arizona Water wetlands provide unusually high protection fund, fred phillips biodiversity. Consulting, the Service and others, restored approximately Throughout the western united 24 acres and more than half a States, approximately 95 percent stream mile of the Agua fria River Almost 3,000 acres of beetle habitat are of wetlands have been altered or corridor. The restoration project southwest being protected at the muddy Boggy destroyed during the last century. included invasive species Conservation Bank. The number of wetlands in removal, native tree plantings, conservation Bank Will help Arizona has been reduced more natural resource education, than 30 percent. Water diversions wetland restoration and the American Burying Beetle and extractions, and agricultural creation of a native fish refuge. The muddy Boggy Conservation beetle habitat are protected, and human development have The native fish refuge includes Bank (mBCB) has been approved and the bank will offset many of had the greatest negative impact. an artificial stream and small as the first conservation bank in the threats to the beetle, such impoundment. The impoundment oklahoma and the first bank in as habitat fragmentation, loss of Biologists in the partners for fish and specified reaches of the the nation to help the American native habitat, extirpation and and Wildlife program have been stream were stocked with desert burying beetle. depletion of carrion (needed for collaborating with various pupfish, gila chub, gila topmin­ food and reproductive success), Arizona state agencies, commu­ now, loach minnow and Conservation banks are perma­ lack of fire/fire suppression, and nities, landowners, schools and nently protected lands conserved closure of forest canopy and conservation organizations to for various at-risk species. understory. create or restore wetlands. Three developers can buy credits in a examples of this important work The pinetop-lakeside and the White conservation bank if their project The beetle is a scavenger depen­ are the Black Canyon City resto­ mountain Wildlife and nature Center will hurt at-risk species or other dent upon carrion for its lifecycle ration project, the Town of project provides habitat for amphibians, natural resources. The bank and must compete with verte­ pinetop-lakeside and the White waterfowl, marsh birds and other owner then uses the money to brate and other invertebrate mountain Wildlife and nature wildlife. protect the resources in the species for food. it lives for one conservation bank, which offsets year, is nocturnal, usually repro­ the original impact. This is often duces once and undergoes a more practical than trying to set complete metamorphosis. The aside an area inside the original beetle buries a small vertebrate project. carcass, and the female lays eggs beside it. once, the eggs The mBCB is located where hatch, the mother moves the Hughes, Coal and pontotoc larvae to the carcass, which they counties meet in south-central feed on until mature. Both parents oklahoma. Almost 3,000 acres of care for the larvae. foReST SeRviCe u.S.

30 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 around the service

spikedace. Small waterfalls act as barriers between groups of native fishes introduced into the stream and impoundment. As populations of introduced native fish increase, surplus fish will be reintroduced into local streams and rivers or relocated to other refuge locations.

The pinetop-lakeside and the White mountain Wildlife and nature Center project created wetland habitat and promoted natural resource education. The project included creation of half an acre of wetland habitat,

construction of a viewing uSfWS platform and installation of educational signs. The wetlands currently provide habitat for valued at up to $250,000 and A seized ivory collection from an amphibians, waterfowl, marsh midwest being ordered to complete two ohio antiques dealer is valued at up birds and other wildlife. Because years of community service for to $250,000. of the location, youth and others The Battle Against Ivory violating the lacey Act. visiting the White mountain meadow Recreation Complex Trafficking in the Midwest The investigation revealed that earlier sold this ivory carving (next to the nature Center) are An ivory trafficker and self- the dealer was a frequent inter­ online to a Chinese purchaser exposed to wetland conservation proclaimed 20-year antiques national importer and exporter of and described the carving as and education. dealer from ohio has been put elephant ivory and other animal “exC 19C Chinese ox Bone out of business as federal wildlife products; however, there was no Stick and Ball game bilboquette.” The City of Sedona project inspectors and special agents record of him acquiring the ox Bone is commonly used and created 27 acres of low elevation connected the dots to stop a appropriate licenses or paying understood to mean elephant wetland habitat using treated long-running operation that the appropriate fees for the ivory in such online auctions. effluent in the verde River focus channeled illegal ivory sales lawful dealings of these items. The item sold for $635. Area. This project included through an online auction and conversion of an existing shopping website. during the investigation, wildlife “elephant ivory trafficking is infiltration basin into a 27-acre inspectors intercepted four illegal devastating Africa’s elephant multiple-celled wetland complex; even though African elephants exports. in all instances, the populations. illegal exports from creation of islands, an artificial have been protected internation­ dealer falsely listed both the the u.S. only fuel the demand and stream and different water ally for decades, as many as value and the contents of the further imperil elephants,” says depths in the wetlands to promote 35,000 elephants are poached contraband in the packages. Special Agent in Charge gregory habitat diversity; and addition annually for the illegal ivory trade. in addition, he failed to obtain Jackson. of wetland plants and riparian The case in ohio stems from a related licenses and permits, vegetation in shoreline areas. two-year investigation that began and knowingly misrepresented learn more about wildlife Wetland cells will provide habitat when Chicago-based wildlife what he was selling online. trafficking at <1.usa.gov/uvdiA0>. for migrating and nesting water­ inspectors discovered a series fowl. deeper water within some of illegal shipments destined for for instance, on may 4, 2011, he TinA SHAW, external Affairs, cells will provide opportunities China, all mislabeled and without claimed to be shipping a wooden midwest Region for diving ducks and other the required permits. handcrafted child’s toy valued pelagic species. Riparian at $45. The shipment was inter­ vegetation will provide habitat The investigation ended with the cepted by a Service wildlife for migratory birds. antiques dealer, of northwood, inspector in Chicago who discov­ ohio, paying an $8,000 fine, ered that the shipment contained forfeiting an ivory collection an elephant ivory carving. He had

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 31 around the service

a candidate for inclusion on the of Transportation, georgia power, ■■Cutting to no less than four southeast federal endangered species list, mecklenburg County park and inches when rights-of-way are meaning it warranted listing, Recreation in north Carolina, mowed, and avoiding operating Keeping Lands open for the but other species were a higher the national park Service, machinery on wet soils to reduce Georgia Aster priority. north Carolina department of soil compaction, Agriculture & Consumer Services, As part of a large partnership “We’ve brought together many and the u.S. forest Service. ■■Avoiding spraying herbicides effort across the Southeast to of the key landowners who each signatory agrees to under­ in or near georgia aster popula­ conserve at-risk plants and can collectively determine take conservation actions that tions, and animals before federal protection the future of this plant,” says collectively remove the need to is needed, the Service signed dr. mara Alexander, a Service place the plant on the endan­ ■■marking populations to avoid a Candidate Conservation botanist coordinating this gered species list. Commitments inadvertent damage during Agreement with eight partners effort to conserve the rare aster. include: right-of-way maintenance. in may that may help keep the “We’ve outlined a land manage­ georgia aster off the federal ment approach that meets ■■Searching for new populations, Cooperators to the agreement endangered species list. their needs as landowners who are assisting in the conser­ and supports georgia aster.” ■■monitoring known occur­ vation of the georgia aster georgia aster is a widespread, rences to estimate range-wide are the Heritage programs of but uncommon, plant found in Candidate Conservation population trends, Alabama, georgia, north Carolina the upper piedmont and lower Agreements are designed to and South Carolina, the Atlanta mountain regions of Alabama, conserve plants and animals, ■■keeping forests with georgia Botanical garden, north Carolina georgia, north Carolina and which are candidates for aster thinned to a level that Botanical garden, State Botanical South Carolina. in 1999, the the endangered species list. provides ample sunlight, garden of georgia, The Citadel, Service made the georgia aster Signatories to the georgia The nature Conservancy and the aster agreement are the Service, ■■Avoiding mowing rights-of-way u.S. Army Corps of engineers. Clemson university, georgia from late spring to mid-fall, when The georgia aster needs open land department of natural georgia aster is at its tallest and The georgia aster was once more to grow. Resources, georgia department reproducing, common across the Southeast, living in open savanna and prairie communities. extensive wildfire control and the disappearance of large, native grazing animals left nothing to keep these areas open and grassy. As a result, forests have largely taken their place on the landscape. This decline in savanna and prairie habitat led to a decline in the plants and animals that depended on these areas. Conserving this species today involves working to keep parts of the land open through the use of prescribed fire.

for more information about the Southeast’s At-Risk Species Conservation Strategy, go to <1.usa.gov/1nSZ9nh>.

gARy peepleS, Asheville ecological Services field office, Southeast Region

32 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 around the service

from 2004 to 2012, the new Missisquoi national The missisquoi delta and Bay Jersey department of Wildlife refuge Designated Wetlands site is the first Ramsar environmental protection and as ramsar Wetland of wetland in vermont. it encom­ Raritan valley Community College International Importance passes 7,665 acres, and includes searched 112 miles of potential the missisquoi Refuge and the habitat in new Jersey and found The Service’s lake Champlain maquam, Carmens marsh and 33 new populations of bog aspho­ fish and Wildlife Resources Rock River Wildlife management del. Based on these surveys, office and missisquoi national Areas. the total number of populations Wildlife Refuge worked with JeRemy mARkuSon/uSfWS increased 57 percent, and the the vermont fish and Wildlife To qualify as a Wetland of A bog asphodel in bloom in new Jersey. area of known populations of bog department to designate the international importance, the asophodel increased 86 percent. refuge and three State Wildlife missisquoi staff pointed out that management Areas as a Wetland their wetlands: Better yet, these analyses found of international importance under populations to be relatively the Ramsar Convention on ■ provide habitat for up to 20,000 secure from direct threats of Wetlands. waterfowl during migration, the northeast habitat destruction, with 94 largest concentration of water­ percent of populations occurring The Ramsar Convention is an fowl in vermont, and for such Search reveals Lilies on public lands, and more than international treaty signed in at-risk species as the eastern Among the Pines 96 percent occurring within the Ramsar, iran, in 1971 that guides spiny softshell turtle, seven boundaries of the state and voluntary international protection species of mussel and the lake The bog asphodel is a perennial federal pinelands Reserve. of wetlands. Wetlands provide sturgeon; flowering herb that grows along many benefits to their communi­ streams and in mucky soils in over the last 20 years, frequent ties, including clean water, flood pinelands national Reserve in monitoring activities, research abatement, wildlife habitat, recre­ new Jersey. A member of the lily studies and increases in regula­ ation, tourism, fishing and more. The missisquoi delta and Bay Wetlands family, it produces bright yellow tory protections have improved A designation can mean more provide habitat for the largest great blue flowers in the summer and the understanding and outlook for economic benefits through fish­ heron rookery in vermont. reddish-brown seed capsules in the bog asphodel. After collecting ing, tourism and other recreation. the fall. its scientific name, from all this information, the Service the greek narthecion, means a concluded that the species is chest or box to store ointments. secure in its current range and is no longer a candidate for in 1990, the Service determined endangered Species Act this plant was a candidate for protection. protection under the endangered Species Act, meaning that JeRemy mARkuSon, new Jersey adding the species to the federal ecological Services field office, list of endangered and threatened northeast Region, and kARen plants was warranted, but the miRAndA , fire management Branch, Service needed to first protect national Wildlife Refuge System, species at greater risk of Headquarters extinction.

Scientists actively searched the pinelands for bog asphodel popu­ lations and, to their surprise, they found this lily growing in many more places than was previously known! ken STuRm/uSfWS

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 33 around the service

■■■Are home to the largest great “more than 50 percent of north in addition to being necessary to blue heron rookery in vermont; mountain- American migratory waterfowl wildlife, prairie grasslands inter­ depend upon the mix of wetlands spersed with wetlands provide ■■■Are the only known breeding prairie and grasslands found in the numerous societal benefits, site for black terns in vermont; prairie pothole Region,” says including filtering water, reducing organizations Join Forces noreen Walsh, Regional director erosion and sedimentation, ■■■include the largest and to Support conservation in for the Service’s mountain-prairie and absorbing flood waters. perhaps highest quality silver Region, a partner in the maple floodplain forest in the Prairies campaign. “This area is called Among other goals, the campaign vermont as well as natural A coalition of conservation America’s duck factory because seeks to create grassroots and managed marshes of wild organizations has launched a it is the most productive area for awareness in the region about rice, buttonbush and tussock coordinated, partner-driven nesting waterfowl on the conti­ landowner conservation sedge; and “prairies Conservation nent, perhaps the world. These programs and tools available to Campaign” to bring public atten­ prairies and all the wildlife help prevent the loss of grass­ ■■■protect the maquam Bog, the tion to the dramatic conversion that they support are currently land. While this strategy primarily largest bog in vermont and one of grasslands and wetlands to stressed by many factors acting focuses on stakeholder coopera­ of the largest ombotrophic, or cropland in one of America’s last together to threaten our natural tion in local communities, partner rain-fed, bogs in new england, intact grassland ecosystems— heritage. By joining together as organizations invite the public to which harbors a rare pitch pine the prairie pothole Region. stewards, we can shed light on follow and participate in the plant community, the only this problem and find solutions.” conversation online using the example of this natural The prairie pothole Region runs #conserveThePrairies hashtag. community type in vermont. from central iowa, northwest Beyond conversion to cropland, through minnesota, north dakota, stressors include a changing one of the campaign’s primary There are 35 other designated South dakota and montana into climate. goals is to increase opportunities sites in the united States and Canada. for voluntary incentive-based more than 2,000 around the world. missisquoi is the 20th national wildlife refuge to be designated The prairie pothole under the Ramsar Convention. Region, with its mix of wetlands and grasslands, is a magnet for breeding ducks. uSfWS

34 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 around the service

tools to keep livestock producers Because online viewing of these profitable and therefore prevent images is difficult with the slow conversion to cropland. This internet speed in rural Alaska, will ensure that the region has Selawik Refuge worked with the healthy fish and wildlife popula­ ShoreZone team to produce Cds tions and healthy soil and water with photos of nearby coastal resources, as well as ensuring areas for communities on or that ranch families will always be adjacent to the refuge. Refuge an integral and profitable compo­ staff then combed through nent of the region’s economy. hundreds of these photos to select the best ones for sharing partner organizations include the uSfWS with the tribal councils as exam- Service, ducks unlimited, World about polar bears, but the one The Service determined that the polar ples of what ShoreZone offers. Wildlife fund, delta Waterfowl, thing everyone can agree on bear is a threatened species because of north dakota game and fish is that polar bears should be the ongoing loss of sea ice habitat from With beautiful spring weather, department, South dakota game, conserved, the question is global climate change. staff traveled by snowmobile to fish and parks, pheasants ‘how?’” the village meetings, getting a forever, and north dakota chance to explore the refuge on natural Resources Trust. The plan will meet legal obliga­ the ground while delivering an tions under the endangered says. “The public will have a important message to a local more information is available Species and marine mammal similar opportunity to weigh in audience. at <1.usa.gov/1j5vvTc>. protection acts, and will contrib­ on how we continue to conserve ute to a global plan being drafted and manage polar bears into the Alaska ShoreZone is funded by by the parties to the 1973 future as outlined in the plan.” more than 20 partners, including Agreement on the Conservation the Service and Alaska’s alaska of polar Bear—united States, Sharing a Bird’s eye view landscape Conservation Canada, Russia, norway and of the Arctic coast Cooperatives. Getting at the ‘how’ of Polar greenland/denmark—the five polar bear range states. An eye-popping project called These images are available to Bear conservation Alaska ShoreZone makes it all for free online viewing at The Service is working with a The polar Bear Recovery Team possible to “fly” along Alaska’s . diverse group of stakeholders to —as the group is known— northern coasts without ever draft a plan to conserve the polar consists of 35 representatives leaving your house, and staff from bear in the united States over from federal agencies, the Selawik national Wildlife Refuge the next century. The plan, when State of Alaska, the north Slope are getting the news out, attend­ finalized, will guide Service Borough, Alaska native organiza­ ing tribal council meetings in the activities for polar bear conserva­ tions, industry, nonprofit iñupiaq villages of noorvik and tion in response to the Service’s organizations and the Canadian Buckland to familiarize council 2008 determination that the polar Wildlife Service. Team members and community members with bear is a threatened species have expertise in polar bear ShoreZone. because of the ongoing loss biology, climate science, policy, of sea ice habitat from global communications, and traditional in the summer of 2012, the climate change. and contemporary indigenous ShoreZone team flew along ecological knowledge. The team’s Alaska’s entire coastline from a “We are working with our part- goal is to have the draft available helicopter at low tide, taking ners here in Alaska, throughout for public comment period in aerial photographs every second the u.S., and internationally late fall and a final plan to present along with continuous video. to address all threats to polar to international partners at their bears,” says the Service’s 2015 meeting. AlASkA SHoReZone Alaska Region Regional director This sandy point near the mouth of geoffrey Haskett. “The team we “The Service received over Selawik River is called Singiagruk. it’s an have convened to develop the 700,000 public comments during important humpback whitefish spawning united States’ conservation the listing process, so we know area and traditional subsistence site. management plan includes a the public has a great interest in diverse array of perspectives the fate of polar bears,” Haskett

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 35 around the service

The sun sets on the Collins Ranch area of Ash meadows nWR.

providing the vapor used to make and vent alcohol, the spring water that seeped out of Collins Ranch had slowly formed a small canyon over many years, and this canyon would provide cover for Collins’ still.

“The area became known as Whiskey Wash as Collins used the canyon to hide the still used for bootlegging,” says Refuge manager Sharon mckelvey. The Nevada West & Pahrump Valley Times reported that Collins’ still was so well made that after prohibition ended, it was sold to a legitimate brewing company.

Today, little remains of the area’s

Cindy SAndovAl/uSfWS Cindy SAndovAl/uSfWS bootlegging past but legends and rusting whiskey barrel rings. other Ash meadows legends tell in January 1920 the 18th to the west and the funeral the story of bootleggers hiding pacific Amendment made the manufac­ mountain Range. These ominous their product in sand dunes to ture, sale and transportation of formations and a reputation for avoid detection, but when they southwest “intoxicating liquors” illegal outlaw hideouts kept unwanted returned, the ever-shifting dunes within the united States. As the visitors away. According to local had swallowed the alcohol Ash Meadows national government tried to eradicate lore, even the sheriff of nearby forever. Still others say that Wildlife refuge once home alcohol consumption, portions of Tonopah was too scared to Collins was actually Jesse James the public started to sidestep venture into Ash meadows after hiding out in nevada looking for a to Whiskey Bootleggers federal Bureau of prohibition bootleggers. fresh start. As their cars crisscross the agents and build stills to brew refuge roads along desert alcohol. for a successful busi­ Steve Collins was a typical farmer These stories cannot be verified, springs and seeps at Ash ness bootleggers needed two in the area, and a northern and as time passes the stories, meadows national Wildlife things, privacy and water. Ash portion of Ash meadows nWR much like the rings, are buried Refuge in the mojave desert in meadows had both. still bears the name Collins and forgotten. But they provide a nevada, many travelers may not Ranch. He sold chickens, eggs colorful past for the desert oasis realize they are driving past a fresh water springs dot the and produce to workers in nearby known today as Ash meadows former bootlegger’s paradise. harsh, dry Ash meadows lands. mining camps, but he also had nWR. The area is still fairly desolate, a side business. in 1932 Collins but was especially empty in the applied to the nevada State Cindy Sandoval, external Affairs, 1930s. The landmarks that engineers for more water to pacific Southwest Region surround the area and present irrigate his fields, and the state day refuge include death valley approved the request. But Collins had other plans for this water, making whiskey. Along with

36 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 our people

in 1997, donna and her husband Craig’s first Service job was He calls the Service an transitions completed a six-year circum­ working on informational “outstanding agency,” and says navigation of the world in materials about potential refuge “it has been a privilege to work headquarters their 44-foot sailboat—46,000 units and expansion of existing with people dedicated to wildlife sea miles, 38 countries, 743 ones to be made under the and natural resource conser­ anchorages and 232 islands. Alaska native Claims Settlement vation for so many years.” Act. When Craig started some She has bachelor’s degree of the issues the Service was Craig served as editor in chief in Biological Sciences from wrestling with included wolves, and editorial adviser to the Fish university of California, irvine, grizzly bears and trade in wildlife & Wildlife News over the years. and a master’s from California products (sound familiar?). State university at long Beach. Also retiring from eA: He came to Hq in 1983 after time as a public affairs officer in the Alaska and Southeast Donna Brewer, who worked 4 Retirements Cost Hq external regional offices. He served at the national Conservation Affairs nearly 150 years as Chief of public Affairs and Training Center since 2001, most recently Chief of internal retired in April. donna was also As winter turned to spring, Communications. like many a member of the Service’s external Affairs in Headquarters longtime Service employees, national Climate Team, and lost nearly 150 years of federal Craig played the important worked closely with the office service with the retirements of role of mentor to many junior of the Science Advisor and four longtime employees. staff in public Affairs, and the the landscape Conservation staff speaks warmly of Craig’s Cooperatives to develop calmness and patience in the Pete Maccini, a printing science-based capacities within fast-paced world of communica­ services specialist, with 38 the agency and with partner tions. years at various department of organizations. donna was the interior agencies, nearly 17 essential to the development That quality was put to the test at the Service, enjoyed “helping and expansion of nCTC’s climate in 1989 when he returned to folks accomplish their end goal, change program. She helped Alaska on a detail to handle by producing a quality printed create a widely recognized, communications related to the product—be it a full color state-of-the-art curriculum exxon valdez oil spill, something vibrant poster or a dull black and addressing conservation issues he calls his favorite moment with white technical report.“ posed by climate change and the Service. launched an ongoing effort to in retirement, he plans to unwind incorporate climate change craig rieben, a public affairs now that he is retired Craig says and play catch-up on some broadly into Service training specialist, retired after a 40-year he “needs to check on a dozen projects around the house. He courses. Service career. He started on grandkids scattered across also wants to spend time with march 31,1974, in Anchorage, the country and take them his son before he heads off to Before the Service, donna held Alaska. Before that, he worked fishing.” He’ll also be moving to college. conservation positions with as a news reporter for a Salt lynchburg, virginia, and revis­ the university of Southern lake City, utah, television iting long-neglected hobbies He will miss the talented and California, Bureau of land station, covering environmental such as sailing, flying airplanes, dedicated folks at the Service, management, California and science-related issues. fishing and amateur radio. “who always pulled together to department of fish and game, get the job done no matter how minerals management Service, un-realistic the deadline.” national marine fisheries Service and the u.S. geological Survey.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 37 our people

Beneficial Burn

Jan Miller, an information Lavonda Walton, a photog­ specialist, served 30 years, most rapher, enhanced releases, with the Service. Her favorite stories and other materials with part of the job was writing, pictures for 33 years, the last researching and editing. 27 with the Service.

Jan will also miss her colleagues lavonda says editing photos and bringing the people who was her favorite part of the job, answer the toll-free Service although getting the perfect STevko/uSfWS pAul phone number up to speed on shot was good, too. firefighter Connor Bowden uses a driptorch to ignite a portion Service issues. of a 704-acre prescribed fire at florida panther national Wildlife She’ll miss looking at the Refuge. in South florida, lightning fires have always been a She has plans to stay busy. beautiful wildlife photos she regular occurrence. But when lightning fires happen now, they other than various projects in worked on. can threaten human life, property and critical infrastructure such her house and yard, Jan has two as interstates and highways. The prescribed fire reduces the trips planned already: one to el in retirement, she plans to likelihood of a catastrophic wildfire impacting i-75 and State Road Salvador in July and another to practice the three Rs: Rest, 29. Also, the burn maintains critical habitat for threatened and girl Scout national Convention Relaxation and Reflexology endangered species such as the florida panther. in Salt lake City in october. (she is a provider). She also hopes to become more involved in church, community Thank you, Craig, pete, Jan and and girl Scout activities, lavonda, for your service. your and m.S. (ecology) from Bowling He represented the Service increase her involvement in skill and advice are missed. green State university in ohio abroad on missions to China, leave no Trace and project and ph.d. work in terrestrial Russia and Canada, providing Wild, and take on volunteer vertebrate ecology at Arizona leadership and scientific opportunities as they come up. State university, mike has expertise in the development enjoyed an adventurous career and implementation of permitting as a field biologist and zoologist. programs for endangered and threatened species, in particular He served as a roving ranger giant pandas and argali. He for the national park Service in managed the Captive-Bred Arizona and conducted terres­ Wildlife Registration program trial vertebrate surveys for the and promoted robust relation­ Atomic energy Commission on ships with the zoological irradiated Central pacific atolls. community, representing the He had more than a decade of Service on key Species Survival Senior Biologist Michael hands-on experience as a zoo plan groups and offering regular carpenter retired in february biologist at the phoenix Zoo presentations and expert after 20 years with the Service’s and Brookfield Zoo, and he guidance at annual meetings international Affairs program in taught the Biology of Zoological of the Association of Zoos the division of management gardens for five years at and Aquariums and Zoological Authority (dmA), Branch of Scottsdale Community College Registrars Association. permits. With a B.S. (Biology) in Arizona.

38 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 our people

mike mentored and supported revision and the listing and in addition to her full-time approval, making safe and dmA biologists learning eSA critical habitat designations professional employment, effective fish drugs available to permitting processes and for the neosho mucket and polly has extensive experience fisheries professionals. AAdApp advised graduate students rabbitsfoot mussels. She plans teaching at the college level. staff—James Bowker, molly working on international conser­ to spend her retirement on the Her teaching skills helped the Bowman, dan Carty and niccole vation policy projects. He has couch…“ for a while anyway,” Service, as she’s served as Wandelear—are fish biologists traveled the world and is an lorna adds. an instructor at the national with specialized skills and are accomplished photographer Conservation Training Center leading experts in the country on and birder, and looks forward Pacific Southwest in West virginia on numerous conducting research and gener­ to adding to his life lists of bird occasions since joining the ating fish drug approvals in the species and countries visited. agency. united States. AAdApp is part of Headquarters but is physically Southeast She received a master’s located in montana. degree in Anthropology from the university of Alaska in fairbanks and a doctoral in march, Karen Miranda degree in Anthropology from Gleason, communication the university of Alberta. coordinator for the Branch of fire management under polly is married and has two the national Wildlife Refuge Polly Wheeler has taken over as dogs. When she isn’t in the System, completed the oral Assistant Regional director for office, she can often be found Readiness Review and passed the national Wildlife Refuge pursuing her passion for the written examination for System in the Service’s pacific running. Accreditation in public Relations Southwest Region. The position (ApR), reflecting 16 compe­ Lorna Patrick, with the panama was formerly held by marge tency areas in the field. ApR is a City ecological Services field kolar, who retired last year. voluntary certification program office in florida, retired march 3 honors for public relations profes­ after working for the Service for polly comes to the office in sionals, administered by the 36 years. She started out as a Sacramento, California, after headquarters universal Accreditation Board, co-op student in vero Beach, nearly three years as deputy a consortium of nine leading florida, worked brief stints in Chief of Refuges for the Alaska industry organizations, including the fisheries program and at St. Region. in her new role, she the public Relations Society of marks national Wildlife Refuge, oversees 50 wildlife refuges America (pRSA). and then spent the majority of in California, nevada and the her career at the panama City klamath Basin of oregon, ecological Services field office. totaling more than 2 million While in panama City she acres of habitats. became a champion for coastal conservation. She led recovery She started her career as a efforts for many coastal species researcher with private organi­ and became a recognized expert zations in fairbanks, Alaska, in sea turtles and artificial including one that was her lighting. She played major roles own business. She went on The Service’s Aquatic Animal in the deepwater Horizon oil spill to join the Alaska department Drug Approval Partnership response and in various cold- of fish and game, where she Program (AAdApp) Research stunning events affecting sea worked on Alaskan subsistence program was honored with the turtles. for the last three and issues. That work led her to the Service’s Rachel Carson Award a half years, she served as a Service’s Alaska Region, where for Scientific excellence (group). regional listing biologist, and she continued subsistence work The program generates high- was the office’s “go-to” person and eventually moved over to the quality data to support fish drug for numerous challenging Refuge program. actions, including the loggerhead sea turtle critical habitat

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 39 our people

individuals who have demon­ Wetlands inventory. She Refuges in southern California. strated outstanding dedication performed all the Headquarters yuen has been the San diego to protecting the nation’s work associated with budget nWRC project leader since 2005. wetlands. She was recognized: and performance, and provided A key to yuen’s success is support and guidance to the partnerships. ■ for being our friend and regional and the Coastal Barrier helping us over the years, Resources Act staff. Beyond her Throughout his tenure, he has budget analyst duties she took worked closely with other ■■■for being an outstanding on the additional role as national agencies, organizations and wetland professional, Wetlands inventory’s national stakeholders to build trust and coordinator. in this role she combine resources to accom­ Dr. rosemarie Gnam, chief of the ■■■for bringing practicality and coordinated and disseminated plish goals. for example, in 2012, division of Scientific Authority good sense to wetland mapping, information and data to and from yuen’s leadership contributed in the international Affairs the nWi regional staff, wetland to the addition of Hidden valley, program, received Honorable ■■■for helping us realize we have stakeholder groups and the a 1,905-acre conservation mention for Service’s Science everything we need right here, federal interagency floodplain area, to the San diego nWR. leadership Award. dr. gnam and management Task force. She The addition of the Hidden provides scientific support for has been an outspoken and valley tract was accomplished the implementation of the ■■■for reminding us there is tireless advocate for wetlands through close partnering with Convention on international nothing like friendship and no and the species dependent on diverse stakeholders, including Trade of endangered Species of place like home. them, and will be missed. the San diego Association of Wild flora and fauna (CiTeS). governments, department of Her work and leadership have The Association of State Pacific Southwest Homeland Security, California been demonstrated both domes­ Wetland managers is a nonprofit departments of Transportation tically and internationally in membership organization and fish and Wildlife, and The the protection of many species established in 1983 to promote nature Conservancy among including sharks, red and pink and enhance protection and others. corals, Bluefin tuna, paddlefish, management of wetland tortoises and freshwater turtles, resources, to promote appli­ yuen began his career with the polar bears, and American cation of sound science to Service in his native Hawaii ginseng. wetland management efforts, in 1984 in the Student Career and to provide training and experience program. in 1992, education for members and the yuen helped to establish kealia public. members and partners pond national Wildlife Refuge include states and tribes, and guam national Wildlife federal agencies, nonprofit Andy Yuen, project leader for Refuge. even after leaving partners, wetland profes­ San diego national Wildlife Hawaii, his work there set the sionals, educators and wetland Refuge Complex in California, stage for the establishment enthusiasts. The main goal is to was named the 2014 paul of oahu forest and palmyra gain a better understanding of kroegel Refuge manager of the Atoll national Wildlife Refuges. wetlands and how to protect, year by the national Wildlife He also was one of the first conserve and restore these Refuge Association for his Service managers to provide resources throughout the nation. conservation vision and ability to work experience opportunities give his staff the space to learn, for wounded military service Jo Ann Mills of the Service’s during her 30-year Service grow and do great work. The members as they re-entered the national Wetlands inventory career, Jo Ann mills worked in award recognizes yuen for his civilian workforce. was honored by the Association headquarters in endangered accomplishments in protecting of State Wetland managers with Species, international Affairs, and managing the Seal Beach, the dan Willard Ruby Slippers law enforcement and program Tijuana Slough, San diego Bay award. Jo Ann is only the third development Staff for Wildlife. and San diego national Wildlife recipient of this award, given to She retired this spring after 20 years of service to the national

40 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 our people

northeast horseshoe crab conservation for John organ, division chief of former Service director, in more than a decade, and along the Wildlife and Sport fish presenting the award. Williams with other Service biologists Restoration program for the further applauded organ for his has made great strides in formu­ Service’s northeast Region, dedication to promoting “the lating sustainable management has received the Wildlife role of hunting in wildlife conser­ practices for the species. He management institute’s 2014 vation, science-based resource traveled to Hong kong and george Bird grinnell memorial management, wildlife diversity, Taiwan where he contributed Award for distinguished international conservation and to a symposium for transferring Service to natural Resource irreproachable professionalism.” ideas learned with local species Conservation. to help conserve imperiled Asian The Service’s northeast horseshoe crab species. With “over the course of his 35-year Region Regional director Dr. Jess W. Jones, a national the help of millard and his u.S. career, John has relentlessly Wendi Weber calls organ leader in freshwater mussel colleagues, that international driven to make worthwhile “a consummate professional conservation and restoration effort led to strategies to raise contributions to the natural and valued colleague who based in virginia, has received awareness for the imperiled resource profession, and he has exemplifies the meaning of the Service’s 2013 Rachel Carson Asian species. done so with great energy and public service.” Weber adds, Award for Scientific excellence little focus on recognition,” said “He is an expert on a range of (individual) for his “exemplary The iuCn is a global authority Wildlife management institute species and subjects—ranging scientific contributions to on imperiled species and has president Steve Williams, a from Canada lynx, river otters, achieving extraordinary results a unique classification system in fish and wildlife conser­ for evaluating the conservation vation.” dr. Jones works with status of animal populations. the latest technology to breed The team of scientists on which The Morning commute and raise juvenile mussels at millard serves will make a virginia Tech’s freshwater recommendation on the species’ mollusk Conservation Center for status to the iuCn to ensure release in the Clinch and powell horseshoe crab populations rivers. dr. Jones and his partners are not overexploited. have released hundreds of thousands of hatchery-reared Horseshoe crabs are harvested mussels to restore one of the for use as bait, as well as for nation’s most biologically globally important purposes in diverse ecosystems. in 2010, his the biomedical industry. At the team released 2,500 endangered same time, horseshoe crab eggs oyster mussels. are a major dietary component of migrating shorebirds. The team’s Dr. Mike Millard, director of recommendations to the iuCn the Service’s northeast fishery for a final decision will reflect Center in lamar, pennsylvania, the status of the north American is one of six scientists selected population as a whole, and could by the international union affect both the commercial for Conservation of nature to harvest industry and shorebird assess and make recommen­ conservation efforts. A team of dations on the status listing Asian scientists is working on for horseshoe crabs. millard recommendations for the three has led the Service efforts on Asian species of horseshoe crabs. Jim mogen/uSfWS march did not head out like a lamb for these Service biologists with the montana fish and Wildlife Conservation office and staff from Red Rock lakes national Wildlife Refuge. They were braving the elements to find a suitable location for installing a fish trap to monitor Arctic grayling on Red Rock lakes Refuge in montana.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 41 our people

spotted-necked otters, beaver, knowledge and management of Nate Hawley, career awareness adaptive management, human fish and wildlife resources. dr. branch chief at the national dimensions, wildlife education, Williams served as the Assistant Conservation Training Center. wildlife policy, leadership and deputy Branch director for wilderness. Conservation is Wildlife Response-Houma Cynthia Williams, Southeast not his vocation; it is his life’s Sector of the deepwater Horizon Region fisheries program super­ passion.” Spill and as Branch director visor of the fish and Wildlife and deputy Branch director Conservation offices and the To many in the profession, for Wildlife and environmental Warm Springs fish Technology organ’s seminal contribution to Assessment for the michigan and fish Health Centers. north American conservation enbridge line 6B pipeline Spill, has been his work to describe, the nation’s largest inland oil The 2013 Champion of diversity Margaret Byrne of the northeast advance and promote the north spill. during those crises, dr. individual Award went to Angela Region, manager for the Hudson American model of Wildlife Williams used ecologically, okolie (seen accepting her River natural Resource damage Conservation. He is considered scientifically sound and award from deputy director Assessment and Restoration. by his peers to be perhaps the acceptable practices and Rowan gould), the chief single most knowledgeable living principles leading to effective technology officer of ecological Robyn Bortner of the mountain- professional who understands and efficient response measures Services at Hq, who developed prairie Region, fish and wildlife the history and heritage of for both spills. The award also and implemented Temporary biologist, national Black-footed wildlife conservation in north recognizes that dr. Williams Assignment programs with ferret Conservation Center. America. regularly mentors, guides and the virginia department of advises staff, helps develop Rehabilitative Services and Steve Miller of the Alaska organ received his ph.d. future biologists and ensures with operation Warfighter. Region, fisheries biologist for in wildlife biology from the that Service biologists are the kenai fish and Wildlife field university of massachusetts, analyzing and presenting scien­ office. Amherst, where he serves as tific results relevant to important adjunct associate professor issues. Akimi King of the pacific- of Wildlife ecology and Southwest Region, fish and Conservation. wildlife biologist, at the klamath Servicewide Awards falls fish and Wildlife office. Midwest The Service honored four 2013 Noemi Perez, nontraditional Champions of diversity for stakeholders and media director valuable strides toward in the office of partnership inclusiveness at all levels. liaison in Hq external Affairs. Aaron Martin and neesha Stellrecht of the fairbanks fish Career Discovery Internship and Wildlife office in Alaska Program Mentors: in the received the 2013 Champion of midwest Region, Ann marie diversity group Award. martin, a Chapman, vicki Sherry supervisory fish and wildlife and mary Stefanski; in the biologist in the Subsistence Southeast Region, Stephen fisheries Branch, and Stellrecht, gard, gisella Burgos, kary Dr. Lisa Williams, the branch a fish and wildlife biologist in the Allen, greg mcginty and Rolf chief of environmental endangered Species Branch, olson; in the northeast Region, Contaminants at the east have reached out to Alaska mao lin, monica Williams, lansing ecological Services ron Wong of the pacific Region native youth through career fairs Juancarlos giese, mariana field office in michigan, is the won the Champion of diversity to interest diverse candidates in Bergerson, daffny pitchford, 2013 recipient of the Service’s leadership Award for his work Service careers. kofi fynn-Aikins and karrie Science leadership Award, with veterans and students as Schwaab; and in the Alaska which recognizes a Service manager of quilcene national nominees for the awards should Region, Reneiase Bagsby, lisa employee’s outstanding practice fish Hatchery in Washington. also be congratulated. They are: Hupp and michelle ostrowsk. and support of scientific activ­ ities that improve the agency’s

42 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 our people

and wildlife habitat structures, Alaska and monitoring plant and wildlife populations.

The Service was also named as a partner in these other winning projects:

■■■The cienega Watershed Partnership, which promotes understanding and stewardship of the natural and cultural resources of the more than 45,000-acre las Cienegas Poppy Benson (pictured above Recovery implementation program honorees with Secretary of the interior Sally national Conservation Area with junior birder Rachel Bolin), Jewell (center) and Service deputy director Steve guertin (far right). southeast of Tucson, Arizona. refuge ranger and interpretive and education specialist for ■■■The Service’s Arizona Alaska maritime national Pauline Borquez, David Laveau ■■■The edwards Aquifer ecological Services was Wildlife Refuge in Homer, and Pam Busch in division of recovery Implementation recognized for contribution received the Alaska Sealife financial operations in denver, Program (pictured above) to a historic, binational treaty Center marine Science Colorado. in south Texas brings together a agreement for the operation outreach award, recognizing diverse group to balance water of the Colorado River. “minute her achievements in ocean Janine Van Norman, Amy demands for species found 319” has been touted as one of science, education and resource Brisendine, Ellen VanGelder, nowhere else in the world and the most innovative negotiated management. “lots of people Emily Weller and Jessi Evans in for more than 2 million area agreements between nations have good ideas, but not the Branch of foreign Species, residents. to include environmental river everyone has the energy to Hq ecological Services. flows. see them to fruition,” Steve ■■■The Klamath Tribal Leadership delahanty, refuge manager at Development for Integrative ■■■The Desert national Wildlife Alaska maritime nWR, told the four Service-nominated Science and Traditional refuge complex was honored Homer Tribune in January. partnership projects were ecological Knowledge Program for work in the Cultural “poppy is the energizer Bunny of among those honored with the in northern California and Resources Team of the Southern the maritime refuge.” Benson is department of the interior’s 2013 southern oregon lets tribal youth nevada Agency partnership to credited with creating the visitor Partners in conservation awards combine their tribal ancestral raise awareness of, and respect services program at the refuge, for exemplary natural resource cultural knowledge about the for, the historical significance of and she developed many conservation efforts through local ecology and resources local history and tribal culture. programs to connect people public-private cooperation. with the high-tech capabilities and nature, including camps for The projects involve nearly 60 of nASA and federal natural ■■■The Service was named as a children of remote Alaskan individuals and organizations; resource agencies. key partner in the huron-erie villages. She also is one of the they are: corridor Initiative Partnership, founders of the kachemak Bay ■■■The center for Land-Based which built three fish spawning Shorebird festival. in addition to ■ The Great Plains nature Learning Partnership in reefs in the detroit and St. Clair the Service, during her 38-year center in Wichita, kansas, which Sacramento, California, gives rivers. career, Benson has worked with provides outdoor recreation high school students the the u.S. forest Service, the and educational opportunities opportunity to take part in a ■■■finally, the Service was Bureau of land management. to hundreds of thousands of yearlong habitat restoration also commended for its role in visitors. it serves as an outdoor experience combining hands-on the Truckee river Watershed education center for the City conservation with classroom Partnership in California, of Wichita, a regional office learning. Students participate which is working to restore the for the kansas department of in restoration projects such as threatened lahontan cutthroat Wildlife, parks and Tourism, and planting native trees, shrubs trout and the endangered and an administrative site for the and grasses, installing irrigation tribally sacred Cui-ui sucker fish. Service.

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 43 Southeast in memoriam The Service presented its first national fire Safety Award to rocky chesser, a longtime Service dan Ashe memorializes maintenance supervisor with former Assistant director of fire qualifications at okefenokee external Affairs Beth Stevens national Wildlife Refuge in georgia.

“The Branch of fire Bill rice of the Alaska Region management created the Kenneth Mccain, a federal reeled in national recognition for award to recognize outstanding wildlife officer at lower improving fish passage and leadership and service in Suwannee and Cedar keys increasing community resilience wildland fire safety,” says national Wildlife Refuges in to flood events when he received says John Segar, Service fire florida, has been named Refuge the 2013 national fish passage director. “Rocky was chosen by System employee of the year by program field Biologist of the an interagency panel for being the national Wildlife Refuge year award. This award is key to ensuring a safe response Association. during a 24-year Today [february 27], we given each year to one Service to the 2011 Honey prairie fire.” career with the Refuge System, learned that our dear friend and employee in recognition of their his willingness to go beyond the colleague Beth Stevens passed exceptional contributions to the The 309,200-acre Honey prairie call of duty and his hands-on away after a long, courageous mission of the Service’s national fire burned for nearly a year, style of law enforcement have battle with cancer. We mourn fish passage program. “Bill’s from April 2011 to April 2012, reduced transgressions signifi­ Beth’s passing because we are work helps support what all affecting most of the 402,000­ cantly and saved the government sad to lose such a warm and Alaskans love to do most—fish! acre okefenokee Refuge. At the thousands of dollars. A master at indomitable spirit. We celebrate We are proud of Bill’s accom­ peak of fire activity, there were identifying illegal activities and her life for the same reason. plishments, as well as our other 202 engines, 112, dozers, 20 unsurpassed at conducting staff and local partners involved water tenders, 12 helicopters, interviews, mcCain has gained i only vaguely recall my first with fish passage projects,” says six crews and 1,458 personnel the utmost respect from the encounter with Beth. it was a Regional director geoff Haskett. assigned. over the duration public. Thanks to his public phone conversation, sometime in of the fire, there were no relations skills, he has inspired the early 1990s. i was a subcom­ Rice has been working collab­ fatalities or serious injuries, and people to treat the refuges as if mittee staff director in the oratively with local communities firefighters were able to contain they were their own, and as a u.S. House of Representatives. for more than a decade to design most of the fire inside the refuge. result local residents effectively She, i believe, was then in the and construct fish-friendly road- “patrol” the refuges and watch denver Regional office. But in stream crossings that also reduce The Safety Award evaluation out for rule breakers. in 2012, succeeding years, and especially the risk of flood damage, support panel of local, regional and mcCain also received the those following february 1995, construction jobs and help national experts in fire opera­ florida Wildlife federation’s when i joined the u.S. fish and sustain community economic tions and safety rated nominees Wildlife outdoorsman of the Wildlife Service, our encounters benefits associated with salmon. from across the Service using year award. were more frequent and one of only seven fish passage a standardized scoring system. memorable. Too numerous to engineers in the entire agency, Among Chesser’s noted recount now, but i’ll share a few. Rice has a rare combination accomplishments were calm, of hydrologic, engineering and consistent leadership supporting i was Assistant director of interpersonal skills that he uses wildland fire operations during external Affairs. She was to build lasting partnerships more than 30 years of service. deputy to mike Spear, who was that are actively improving fish then-director of the California­ passage in Alaska. He also shares The Service wildland fire nevada operations office or his expertise outside Alaska to management program has “Cno” as we said in those ensure that actions consider maintained an exemplary safety days. i called at the behest of the needs of fish and other record, with no deaths in the line then-fWS director Jamie Clark community needs. of duty since 1981.

44 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2014 to inquire about a Stone lakes pearls. Although she initially “Cancer is a horror, but it is paul, minnesota, in 1952, nWR acquisition that was discouraged me from doing also a metaphor. each of us eventually leading the Wetlands rankling former Congressman so, she later thanked me for is conceived with a seed of program. He received several Richard pombo. With a polite, toasting the late-Senator Ted mortality that can’t be surgi­ performance awards and was but definitely dismissive Stevens to our Chinese hosts, cally removed. it grows until it recognized by the department of attitude that i later learned was and identifying him as a WWii kills us, hopefully after a long the interior and the Service for quintessential Beth-ness, she flying Tiger. She was asked to life that honors the incredible, contributions to safety. suggested—“if the director tell his story, and did, reflecting temporary privilege of living. We has an issue with mike, then i great admiration for the person are, as W.B. yeats harshly put it, Pacific suggest she should take it up she called “dad.” The Chinese ‘fastened to a dying animal.’” with him directly.” ouch! repeatedly and graciously toasted her, in honor of her i am fortunate indeed, that my it was not until years after i first father. i never saw her prouder. temporary privilege of living met Beth that i learned she was intersected with that of Beth the daughter of the iconic u.S. While in China, she began Stevens. i am sad that the animal Senator Ted Stevens. She never having abdominal pain. When to which she was fastened has traded in her father’s stock. Her we got back, she was diagnosed given out so seemingly prema­ flaws were few and fell lightly with ovarian cancer. in the turely. But then again, it was upon her; her strengths were succeeding months and years, carrying the weight of a quite many, shared generously, and she was the definition of significant being. Javier Gutierrez of mcnary were her own. graceful defiance. A stronger national Wildlife Refuge, will i have never witnessed. Her Beth Stevens was a woman part of mid-Columbia River The years of the Bush-43 sense of humor, in the face of a and non-scientist who made a national Wildlife Refuge administration were challenging too-grim reality, was startling career in a male- and science- Complex in Washington, died for the Service, maybe and comforting. dominated profession. She march 13 from injuries suffered especially so in the endangered distinguished herself, her earlier this year. He was a Species program. Beth was i last had the pleasure to see gender, her organization and her heavy equipment operator who deputy Assistant director for her this summer in Anchorage. country. She was the daughter supported fire operations. in a endangered Species, under We had dinner. i blanched when of one of history’s most powerful faceBook post, pacific Region Assistant director gary frazer. she joked that the combination u.S. senators, but if he walked Regional director Robyn Thorson She was a relentless advocate in of radiation and steroids had through the door of the u.S. fish says: “He was considered ‘indis­ a hostile environment. She took her looking like “uncle fester.” and Wildlife Service today, he pensable’ among his colleagues. advantage of the administra­ Then she just laughed that little would be distinguished, not as mid-Columbia nWRC manager tion’s apparent cautions about Beth-laugh, and said, “Come a powerful parliamentarian, but Charlie Stenvall said that ‘much taking on Ted Stevens’ daughter; on, dan, you know it’s true.” We as the father of Beth Stevens. of what has been accomplished she took bullets when they laughed and talked, and she told our colleague. our friend. our at mcnary over the past two finally figured out that she would me what i was doing well and mentor. And now our beloved decades bears Javier’s finger­ not use her father as a shield. not-so-well, as a good friend is memory. prints.’” supposed to do. The next day, When frustrated, she was she took me shopping to get the And wherever she is today, As important as his work was, known to resort to “f-words”— pearl ring that she said my wife i’m sure she is furnishing the Thorson adds that Javier’s furniture and fabric. She loved should have bought in China. it place! “colleagues emphasize his to furnish. it was an outlet for was not so much an invitation enormous contribution to the her, which helped many of us as an order—“Come on, we’ll go Midwest refuge from his friendship and lesser beings as we tried to shopping. Call Barbara, and find his willingness to work with make our offices appropriately out if she wants silver or gold.” Burton W. rounds of Big fork, anyone to help get the best executive. minnesota, a longtime Service work done. He contributed to michael gerson wrote a employee, died march 25, after the refuge family at work and She traveled to China with me piece about mortality in The a long illness. He was 89. He away, serving as a godparent and Teiko Saito in September Washington Post. it included began his Service career in to children of some of his 2010. We successfully repaired this passage and quotation: the office of missouri River co-workers, as a mentor to u.S.-China panda policy. She Basin Studies in montana in co-workers, and as someone took my wife shopping for 1948. He moved to the Service who was always open to offices in minneapolis-St. learning and trying new approaches.”

Spring 2014 Fish & Wildlife News / 45 STAndARd pReSoRT office of communications poSTAge And feeS U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service PAID u.S. depARTmenT of THe 4401 n. Fairfax Drive inTeRioR room 330 peRmiT g-77 Arlington, vA 22203

parting shot

kids at the Children’s Tree House nature explore classroom at the Service’s national Conservation Training Center get into the spirit of international mud day in June. international mud day encourages kids to get in touch with nature through the wonders of mud. CouRTeSy of THe CHildRen’S TRee HouSe STAff CouRTeSy of THe CHildRen’S TRee HouSe STAff

Fish & Wildlife news Submit articles and photographs to: Submission deadline: editor: matthew Trott u.S. fish and Wildlife Service Summer 2014: by July 25 Art director: Jane pellicciotto, Allegro design 4401 n. fairfax drive, mS 332-A Arlington, vA 22203 703/358 2512 fax: 703/358 1930 e-mail: [email protected]

printed on recycled paper