U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Spring 2021
s p o t l i g h t Fisheries / 12 Fish Education in the Classroom / 16 Pacific Lamprey Aquaculture / 20 Hatcheries Embrace More than Fish / 24 what’s inside
SPOTLIGHT: Fisheries / 12 features Going Strong at 150 / 12 Our fisheries program, and the Service itself, 12 has been conserving aquatic resources since 1871. Typical is Atypical / 14 At Neosho National Fish Hatchery, the oldest continuously operated federal hatchery, a normal day doesn’t exist.
By HOLLY RICHARDS Small Fry, Big Job / 16 Around the country, Service supports fish education in the classroom to help give native fish a brighter future. 16 By DENISE WAGNER AND HOLLY RICHARDS Growing a ‘First Fish’ / 20 How nutritionists and their research collaborators pioneered Pacific lamprey aquaculture.
By SEAN CONNOLLY All Species Great and Small / 24 Fish remain important, but hatcheries embrace snakes, mussels, and more.
By DAN CHAPMAN
On the cover: MORE FEATURES Coho salmon in Silver Springs, Fish Camp & Family / 28 Washington. Cora Demit shares her Alaska Native heritage ROGER TABOR/USFWS with visitors to Tetlin Refuge. By GLEN MARTIN 20 24 The War for Wildlife / 30 Fish and Wildlife Service ensures fish and wildlife resources for the future.
By MARK MADISON
News / 2 Field Journal / 35 departments Curator’s Corner / 34 Our People / 37 28 30 directorate message
150 Years Old Fish and Wildlife Service Not Done by a Long Shot
hat a time to start as the Principal Deputy We are still doing all we can for wildlife. Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! Martha Williams, W And I mean that in a good way. You see it in the incredible genetic achievement Principal Deputy Director for black-footed ferrets (p. 2) and the scientific When I began working in January, the biggest issue collaboration that allowed captive-raised Pacific was, and frankly still is, the COVID-19 pandemic and lamprey to metamorphose from tiny larvae to juvenile doing all we can to ensure the health and safety of lamprey (p. 20). our workers, volunteers, partners, and anyone who visits our public lands and facilities. That’s why we Our science even transcends the lab. We are helping announced guidance requiring that all individuals in people connect with nature through a podcast on fish federal buildings and on federal lands administered (p. 11), a book club (p. 6), and Fish in the Classroom by the Service wear face masks. programs (p. 16).
The grace shown throughout this time by everyone in We have more to do. the Service — those who have set up offices at dining- room tables, those who have developed new facility Building back better from the pandemic will not be and field procedures to satisfy social distancing easy. Anyone who has used a balance board knows requirements, and those in between — has been you are constantly leaning this way and that, trying remarkable. You haven’t missed a beat. Thanks to find a sweet spot. Finding balance between wildlife to you, we’ve moved forward with important and economic development is similar. It requires conservation work. And, I don’t mean just our constant work. But it is possible, and we will sit down biologists. So many of you work behind the scenes with all parties and figure it out. to enable us to meet our mission. The increasing crisis of climate change challenges all You are all conservationists. of us every day. We are meeting it with mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency. The administration Throughout this magazine, you can read about some strongly supports clean energy, which will take more of our amazing work, from getting rid of yellow crazy balancing. We are up to it. ants at Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the far Pacific (p. 2) to raising birds and snakes at And we must find ways to make the outdoors and Welaka National Fish Hatchery in Florida (p. 24). the world of conservation accessible and welcoming The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t stop. to everyone. (See “Conserving While Black,” p. 35.)
In fact, it hasn’t stopped for 150 years. Congress Someone who didn’t know the staff of the U.S. Fish created the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries on and Wildlife Service might feel overwhelmed, might February 9, 1871. The commission is the origin point think, “How?” of not just our Fish and Aquatic Conservation (FAC) Program but the entire Service. I know exactly how, as we have been doing for 150 years: we will roll up our sleeves, tackle the first issue Our historian, Mark Madison, writes of a “war for on our desks, or dining-room tables, then move on wildlife” that helped create both the American to the next one. I feel lucky to be a part of it. n conservation movement and an agency committed to ensuring the future of “wildlife—furred, feathered, and finned.” (See “the War for Wildlife” p. 30.)
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 1 news
Innovative Genetic Dogs Sniff Out Good Research Boosts News for Seabirds Black-footed Ferret at Johnston Atoll Conservation Efforts National Wildlife Refuge lack-footed ferret recovery Befforts aimed at increased or the past three years genetic diversity and disease FJohnston Atoll National resistance took a bold step Wildlife Refuge has been a happy forward December 10, 2020. place for the tens of thousands Black-footed ferret kit Elizabeth of seabirds that live there.
Ann was born. She was created CENTER BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION USFWS NATIONAL December 2017 was the last from the frozen cells of Willa, sighting of seabird enemy number a black-footed ferret that lived “Maintaining and increasing Elizabeth Ann, the first cloned black- one—the yellow crazy ant. First more than 30 years ago. wild populations and suitable footed ferret and first-ever cloned U.S. detected in 2010, the yellow crazy habitat continues to be essential endangered species, at 26 days old. ants quickly took over about half The groundbreaking effort to for black-footed ferret recovery of Johnston Atoll Refuge, nearly explore solutions to help recover and will remain a priority for extirpating the red-tailed tropic the endangered species results the Service,” Walsh continued. bird colony in just a few years. from an innovative partnership “Successful genetic cloning does This effort is consistent with the among the Service and species not diminish the importance of Service’s black-footed ferret We have had great success in recovery partners and scientists addressing habitat-based threats recovery plan, which addresses yellow crazy ant eradication at Revive & Restore, ViaGen Pets to the species or the Service’s the use of various assisted efforts at Johnston Atoll, & Equine, San Diego Zoo Global, focus on addressing habitat reproductive techniques. It also deploying 20 Crazy Ant Strike and the Association of Zoos and conservation and management encourages the incorporation Teams to remove the ants. We Aquariums. to recover black-footed ferrets.” of any newly discovered black- recently brought to the refuge footed ferrets into the current detection dogs to help sniff out “The Service sought the expertise Until Elizabeth Ann, all black- captive population and the use whether the ants have been of valued recovery partners to footed ferrets were descended of the new genetic materials to exterminated. help us explore how we might from seven individuals, resulting maximize genetic diversity. overcome genetic limitations in unique genetic challenges to Johnston Atoll is one of the hampering recovery of the black- recovering this species. Cloning Once thought to be extinct and most isolated and oldest atoll footed ferret, and we’re proud to may help address significant currently protected as an endan- formations in the world, providing make this announcement today,” genetic diversity and disease gered species, black-footed a haven for feeding, nesting, said Noreen Walsh, Regional resilience barriers to support ferrets were brought back from and resting to tens of thousands Director of the Service’s Missouri habitat conservation and reestab- nearly vanishing forever by the of seabirds who for nearly a ›› Basin and Upper Colorado Basin lishment of additional populations Service and its partners after a Regions, where the Service’s in the wild. Without an appro- Wyoming rancher discovered a National Black-footed Ferret priate amount of genetic diversity, small population on his land in Conservation Center is. “Although a species often becomes more 1981. Ferrets from this population this research is preliminary, it susceptible to diseases and were captured by the Wyoming is the first cloning of a native genetic abnormalities. Other Game & Fish Department endangered species in North potential problems include limited and others to begin a captive America, and it provides a adaptability to conditions in the breeding program to recover promising tool for continued wild and a decreased fertility the species. efforts to conserve the black- rate. Limited genetic diversity footed ferret.” makes it extremely difficult to Willa, a black-footed ferret fully recover a species. captured among the last wild TOR JOHNSON individuals, has no living descen- dants and is therefore not one of Solo and Guinness (conservation the seven founders. n detection dogs) enjoy the three-day boat journey to Johnston Atoll Refuge.
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FWS’s Aisha Rickli-Rahman leads Kyoko Johnson (detection dog trainer) and Solo (detection dog) on a yellow crazy ant survey at Johnston Atoll. IVAN VICENTE/USFWS IVAN
Crews applied insecticide to After training for most of the year,
IVAN VICENTE/USFWS IVAN a treatment area. Worker ants Guinness and Solo showed what then collected and brought the they had learned with successful Continued from previous page (Above) Great frigatebirds and red-footed bait back to the queens and the yellow crazy ant searches in boobies are among the most common young to kill the nest. The efforts O’ahu in October and November. decade were threatened by the seabirds that nest at Johnston Atoll also entailed many on-the-ground These practice sessions helped yellow crazy ant. More invasive National Wildlife Refuge. experiments including improving prepare them to join the strike ants have been accidentally the effectiveness of baiting team on Johnston Atoll Refuge. transported to the Pacific Islands procedures, building ant farms to than any other biogeographic Yellow crazy ants spray formic study yellow crazy ant life cycles “The combination of hand region on the planet. Of 12 total acid that can irritate the skin and ecology, and developing searching and use of conser- introduced ant species to the around the eyes, bill, and feet optimal control protocols. vation detection dogs for this refuge, only yellow crazy ants causing severe injuries ranging project will help determine if the have presented major threats to from swelling to deformities. To declare an invasive ant yellow crazy ants are truly eradi- the seabird nesting colonies. These injuries can lead to death. population as eradicated is no cated from the refuge, or if more Additionally, invasion by yellow easy task—partly because their work needs to be done to exter- Since the invasion was first crazy ants eliminates suitable underground colonies are so hard minate any remaining ants,” says detected back in 2010, yellow nesting habitat in invaded areas. to find. In December, we brought Aisha Rickli-Rahman, trip leader crazy ants have had a negative Because seabirds exhibit high two conservation detection dogs and biological science technician impact on the survival of the 15 nest site fidelity, meaning they to Johnston Atoll Refuge. The with the Pacific Islands Refuges species of seabird nesting at return to the same nest site each two dogs, Guinness and Solo, and Monument Office. the refuge, with red-tailed tropic year, it is likely that they will not were trained to detect the scent birds affected the most. Other pick others areas in which to of yellow crazy ants. Combining After having put their olfactory seabirds that rely on the refuge nest. This eliminates their ability human visual surveys and canine skills to work at the refuge for 14 for nesting include three species to reproduce for an unknown olfactory surveys yields a higher days, Guinness and Solo found no of boobies, sooty terns, greyback number of years. detection rate than relying on yellow crazy ants within approxi- terns, white-tailed tropic birds, one of them alone. Using dogs mately 140 acres. They tracked great frigatebirds, fairy terns, Between 2010 and 2021, over to detect yellow crazy ants for a combined total of 110 miles! and Hawaiian short-eared owls. 80 Service staff and volunteers wildlife conservation had never Guinness and Solo returned to Several species of shorebirds from the 20 strike teams spent before taken place in the United O’ahu on December 22, leaving also nest there. six-month stretches at the refuge States. the rest of the search to the working to eradicate the ants. humans of the strike team for the next six months. ››
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Continued from previous page African Americans Played No detections by Guinness and a Huge But Little-known Solo could mean that Johnston Role in Refuge Creation Atoll is yellow crazy ant-free, thanks to the collective eradi- aomi Mitchell is the clerk cation efforts that have taken Nand treasurer for St. Charles, place since 2010 by our 19 Arkansas, (pop. 230) a small previous strike teams. White River town renowned for duck hunting. In her spare time, “Invasive species have detri- she runs the local museum, a mental impacts on our iconic folksy repository of many things Pacific Islands wildlife and St. Charles. places,” says Kate Toniolo, superintendent of the Pacific Tucked into a back corner of the His ultimate goal: Shine a CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS Remote Islands Marine National museum, which shares space spotlight on the major, yet largely Monument. “Hopefully, when the with the Town Hall, is an exhibit hidden role played by African Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees Crazy Ant Strike Team returns featuring the Depression-era Americans in rebuilding this build a road at Dale Bumpers White River to Honolulu, the U.S. Fish and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). country from the depths of the National Wildlife Refuge. Wildlife Service will be one step It chronicles the construction Great Depression. closer to declaring Johnston Atoll work done by the young, dollar- National Wildlife Refuge free of a-day men of Company 1741 and “It’s part of our history and we’re The demand for work coincided invasive yellow crazy ants.” n Company 3791 who helped create working to acknowledge it,” with another issue of American a national wildlife refuge from the Kanaski says. “We’re adding life circa 1930. Rural lands the IVAN VICENTE, External Affairs, bottomlands of the White River. depth to the history of the CCC country over were laid waste Pacific Islands Region and, in particular, the African- by poor farming practices and But another CCC unit did the American presence. They played natural resource depletion. unsung work of felling the oaks, a major role in the development Eroded farmland immiserated dredging the streams, and laying of our refuges today.” already struggling families. Fish, the corduroy roads that ran ducks, deer, bears, beavers, and through the refuge. Company ‘Two Wasted Resources’ other animals had disappeared 3776 was farther down river and from many fields, waterways, and separated—in many ways—from In 1933, with the nation in the grip mountains. Droughts withered the the St. Charles’ units. Co. 3776 of the devastating depression, crops, dried up the streams, and, was all-African American. Cos. President Franklin Roosevelt with the help of howling winds, 1741 and 3791 were all-White. created by executive order the sent mountains of once-arable CCC. Men between the ages of soil into the sky. “There was a time when they 17 and 28 were paid $30 a month were all segregated,” Mitchell (with most of the paycheck sent One writer said Roosevelt says. “I don’t know much about directly to family back home) to “brought together two wasted the Black camp.” build refuges, parks, hatcheries, resources, young men and the IVAN VICENTE/USFWS IVAN levees, reservoirs, campgrounds, land, in an attempt to save both.” Sooty terns hover over crew members Richard Kanaski does. Kanaski, roads, and trails across rural The CCC men had a job to do, and of strike team CAST XX, who are at one of our archaeologists, is America. By the time the program they did it. Johnston Atoll Refuge until June compiling information about ended in 1942, more than 2.5 searching for yellow crazy ants, the little-known history of the million young men had worked a They worked on more than 40 conducting bird surveys, and many African-American CCC enrollees CCC job. wildlife refuges, building roads, other on-island duties. throughout the South. residences, levees, and fire towers. They planted millions of His immediate goal: Apply for trees, garnering the nickname National Register of Historic “Roosevelt’s Tree Army.” They Places status for Dale Bumpers also restored riverine and coastal White River National Wildlife habitats critical for migratory Refuge. birds. ››
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Continued from previous page “The White crews did most of the Sand from the Port of Stockton is Restoring buildings,” Kanaski says. “The In Arkansas, the CCC erected Black crews got stuck with the Refuge in California 450 buildings, laid 6,400 miles of erosion control, earth-moving, the road, planted 20 million trees, and planting of trees, and other tasks ver thousands of years, strung 8,600 miles of telephone that promoted habitat restoration. Oshifting sands built dunes wire. At White River, the young The CCC, like a lot of other things that reached 120 feet high and men basically created the refuge at the time, was segregated.” stretched for 2 miles along the out of whole cloth. The White San Joaquin River, about 35 miles CCC’ers built the refuge buildings In all, there were 150 segre- east of San Francisco. Isolated and residences. The Black gated camps across the country. from similar habitats, the Antioch CCC’ers, stationed downriver in Eventually, African Americans Dunes slowly developed species Jack’s Bay, mostly built fences, made up 10 percent of the CCC found nowhere else in the world. truck trails, fire breaks, levees, workforce, which was on par and cleared the river channels. with national population figures. The gradual shifting of sand,
Yet Olen Cole Jr., who wrote The however, was replaced by a rapid STEVE MARTARANO/USFWS FDR established the refuge from African-American Experience effort to turn it into bricks in 1906 There may be fewer than 50 Lange’s bottomlands and farmsteads in the Civilian Conservation after a devastating earthquake metalmark butterflies remaining today, in 1935 with the mandate to Corps, noted that Blacks suffered and fires demolished buildings down from an estimated 25,000 between protect and conserve migratory disproportionately higher levels in San Francisco. As industry 50 and 100 years ago. birds—mallards, Canadian geese, of poverty and joblessness depleted the sand over the next scaups, Gadwalls, prothonotary than Whites. And, while White 70 years, the dunes’ unique warblers—and other wildlife. The enrollees were employed in species struggled to survive on Service acquired 110,000 acres the construction trades, Black dunes that eventually topped out The orange, black, and white along a 60-mile stretch of the enrollees were relegated to at 50 feet. butterfly with a wingspan of 1 White River. The CCC helped raze tree cutting, kitchen duty, and to 1.5 inches, whose population “undesirable” farm buildings, mosquito-control projects. Now we are working with the likely numbered 25,000 less than re-plant hardwoods, and create Port of Stockton to turn back a century ago, was protected impoundments that attracted the “The contributions of all-African- the clock, one load of sand at as endangered in 1976. The birds. American camps were vital to a time. Since 2013, the port has white-petaled primrose and the development and maturation pumped nearly 92,000 cubic yellow-petaled wallflower “The Service told the architects, of the nation’s major parks and yards of sand—enough to fill followed with listings in 1978. ‘We’re not a high-falutin’ agency, conservation infrastructure,” more than 6,500 dump trucks— and we don’t need glorious Olen wrote. onto the dunes to support three We established Antioch Dunes buildings. We need functional endangered species: the Lange’s National Wildlife Refuge for the buildings where you can go in Now, nearly a century later, metalmark butterfly, Antioch three species in 1980, making and clean the mud off your their largely unsung yet critically Dunes evening primrose, and it the first national refuge for boots,’” Kanaski says. “Some important conservation work is Contra Costa wallflower. insects and plants. At the time, of the buildings built by the finally getting its due. n the 55-acre urban refuge with CCC are still standing today.” “The population of Lange’s has two non-adjacent units was also DAN CHAPMAN, External Affairs, been trending downward for a the nation’s smallest. Separation of Duties South Atlantic-Gulf and Mississippi couple of decades now,” says Basin Regions Mark Hayes, a biologist with our “This is a very industrial neigh- Mitchell ducks into her museum San Francisco Bay-Delta Office. borhood we’re tucked into,” office and returns with an album “We counted about 10 butterflies says Louis Terrazas, a wildlife of old photos. Inside are pictures in 2020, and the total population is resource specialist for the refuge. of Black men cutting trees, milling very likely less than 50 currently.” “There’s a shipyard on one side, the wood, pushing wheelbarrows, a gypsum-processing plant, and making duck boxes from an old water-treatment facility bark. Although the men helped over there, and two strips of build the refuge, Mitchell says, land owned by Pacific Gas and they weren’t working in St. Electric.” ›› Charles so they’re not part of the exhibit.
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 5 news
Sand and water dredged from the San Joaquin America’s Wild River are pumped onto Antioch Dunes National Read is Back Wildlife Refuge in October. The water will return to the river through outfall pipes, leaving o you enjoy reading books the sand behind. Dthat will change your life, if you let them? Do you like the idea of being a part of a community of like-minded, open-hearted people? Will you take this journey seriously, and have some fun, too? Have we got a fun diversion for you.
This January, our Conservation Library relaunched America’s Wild Read, a virtual, quarterly book club centered on inspiring readers to engage with conser-
MARK HAYES/USFWS vation literature and nature writing, both classic and contem- Continued from previous page sites to place the sand. It saw an “We bought some sand from porary. Read along with us, and opportunity at Antioch Dunes. another site in 2009, but it was look out for posts on the USFWS As sand disappeared in the 20th really expensive, and the sand Conservation Library blog, century, non-native grasses and “It costs us a little extra in time material had some non-native where we’ll weave together the plants took hold, crowding out and prepping the site and some species in it,” he says. perspectives of Fish and Wildlife the primrose, the wallflower, and other little work,” says Jeff Service leaders through their the Antioch Dunes buckwheat, Wingfield, the Port of Stockton’s Now, the port provides and commentary and conversation. the only plant where the Lange’s director of environmental and delivers clean sand, and it doesn’t Join the discussion by posting butterfly will lay its eggs. In public affairs, “but for us it’s cost us a dollar. your thoughts and responses. ›› the early 2000s, a series of important to beneficially reuse wildfires further cut the butterfly the material.” “Restoring the dunes is vitally population, leaving only about 100 important to the refuge’s alive in 2010—all on the refuge’s Since the port’s first delivery ecosystem and could be the key 14-acre eastern unit. in 2013, the evening primrose to long-term preservation of its has experienced a huge jump in endangered species,” Hayes With no butterflies on the western numbers, Terrazas says, and the says. “We value our partnership unit, we decided to overhaul that wallflower and buckwheat are with the port and hope this site and try to restore the condi- also reappearing. Eventually, the continues as we implement our tions that had once enabled the refuge hopes to re-establish the restoration plan.”n dunes’ endangered species to Lange’s butterfly on the western thrive. Refuge staff began looking unit. BRANDON HONIG, External Affairs, for sources of sand in 2012 and California-Great Basin Region were soon contacted by the Port To fully restore the refuge’s dune of Stockton. system, we could continue taking sand deposits for a couple of The Army Corps of Engineers decades, Terrazas says, which dredges sand from the San might not be possible without the Joaquin River each year to clear port partnership. passage for cargo ships, and the port is responsible for finding America’s Wild Read is back, we invite you to read along with us.
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Continued from previous page World’s oldest known, banded wild bird hatches chick at Midway Atoll Currently, America’s Wild Read features the PEN/E.O. Wilson isdom, a moli (Laysan Literary Science Writing Award Walbatross) and world’s Winner Eager: The Surprising, oldest known, banded wild bird, Secret Life of Beavers and Why hatched a new chick February 1 They Matter by Ben Goldfarb. at Midway Atoll. Biologists first Goldfarb is an award-winning observed the egg pipping January environmental journalist who 29. Pipping is when a young bird covers wildlife management and begins to crack the shell of the conservation biology. egg when hatching.
Eager is the story of how beavers, Every year, millions of albatross “ecological and hydrological return to Midway Atoll National Swiss Army knives,” have shaped Wildlife Refuge and Battle of the North American landscape Midway National Memorial. and can help us fight drought, Beginning in October, birds flooding, wildfire, extinction, and go to their same nesting site climate change. Eager is not and reunite with their mate in
only expertly researched but a the world’s largest colony of WILDLIFE REFUGE NATIONAL ATOLL JON BRACK/FRIENDS OF MIDWAY pleasure to read. It may make a albatross. Wisdom and her mate, beaver believer out of you! Akeakamai, have been hatching The incubation period after an Wisdom‘s newest chick shortly after and raising chicks together since albatross lays an egg is typically hatching, with its dad, Akeakamai. Our first selection was J. Drew at least 2012, when biologists first 65 days — most chicks on Lanham’s The Home Place: banded Akeakamai. Midway Atoll hatch in January Memoirs of a Colored Man’s or February. Wisdom laid her Love Affair with Nature. n “At least 70 years old, we believe egg sometime during the last Biologists first identified and Wisdom has had other mates,” few days of November. Soon banded Wisdom in 1956, but the says Dr. Beth Flint, one of our after, Wisdom returned to sea very first albatross was banded ? MORE INFORMATION biologists. “Though albatross to forage and Akeakamai took on Midway Atoll in 1936. To date mate for life, they may find new over incubation duties. Albatross over 275,000 albatross have partners if necessary — for parents share in the incubation, been banded at the refuge and Read with us. example, if they outlive their first and once the chick hatches, they memorial. By pairing modern data USFWS Conservation Library mate.” share feeding duties. Parents analysis with detailed current blog
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 7 news
Early Detection and Rapid Response Efforts Take the Fight to Invasives in South Florida
here are a lot fewer Gambian The average size of a Northern African python in giant pouched rats crawling T Florida is around 10 feet in length, but the snakes and Northern African pythons can grow up to 20 feet long in their native range. slithering around South Florida While very similar in appearance to the Burmese today than there were a decade python, the pattern on the back of the Northern ago thanks to ongoing and African python is less defined. successful early detection and rapid response efforts.
“While invasive species prevention is the first line of defense, even the best prevention efforts won’t stop all exotic species from establishing and eventually spreading across FWC Florida,” says Biologist Art Roybal, our invasive species Gambian Giant Pouched Rats coordinator for South Florida. “I can say, however, that early The Gambian giant pouched rat, detection and rapid response native to central and southern practices have effectively curbed Africa, is the world’s largest rat, the spread of these particular reaching up to nine pounds. It rats and pythons in Florida over gets its name from the way it the past decade.” collects food by stuffing its cheek pouches. Gambian pouched Early detection and rapid rats were imported as pets into response (EDRR) is a coordi- Florida until the state listed the nated set of actions to find and species as “Prohibited,” which eradicate potential invasive limits importation and possession species in a specific location to those with permits for research before they spread and cause or public exhibition. harm. Rapid response in Florida, in some cases, has meant the The rats were bred in captivity continuous searching and on Grassy Key, where eight removal of introductions of rats escaped and established non-native species reported a breeding population. If this by the public until population invasive species were to reach numbers are minimized to the the U.S. mainland, there could be USDA point of nearly achieving eradi- extensive damage to the Florida John Woolard, of USDA Wildlife cation. fruit industry. ›› Services, displays a Gambian giant pouched rat. This is the world’s largest rat, weighing up to nine pounds. The average size is three pounds, measuring 20–35 inches from the head to the tip of the tail.
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Continued from previous page captured in the past to the point FISHERIES By late 2020, the equipment for of no additional snakes having the mussel program was either The Florida Fish and Wildlife been captured in quite some Mussels Continue the repaired or replaced, and the Conservation Commission (FWC), time,” says Roybal. “Service first round of mussels were working with the U.S. Department personnel have participated in Race at Mammoth propagated in the station’s of Agriculture Wildlife Services walking surveys looking for these Spring National Fish self-contained, aquatic habitat and the City of Marathon, has snakes in the Miami area.” system. During this first step of trapped and monitored these Hatchery the new mussel program, the rats via remote cameras since Roybal believes these successful system worked wonderfully and 2005. Their goal is to ensure that efforts to contain the spread of n the first few days of 2021, successfully held the inoculated what is believed to be a small the Gambian giant pouched rat Ia juvenile plain pocketbook host fish. Largemouth bass and population does not grow and and the Northern African python mussel at Mammoth Spring plain pocketbook mussels are expand to the mainland and other are examples of what aggressive National Fish Hatchery in common species from local parts of the state. EDRR efforts can do to prevent Arkansas formed and fell off the waters and are being used as a introduction and population gills of its host fish, a largemouth surrogate to test equipment and “FWC and our other partners establishment and limit spread. bass that had been inoculated help modify protocols. have been very aggressive and with the mussel on December 16. it looks like what they’ve done “Being aggressive and consistent It was the first round of mussel in the way of an early detection with EDRR is the way to make it propagation to take place in the and rapid response strategy has work. Our partners are showing hatchery’s culture building in worked,” says Roybal. how to get it done. It’s perhaps nearly four years. the most important tool we have Northern African Pythons in the fight against invasive In 2017, the Warm Fork River species.” massively swelled and flooded Northern African pythons, the culture building at the also known as African rock He says that these efforts have hatchery. It wasn’t the first pythons, are considered an been especially effective with the time the river had threatened injurious species due to their African pythons. “The Service’s hatchery operations, but with likely predation of native wildlife injurious wildlife listing and the around 6 feet of water swirling similar to what is happening with state’s aggressive on-the-ground inside the facilities, this flood the Burmese python. Unlike the response resulted in greatly proved catastrophic. The building Burmese python, they are not reducing the presence of these that flooded housed most of the widely established in Florida. snakes. The fact that there have hatchery’s aquaculture activities, USFWS been no captures of Northern including the mussel conser- Mammoth Spring National Fish Hatchery However, a small localized African rock pythons in over vation program. Once the water is testing its mussel propagation system. population of this species two years with only one verified receded, hatchery personnel was documented in western sighting in 2019 is a victory for salvaged what they could and set Miami-Dade County. At its native wildlife in Florida.” up a temporary aquaculture February meeting, FWC approved system in one of the old hatchery After the microscopic staff recommendations to create “These control efforts with housing garages. But the mussel juveniles drop off their host new rules to address the impor- Gambian giant pouched rats conservation program was put fish, they are collected in a tation, breeding, and possession and Northern African pythons on hold. series of screens, counted under of high-risk invasive reptiles— focused on early detection and a microscope, and transferred including these pythons. rapid response are powerful Through time, perseverance, to another system, which examples of success,” says Larry and hard work, the hatchery is equipped with 24-hour “The Service listed Northern Williams, our Florida state super- repaired and restored the culture feeders. Once the mussels reach African pythons as an injurious visor for ecological services. building and began using it to a manageable size, hatchery staff species under the Lacey Act, “These examples show invasive raise species again in the spring will count, check for survivability, which prohibits its importation species control can work. We of 2019. and monitor growth. As they into the U.S. and its territories. can have more examples like this grow, they will be separated out The FWC has been aggressive by becoming more deliberate and into new containers to prevent in monitoring for this species more focused with our work.” n overcrowding. ›› where it was first observed and KEN WARREN, South Florida Ecological Services Office
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 9 news
FISHERIES boaters. Still, they deserve a chance of surviving into the next Biologists Charting century. “We have high hopes that the Deepwater Horizon a Future for the Gulf oil spill settlement funding will Sturgeon significantly increase our ability to help the Gulf sturgeon by They’ve been with us since the improving their reproductive age of the dinosaurs…So, how success and sustainability,” says can we not help them survive the Adam Kaeser, fish biologist with “age” of the Deepwater Horizon our Panama City Fish and Wildlife oil spill? Conservation Office.
That sentiment has helped propel The Gulf sturgeon was once the work of a group of our biolo- common in river systems from gists who have studied Gulf Tampa Bay, Florida, to the USFWS sturgeon for many years. Using Mississippi River. Populations funds provided by the Deepwater of Gulf sturgeon, however, were In 2017, Warm Fork River flooded Continued from previous page Horizon Natural Resource greatly reduced by overfishing Mammoth Spring National Fish Hatchery Damage Assessment Trustees, for meat and roe (or eggs). in Arkansas. This “test/surrogate species” the biologists are set to advance The species was protected will help hatchery staff modify their knowledge of sturgeon’s as threatened in 1991 under the current system before spawning behavior and habitat, the Endangered Species Act. taking the next steps of devel- and the behavior and habitat Other factors such as habitat oping a program to propagate needs of juvenile sturgeon. destruction and water quality the federally protected, deterioration have continued to rabbitsfoot mussel. In the future, Sturgeon are unusual. They stress sturgeon populations. ›› Mammoth Spring will work have a backbone of cartilage, with various state, local, and whiskers like a catfish, rows of federal partners to re-stock the heavy armor-like plates, and no mussels into their native waters teeth in their sucker-like mouth. and to promote recovery of this They also have a nasty habit threatened species. n of going airborne and causing Service Biologist Adam Kaeser shows near misses or collisions with the full length of an adult Gulf sturgeon. RICHARD PEEK, Fish and Aquatic Conservation, Mammoth Spring National Fish Hatchery USFWS
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A Gulf sturgeon pup. FISHERIES fisheries conservation work is tied to yours. We commit to Fish 150: Celebrating working hard alongside you for the next 150 years, with the hope conservation-minded individuals All the Fish in Alaska that together we can conserve who are volunteering to take all the fish, forever. For more on
USFWS part in one of the many recovery laskans have been living Alaska fish, visit
tific community as well as with living dinosaurs. n CONSULTING WITH INGER DEEDE/AGNEW::BECK USFWS EXTERNAL AFFAIRS-ALASKA
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 11 spotlight: fisheries GOING STRONG AT 150 Our fisheries program, and the The roots of our Fish and Aquatic Conservation (FAC) Service itself, has been conserving Program, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service itself, aquatic resources since 1871. run deep.
n 1871, people recognized that America’s fisheries were in Itrouble and called on Congress to act. The U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries was created February 9, 1871. The commission would become the Service. (See p. 30 “The War for Wildlife.”)
The commission’s original charge was clear: to determine whether America’s fisheries were declining and if so, to figure out how to protect them.
The first answer was clear: a resounding yes. FAC has been working on the latter ever since.
One method of aquatic conservation has been the National Fish Hatchery System.
In 1888, Neosho National Fish Hatchery was established in Neosho, Missouri. (See p. 14 “Typical is Atypical.”) Today Neosho is the oldest operating federal fish hatchery in the United States and one of 18 national fish hatcheries more than 100 years old.
In 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began construction on Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery in Georgia (then called Mill Creek Rearing Station) for the U.S. Forest Service. (See p. 4 for more on the CCC.) In 1939, responsibilities for the facility transferred to what eventually became the Service. ››
(Left) Yakama tribal members fish in the Klickitat River for Fall Chinook salmon. 12 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 HAGERTY/USFWS RYAN spotlight
Continued from previous page. Additionally, hatcheries work with local schools, communities, agencies and An important job at Chattahoochee Forest organizations, such as Trout Unlimited, to Hatchery, then and now, is to stock trout educate and promote conservation ethics. in local waters. Rail cars brought trout (See p. 16 “Small Fry, Big Job.”) fingerlings needed for stocking during the mid-to-late 1930s from Walhalla, Many hatcheries, including Chattahoochee South Carolina. These rail cars Forest, have also branched out beyond transported fish all over the United States. fish. (See p. 24 “All Species Great and Fish to be “planted,” or stocked, into local Small.”) Chattahoochee Forest works on streams were hand carried in milk cans. conservation projects for the bog turtle, These days, eggs produced at other eastern hellbender, and swamp pink plant. federal hatcheries are delivered by Federal Express right to the hatchery Today, through FAC we work to conserve door at Chattahoochee Forest and are threatened and endangered species, placed in hatching jars inside the hatchery restore declining populations of native fish building. Trout, including rainbow, brown, and aquatic species so they don’t become and brook, are hand netted and weighed, endangered, mitigate the impacts of then loaded onto two fully equipped federal water projects to tribal and distribution vehicles for stocking. recreational fisheries for the benefit of all
CRYSTAL THOMAS/USFWS CRYSTAL Americans, and prevent the introduction Currently, Chattahoochee Forest produces and spread of aquatic invasive and approximately 1 million trout each year. injurious species. These fish are stocked into the waters of North Georgia in cooperation with As important as hatcheries are, they are the Georgia Department of Natural just one tool in the aquatic conservation Resources, U.S. Army Corps of toolbox. Along with hatcheries, FAC Engineers, Tennessee Valley Authority, operates a network of field stations from and U.S. Forest Service. the Arctic Circle to the Florida Keys that empower conservation efforts. (See p. 20, That boosts the tourist attraction of “Growing a ‘First Fish.’”) These field Georgia. People from all over come to stations provide technical assistance to north Georgia for the trout fishing tribes, conduct scientific studies into experience. fishery problems, and restore habitat through the National Fish Passage Across the country, we stock about 98 Program and the National Fish Habitat million fish into local waters a year. That Action Plan. results in jobs, increased revenue from taxes and retail sales, fun, and much more. Working with tribes, states, landowners, partners, and stakeholders, FAC and the Annual fishing rodeos at hatcheries for Service will continue to ensure the health children and adults with special needs, of our nation’s wildlife and to enable all senior citizens, U.S. military veterans, BRETT BILLINGS/USFWS Americans to realize the ecological, and youth draw thousands, including recreational, and economic benefits some new anglers. provided by these critically important resources. n The pandemic has also brought out new anglers. (Top) Jada, daughter of Chattahoochee Forest National One told Chattahoochee Forest staff: Fish Hatchery Project Leader Kelly Taylor, shows the “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic trout she caught at the hatchery’s annual Kids Fishing and thanks to Chattahoochee Forest NFH, Rodeo. (Middle) Two youngsters fish at Gavins Point I’m happy to have become an avid trout National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota. (Bottom) angler!” Historical rearing trout earth ponds at Chattahoochee
USFWS Forest National Fish Hatchery.
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 13 spotlight: fisheries
TYPICAL IS ATYPICAL
A typical day at Neosho National Fish Hatchery means something unexpected.
e came in today and couldn’t see “Wthe fish, so we had to deal with that first,” says Roderick May, the hatchery manager at Neosho, in the Ozark Mountain Region of southwest Missouri. Two inches of rain the day before had turned the water in the spring-fed tanks so cloudy that the staff couldn’t see the fish. But May wasn’t concerned. Problem solving is just a way of life for a hatchery manager. Whether it’s dealing with cloudy spring water or figuring out the best way to spawn endangered fish, the staff at Neosho has been solving aquatic conservation problems longer than anyone.
Neosho is the oldest continuously operated At Neosho National Fish Hatchery, federal hatchery in the country, and one of 18 national fish hatcheries in the system that the oldest continuously operated federal are over 100 years old, but you wouldn’t know it from looking around. From the pristine hatchery, a normal day doesn’t exist. grounds, to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED-certified visitor center, and cutting edge conservation work, Neosho is helping By HOLLY RICHARDS lead the way into the next generation of aquatic conservation for the Service. ››
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Continued from previous page.
Conservation Community
In addition to the pressure of propagating 180,000 rainbow trout a year and raising endangered Topeka shiners, pallid sturgeon, and freshwater mussels, staff at Neosho has to do their work under the watchful eyes of more than 60,000 visitors a year and a community that sees the
hatchery as an extension of the town. STEIGER-MEISTER/USFWS KATIE (Top) A 2-year-old pallid sturgeon at Neosho National “Everything we do here is on display,” Fish Hatchery. (Right) Hatchery staff works with pallid May says. Sturgeon. (Bottom) Neosho National Fish Hatchery has paved walking trails for the public. Some of the daily tasks at Neosho haven’t changed much since 1888. Every day brings feeding, spawning, and caring for reproductive maturity made spawning the thousands of fish at the hatchery. Like efforts challenging. it has for 133 years, the 2 million gallons of gravity-fed spring water that drive Neosho is one of only a handful of hatchery operations still flow through the hatcheries in the country that raise the tanks at 54-62°F. That spring water is the fish. The hatchery raises as many as perfect temperature for rainbow trout, a 15,000 pallid sturgeon for release each key species the hatchery has raised since year into the Missouri River to bolster USFWS it opened. the population.
But if you look a little closer, you’ll notice “Freshwater mussels, that’s our next that some of the tanks at the hatchery are great adventure,” May says. Yes, they being cooled down. raise mussels now, but Neosho is working toward raising them at a production level The tanks that house endangered pallid so they can stock and restore them. The sturgeon have chillers to ensure that those hatchery is on its way. Neosho’s assistant fish are kept at the same temperature as manager, hired in 2018, is a mussel fish in the nearby Missouri River. “They’re biologist by profession and manages the getting winter right here like they’re mussel program. getting winter in the river,” says May. Maintaining those seasonal temperature When May says “our next great changes helps protect the natural adventure,” he doesn’t just mean new reproductive cycle of sturgeons. It’s conservation challenges, such as finding one of the many lessons the most effective protocols. For May STEIGER-MEISTER/USFWS KATIE and the staff at Neosho, it’s a journey Neosho staff has had to learn along they will take with the public. Like the way. everything at Neosho, conservation starts in the community. May wants Neosho to One of the most exciting undertakings help the public get to know the mussels, for the Service’s Fish and Aquatic so they can help protect them. Conservation Program was the establishment of a captive-breeding “This place belongs to the community; program for pallid sturgeon. “There we just manage it for them.” n was no book on captive-rearing pallid sturgeon,” May says. The unique life HOLLY RICHARDS, Fish and Aquatic Conservation, cycle of pallid sturgeon and age of Headquarters
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 15 spotlight: fisheries
SMALL FRY, BIG JOB Around the country, the Service supports fish education in the For the last 10 years, Angela classroom to help give native Palacios and the New Mexico fish a brighter future.
Fish and Wildlife Conservation EDWARDS/USFWS PAT Office have been shining a light By DENISE WAGNER and HOLLY RICHARDS on some of the forgotten fishes of the Southwest. Palacios is a Students from Boise-Eliot/Humboldt Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, fish biologist and information and tour a hatchery operation. education coordinator for the office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Every year they help students around the state make connections between the classroom and the natural world through their Native Fish in the Classroom Program. ››
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hen her boss initially pitched the idea Wof an outreach program based on the popular Trout in the Classroom program in 2011, Palacios and a coworker decided to take a slightly different approach. “We built it around the native fish of the Rio Grande,” Palacios says. The longnose dace, red shiner, western mosquito fish, and flat-head chub all live in the warm waters of the Rio Grande. These relatively small native fish would work well in an aquarium setting. Just as important for Palacios, they were fish that nobody really knew or saw.
The Rio Grande is fairly turbid, so even folks who spend time on the banks of the river will probably never see the rich and complex fish community living below the surface. “It’s kind of like that whole out-of- sight, out-of-mind kind of thing,” Palacios says. “We really wanted to focus on native fish and bring them out into the public and give people a chance to get to know them.”
All Across the Country USFWS
Most fish in the classroom programs begin when classrooms sign up to get firsthand the value of aquatic fish, fingerlings, or fish eggs from a environments, the balance needed to nearby national fish hatchery or maintain and conserve fish and other conservation office. Teachers then aquatic species within these environments, incorporate aquatic conservation lessons and how their actions can affect or throughout the year to supplement improve these resources. their curriculum needs. Along the way, students learn to raise fish and get In Arizona, Diego Araujo with the A to know their behavior and varying life rizona Fish and Wildlife Conservation stages. Office works with three local schools to USFWS highlight fish that meet the needs of their Through our Fish and Aquatic community. “Our office is located on the (Top) Students prepare to release their Conservation Program, we support at Fort Apache Indian Reservation, so in native fish. (Below) Kids release their least 19 fish in the classroom programs our area we like to provide Apache trout,” fish. across the country. Most of the programs Araujo says. “Those are not only one of partner with state agencies and are two native trout to Arizona but a culturally based on the popular Trout in the significant fish to our local community,” Classroom program created by the he says. nonprofit organization, Trout Unlimited, more than 30 years ago. Fish Araujo and the Arizona office gear in the classroom programs are like having their classroom lessons toward what a living laboratory that can provide unique the students are currently learning opportunities to enhance a classroom- and cover cover topics such as invasive learning environment. Students discover species, habitat conservation, and fish 101 lessons. ››
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 17 spotlight: fisheries MEGHAN KEARNEY/USFWS Students feed the fish during a hatchery visit. Conservation Ethic Helping students No matter the involvement level, fish in Continued from previous page the classroom programs strengthen develop a connections between students and the Fish in classroom programs vary greatly hidden life all around them. conservation ethic is a from school to school. Some simply provide fish or eggs to a state partner who In Maine, Craig Brook National Fish core value of all the administers the program; others make Hatchery partners with Fish Friends, classroom visits and write curriculum that a program of the Maine Council of the programs, and the incorporates local species into state and Atlantic Salmon Federation. Fish Friends national education standards. provides students across Maine the impacts can last much opportunity to observe, learn, and care for Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery endangered Atlantic salmon. As a part of longer than the school in North Dakota began participating in the the program, hatchery staff take students Trout in the Classroom program in 2017 on a tour of the hatchery, supply eggs to year. when the North Dakota Game and Fish participating schools, and provide mentors Department started its outreach to the local schools through the Friends of partnership with Trout Unlimited. Across Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery. “In the state, 12 schools are participating for the past we’ve had as many as 75 schools the 2020-2021 school year. The state participating,” says Oliver Cox, hatchery agency visits classrooms periodically to manager at Craig Brook. ›› talk about fish management and aquatic invasive species—an important part of the curriculum because students will release aquarium-raised fish into the wild.
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Continued from previous page Currently, five western Upper Peninsula the program, and the parents brought school districts participate in Sturgeon in them back every year to our release field Across the country at Columbia River the Classroom in the Ontonagon River days,” Palacios says. Gorge National Fish Hatchery Complex, watershed. The sturgeon raised by the with six hatcheries in Washington and students receive a passive integrated For Palacios and others who do this work, Oregon, Salmon in the Classroom transponder (PIT) tag with a unique the ultimate goal is bigger than just programs have been thriving for 25 years. identification number, before being learning about an individual fish. The Thousands of students at 25 schools are released into the Ontonagon River. students who came through her program introduced each year to the salmon story. Students can use the number to track 10 years ago are 18 years old now. Students kick off their experience with a the fish they raised and released through “Hopefully this is memorable enough to hatchery tour to learn about the important the Great Lakes Lake Sturgeon Tag them that they’ll have a positive influence role of hatcheries in conservation. Identification Database. on what happens to the Rio Grande from Throughout the school year, Service staff just this experience.” n makes six visits to each classroom to Fish in the classroom programs help teach lessons about salmon life cycles, the students gain an appreciation for aquatic DENISE WAGNER and HOLLY RICHARDS, importance of healthy watersheds, salmon ecosystems that will hopefully impact Fish and Aquatic Conservation, Headquarters anatomy, and the cultural importance of them for the rest of their lives. Back in salmon. At the end of the unit, students New Mexico, Palacios says she sees entire release their fish to begin their long trek families affected by their program. “At one to the ocean. point, for three years in a row, we had Salmon in the Classroom’s Cheri Anderson brings siblings from the same family. So all the a salmon to Boise-Eliot Humboldt Elementary in At the end of the school year, many fish in kids in this one family got to go through Portland, Oregon. the classroom programs host a classroom or community release day. Releasing fish into an approved and appropriate habitat requires coordination and guidance from a federal or state agency.
Making the connection between native species and habitat protection is an important part of any fish in the classroom curriculum, as are the risks from aquatic invasive species. Fish in classroom lessons include discussions with students that explain the differences between native and non-native fish, and teach the dangers of releasing aquarium pets into the wild.
Helping students develop a conservation ethic is a core value of all the programs, and the impacts can last much longer than the school year. Students in Michigan who took part in the 2019 Sturgeon in the Classroom program will be able to track “their” fish for decades to come on the web. The program, supported by the U.S. Forest Service, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, our Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, teaches students about lake sturgeon biology and restoration, the importance of conservation, and stewardship of the environment.
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 19 spotlight: fisheries
GROWING A ‘FIRST FISH’ How nutritionists and their research collaborators pioneered Pacific lamprey aquaculture.
By SEAN CONNOLLY
(Photo) Before 2019, no captive-raised Pacific lamprey had ever metamorphosed from tiny larvae to juvenile lamprey. JAMES BARRON/USFWS
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James Barron never realized he would become a larval lamprey whisperer.
ver the past decade, Barron, a fish “Overcoming salmon-centric thinking both Obiologist with our Abernathy Fish within the research community and our Technology Center in Washington, has funders has been a challenge,” says Dr. been working with colleagues and a Mary Moser, a research fish biologist with team of tribal and federal scientists to NOAA Fisheries. “Lamprey culture is a generate groundbreaking studies to help long-term commitment. This information establish the nation’s first Pacific lamprey also gives insights into lamprey biology aquaculture programs. needed for management of wild lamprey populations.” “It’s been an odyssey,” Barron says. Tribes have been sounding alarm bells The work touches on four things: hatchery for decades about declining lamprey programs, the collaborative nature of populations. Pacific lamprey research, why the fish is vital to West Coast tribes, and the unique Their concern is personal. Pacific lamprey life cycle that makes raising them in is a cultural ambassador that provides captivity complex. an opportunity to pass knowledge of and appreciation for a “First Food” from one Hurdles generation to another.
“The long duration of the larval life stage, “Working to develop artificial propagation typically 3–9 years, makes the continuous for lamprey provides the opportunity to production of larval lamprey a long-term investigate different strategies to save this project that requires a lot of rearing tank imperiled species,” says Aaron Jackson, space,” says Ralph Lampman, a Yakama project leader for the Confederated Tribes Indian Nation Pacific lamprey project of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s biologist. Pacific Lamprey Project.
Creating lamprey hatchery programs in That’s how Barron, his boss Dr. Ann ANN GANNAM/USFWS a region where hatchery operations are Gannam, and partners Jackson, James Barron feeds the 2014 lamprey. dominated by salmonid culture, has been Lampman, Moser, and Dr. Alexa Maine, another difficulty. Pacific salmon and the Umatilla Tribes’ aquatic propagation steelhead hatcheries have existed since lab manager, ultimately joined forces. the late 1800s. What to Feed Larval Lamprey Not so for Pacific lamprey, which are anadromous like salmon and steelhead but Using Abernathy’s resources, in 2012 live twice as long and spend most of their Barron led a team that investigated lives in their larval and early juvenile larval lamprey growth and survival rates stages. through diets.
No hatchery program for Pacific lamprey Findings indicated that a larval lamprey exists throughout their entire range, feeding regimen with a slurry of dry yeast which extends from Alaska to the and a commercial fish feed was most Mexico border. effective. Algae, which is part of wild larval lampreys’ diet, surprisingly was not. ››
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 21 spotlight: fisheries
larvae or transformed juveniles that would stay in place to facilitate accurate data collection?
The 2015 research achieved breakthroughs on both fronts.
Studies indicated that larval lamprey first fed between 16 and 24 days post-hatch seemed to survive and grow the fastest. The timing of the first feed was not only vital for early development but increased the likelihood that the young fish would grow rapidly enough to survive fluctuating environmental conditions.
Meanwhile, the tagging research A larval lamprey feeds. demonstrated two commonly used tags
JAMES BARRON/USFWS could be implanted even in tiny lamprey. A third tag, which required more invasive Continued from previous page “The unique assets that each of our surgical techniques, could be safely partners brought together made it implanted in fish as small as 3 inches long. “We were very fortunate to have the possible to collaborate in a way that would partners that we did: they had already not have been possible if we tackled Trust between the scientists deepened figured out how to spawn adults and this problem alone, and was the seed of with every successive research phase. incubate the eggs, which is a huge task,” success,” Lampman says. “Another benefit Decades of mistrust over salmon Barron. “We were able to begin our work is that we don’t put all the eggs in the management without their input and focused on rearing the young lamprey same basket, figuratively and literally broken treaties over two centuries have starting before they begin to feed and still speaking.” left tribes understandably wary when have a yolk sac.” working with the federal government. In 2013 and 2014, using fish provided Twenty-first century Pacific lamprey Conducting the diet research was difficult. by the Yakama Nation, Abernathy conservation, fundamentally collaborative The delicate larval lamprey don’t grow investigated the effects of various ration in nature, is a pronounced contrast to more than a few centimeters the first year sizes and rearing densities on young that history. of their lives. They also spend their entire lamprey growth. larval and early juvenile periods buried in “This process has provided the aquatic substrate, filter-feeding. Most of The research not only helped tribal opportunity to build meaningful the time they’re virtually invisible. partners refine their own nascent Pacific relationships between the federal lamprey aquaculture programs but got government and tribal governments,” “The lamprey don’t often do what you the attention of others. In 2015, Chelan says Jackson, an enrolled Umatilla expect them to, so we tried a lot of things County Public Utility District (PUD), tribal member. by running multiple trials,” Barron says. which operates three Columbia River dams in Washington State, provided The team analyzed and refined their Teamwork multiyear funding to continue research, handling techniques with each study and including a challenge to grow larval provided each other with valuable peer Besides key diet clues, that first study lamprey into juveniles to help support review. The stepping-stone research generated something equally valuable: future PUD studies. revealed other surprises: alfalfa pellets awareness that tribal and federal improved the growth of larger larvae. scientists could together tackle tough The district’s investment allowed the However, handling the larvae and keeping questions, share results, and safeguard researchers to tackle bigger questions: the study tanks clean was proving everyone’s research by independently when should the critical first feeding extremely complicated without stressing maintaining young lamprey refugia period begin, and at what fish size could the fish and potentially amplifying populations. scientists safely and humanely implant mortality. The partners tackled the tracking tags to monitor the movements of problem together, learning from each other’s successes and setbacks. ››
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Continued from previous page In 2019 and 2020, the team was able The next step is persuading others to to conduct studies to help answer invest in Pacific lamprey artificial “One of the main challenges presented important questions about rearing propagation programs. After all, research when culturing lamprey is substrate. They juvenile fish in different hatchery proves they can operate. need it,” Barron says. “But it completely rearing environments and see how those hides the lamprey from view so you cannot promoted —or inhibited — metamorphosis. For Barron, the knowledge that really see what is going on from day to Abernathy’s fish are continuing to help day. Carefully separating out the delicate They did so without removing a single close knowledge gaps is highly satisfying. animals from heavy sand is very labor fish from the wild. intensive. Over time, the substrate “Even when you don’t get the result you develops its own ecosystem and requires Today, Abernathy raises thousands of expect you are still learning something, specialized cleaning and maintenance to lamprey across four different year classes. kind of like finding pieces to a puzzle,” he keep the lamprey going.” In 2021, the researchers are exploring says. “That is one of the most rewarding cues that trigger larval transformation aspects of this work—and practicing Between 2016 and 2018, the team’s efforts to juveniles, helping lamprey culturalists science. When you reveal something new, focused on new variables influencing larval prepare for this pivotal life cycle moment. and get that answer for the first time, you lamprey behavior and survival: water The Yakama and Umatilla Pacific reveal a universal truth that no one before turnover, substrate particle sizes, tank Lamprey Projects are using the canon of has ever known.” n cleaning techniques, amount of daylight, studies to eventually ramp up full-cycle feeding frequency variations, and optimal Pacific lamprey hatchery programs. SEAN CONNOLLY, Fish and Aquatic Conservation rearing densities. Program, Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region It’s something lamprey advocates have Success been hoping to see for years. Now it’s closer than ever, thanks to a nearly a Then, in 2019, another breakthrough decade of effort by a group of persistent occurred. scientists.
The lamprey in both Abernathy’s and the Yakama Nation’s studies did what no other captive-raised Pacific lamprey had ever Tribes have been sounding done. alarm bells for decades about declining populations of Pacific They metamorphosed from tiny larvae to lamprey. This is a wild lamprey, juvenile lamprey. Their eyes developed. not part of the study. Their skin color began changing from the dun brown suited for camouflage in substrate to the pale silver better suited to conceal them in a water column. Their mouths began to curve into an oral disc with rows of small, circular posterior teeth, and the three large anterior teeth that give Entosphenus tridentatus its ‘three-toothed’ binomial name.
The collaborators were elated.
“We are one of only two groups of people in history that have ever succeeded in production of eyed juvenile lamprey from artificial propagation,” Lampman notes.
FRESHWATERS ILLUSTRATED AND USFWS
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 23 spotlight: fisheries
ALL SPECIES GREAT & SMALL Fish remain important, but hatcheries embrace snakes, mussels, and more.
By DAN CHAPMAN
(Top) Welaka Project Leader Ken Blick and Deputy Project Leader Tony Brady in the hatchery’s mobile release aviary. (Left) The endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow is non-migratory and is limited to the prairie region of south-central Florida. USFWS
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Welaka, Florida—Tony Brady, behind the wheel of his government-issued “Grasshopper sparrows are ground- Ford truck, rattles off the usual warm water offerings his hatchery stocks in hugging birds. They’d rather run than fly,” Brady says. “This one looks like he’s ready southern streams, lakes, and ponds. Striped bass. Catfish. Bluegill. to go.”
The birds were an obvious candidate for Then there are the unusual offerings. FAC can be involved in. We challenge our Welaka’s help in the summer of 2019. field folks to think outside the aquatic Their grassland habitat, where frequent, “These are our birds,” Brady says, pulling environment.” restorative fires once flourished, have up alongside a newly constructed aviary. been taken over by cattle pastures, sod Given the high number of threatened farms, and housing developments. Birds? and endangered species in the Southeast Predators include other birds, snakes, — 437— it’s no surprise the Southeast rats, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, and fire “The snakes are in here,” he says a few is tops in non-traditional hatchery work. ants. Flood waters drown their nests. minutes later outside an all-purpose metal And perhaps no hatchery is as innovative, The sparrows made the endangered building. or gung-ho, as Welaka. The birds, species list in 1986. In 2018, only 80 for example, are Florida grasshopper sparrows remained in the wild, including Snakes? sparrows, one of the most endangered 20 breeding pairs. birds in the world. What in the blue-goose world is going on Before accepting any birds, Brown at Welaka National Fish Hatchery, which, “We’re always looking to do something requires that the hatchery to complete since 1938, has been growing and hauling different,” says Ken Blick, the project a checklist, or “new species synopsis,” fish for the angling masses from Louisiana leader at Welaka. “We like being detailing costs, partners, expected to South Carolina? challenged.” outcomes, infrastructure needs, and what happens if a critter dies. Welaka Welaka, and other Service hatcheries Fish — and Much More accepts sparrows fledged at White Oak across the country, have increasingly Conservation in northeast Florida. They’ll taken on non-fish propagation work to Tri-colored herons, white egrets, and stay a few weeks or months before release help threatened and endangered species ospreys encircle the 33 ponds that make into the wild. The Welaka staff built a survive habitats under siege. Fourteen up Welaka’s Beecher Unit, all looking for mobile aviary that releases the sparrows hatcheries raise everything from mussels an easy meal of striper or bream. But they as close as possible to their new homes. to toads to frogs to turtles. In all, 35 non- aren’t picky. They’ll eat lake chubsuckers fish species get specialized attention at the too, another animal oddity that Welaka “The lessons we’ve learned are to do your nation’s hatcheries, a dramatic increase in raises as forage for largemouth bass. homework, understand the expectations recent years in the breadth and diversity and figure out what happened if things go of the propagation work. But it’s the non-fish specialties that sets wrong,” Brown says. “Now we’re getting Welaka, along the St. Johns River, to the point where we have more work Meanwhile, all of the 70 hatcheries the 60 miles below Jacksonville, apart. than we can handle. I guess you can teach Service manages continue to churn out an old dog new tricks.” more than 70 types of fish. Brady, the deputy project leader at Welaka, parks the F-350 in a well-hidden Virtually every Service hatchery, warm “I’ve spent most of my career on a field above the fish ponds. Two carport- water or cold, in the Southeast has hatchery where you feed fish and you like structures enclosed in wire mesh sit caught the non-traditional propagation haul fish, so what we’re doing now is truly 20 yards apart. The aviaries are home, bug. Natchitoches (Louisiana), remarkable,” says Allan Brown, Assistant temporarily, to 31 grasshopper sparrows. Orangeburg (South Carolina), Dale Regional Director of Fish and Aquatic Inside, the tiny, brown, white, and black Hollow (Tennessee), and Greers Ferry Conservation (FAC) in the Southeast birds remain hidden behind clumps of (Arkansas) National Fish Hatcheries all who spent two decades at Welaka. “We’re bushy bluestem grass. Finally, movement. raise threatened or endangered mussels. really expanding the kinds of projects that A sparrow hops onto the screen. Orangeburg also raises gopher frogs. Natchitoches rears alligator snapping turtles, too. And Ozark hellbender salamanders call Greers Ferry home, at least for a few months. ››
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 25 spotlight: fisheries
Continued from previous page
Georgia stations have also embraced the fishery future. Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery, 70 miles south of Atlanta, propagates gopher frogs and gopher tortoises. The cold-water Chattahoochee Forest National Fish Hatchery created an artificial bog six years ago to head-start bog turtles. The mountain hatchery also raises swamp pink lilies and purple pitcher plants.
Brown estimates that up to 15 percent of the hatchery work across the region is devoted to non-fish species. Typically, the region’s Ecological Services Program will come up with an at-risk species in desperate need of help and the cash to propagate them too. Outside partners, too, play a major role. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, for
example, gives Warm Springs thousands USFWS of gopher frog tadpoles each year.
A Visit with the ‘Emperor’ Brady slips on a pair of rubber gloves and Tony Brady holds Eastern indigo snake No. 473 pulls out tub No. 473. He lovingly picks up at Welaka. The propagation dance is a bit more a 3-foot indigo. It curls and slithers mid- delicate—and fraught—with eastern air without hissing or lunging. indigo snakes. The Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation, a nonprofit focused “They’re big, black, shiny, elegant. on reptiles and amphibians, breeds and They’re just amazing,” Brady says. “Their In all, 69 indigos have been released at hatches the sleek, lustrous snakes at its scientific name means ‘emperor of the Apalachicola Bluffs, and 191 at Conecuh “herpetarium” in Sanford managed by forest.’ They prefer eating venomous National Forest in Alabama. The goal is the Central Florida Zoo. snakes. I don’t know why anybody fears 300 indigos in Florida and another 300 these guys. They’re so docile.” in Alabama. Yet reintroducing snakes is Welaka received its first batch of indigos only half the battle. Given their elusive, in early 2018, but not before a lot of This batch of 11 snakes, once they reach far-ranging ways, they’re hard to track education and preparation. The hatchery about 4-and-a-half-feet long, is destined down (even with electronic tags) to staff switched out fish tanks (used for for Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines determine if they’re successfully breeding. American shad) for plastic tubs. The Preserve in the Florida Panhandle. Last year, though, a young, 27-inch indigo tubs are cleaned each morning. The non- Welaka has raised 73 snakes. It hasn’t was captured in Conecuh—the presumed venomous snakes are periodically tested lost a single one. offspring of a reintroduced snake. It was for parasites. They’re fed a hearty diet of the first evidence in nearly 70 years that dead mice, quail chicks, and rainbow trout “The head-starting role that Welaka plays indigos are breeding in the Alabama wild. kept in an adjoining freezer in the is a critical step in the recipe for success,” hatchery’s snake room. says Chris Jenkins, chief executive of the “And there are other signs of success, too,” Orianne Society. “They’re a central figure Jenkins says. ›› in this whole, very complex effort to return indigo snakes to the wild.”
26 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 spotlight
Welaka is For the Birds—Again! USFWS
A hungry Florida grasshopper sparrow feeds in a Welaka aviary.
Continued from previous page Welaka National Fish Hatchery, in Welaka, Florida, has roots going back to Flying, Thriving 1926 when the Florida State Fish Hatchery and Game Farm was built. Conceived with the idea of making Florida a fishing and hunting paradise, Sparrows are much easier to track. Ten Welaka birds largemouth bass, American shad, white-tailed deer, and bobwhite quail were were released in mid-February on a well-tended all propagated there. prairie at the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area south of Kissimmee. They spent the previous 24 hours In 1938, a portion of the original property was transferred to the Service, and in Welaka’s mobile aviary filled with grasses, forbs, Welaka National Fish Hatchery came into being. The lands that were once part seeds, and mealworms. Another batch of 10 birds was of the deer and quail operations are now owned by the Welaka State Forest. sent into the wild the following week. Over the 95 years the Welaka facility has been in existence, priorities have Roughly 250 captive-bred sparrows have been set come full circle. From deer and quail to snakes and birds again—and always free in Florida. Maybe one in three survive, about fish—Welaka eagerly embraces the challenges of the future. average for reintroduced species. Biologists estimate the wild population of grasshopper sparrows at about 100 with 30 breeding pairs. (Above) Some of the aviaries at the original Florida Fish Hatchery and Game Farm.
So, what’s next?
Brown, in Atlanta, says crayfish are a possibility. Definitely more plants. Maybe Pearl darters and Madtoms. More salamanders too.
“I challenge my folks by asking, ‘What else can we do?’ “ Brown says. “We’re just expanding into everything. It truly amazes me.” n
DAN CHAPMAN, External Affairs, South Atlantic-Gulf and Mississippi Basin Regions
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 27 FISH CAMP & FAMILY Cora Demit shares her Alaska Native heritage
with visitors to Tetlin Refuge. | BY GLEN MARTIN
Cora Demit gets a lift off a float plane. USFWS
arly life for Cora Demit was ancestors over thousands of years. Demit. In the 1960s, Alaska Native Edefined by family and fish, and they We didn’t have toys—for Christmas, children were punished for speaking combined to create the foundation for our presents were moccasins and their primary languages in school, a joyous childhood. mukluks my mother sewed from and tribal cultures were denigrated. moose skins she had tanned. But we “I was born in Northway, south of Tok, had everything we needed, and I was “I wasn’t allowed to speak Upper but my four siblings and I grew up in so happy there.” Tanana Athabascan, and they cut my a fish camp,” recalls Demit, an Upper long hair,” Demit recalls. “My mother Tanana Athabascan tribal member. Though the fish camp formed the was terribly upset when she found “It was on an allotment my mother physical parameters of Demit’s life, out. In general, Native kids were owned, about 20 miles from the village. her mother knew the family—indeed, just treated poorly. I wanted to come My father died when I was 3 years old, all Upper Tanana Athabascan home, but mom wouldn’t let me, so my mother and grandmother raised people—straddled two worlds. And insisting that I needed to be us. And that camp was our world.” the outside world was encroaching educated. She’d send me dried fish on the traditional world Demit knew. and meat to make me feel better.” Only one other family—friends From mid-autumn through early of Demit’s mother—lived on the spring—when she wasn’t at fish Ultimately, Demit says, “I just went allotment. Everyone toiled endlessly camp—Demit attended a Bureau of within myself for protection, and I from late spring through early fall, Indian Affairs school in Northway. stayed there.” harvesting whitefish, pike, and And when she was around 10, her suckers from adjacent waterways and mother sent her to a boarding school Things started to turn around after drying the fish on racks, as well as in Wrangell. Demit graduated high school. A trapping and hunting. school counselor, Dorothy Johnson, “My mother couldn’t read or write, took the young girl under her wing “It was true subsistence living,” Demit and she felt that we needed to get and helped her find work. The says. “Over the course of a season, formal educations to negotiate the genuine concern and care expressed we could literally put up tons of fish, modern world,” Demit says. “But I by the counselor was transfor- and we also had meat from caribou didn’t want to leave her. They put me mational, Demit says, describing and moose, and blueberries and on a little plane at Northway kicking herself as a butterfly emerging cranberries. For storage, we’d build and screaming, and I kicked and from its chrysalis. caches or dig pits in the ground down screamed when they transferred me to permafrost, and my mother would to other planes at Fairbanks and “Dorothy made me feel worthy arrange the food between layers of Juneau. I was incredibly homesick— again,” Demit says, “and when I willows.” traumatized, really. Even today, more returned to Northway, I got a job at than 50 years later, I sometimes get a the airport lodge, doing everything The family was poor in the sense that little twinge when I’m on a plane from waitressing to cleaning rooms. there was little available cash, Demit because that memory comes back.” And I did the best job that I could says, “but the land provided for us, possibly do. My mother taught me just as it had provided for our The following years were tough for that. There’s a saying in our
28 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 language, which essentially translates Debbie Steen, the Chief of Visitors as ‘Do the best you know how,’ no Services and Communications for the matter what it is. That ethic kept us Service in Alaska, says Demit invests alive in our family fish camp, and her position with particular meaning that’s still how I live my life today.” due to both her native heritage and her personal qualities. Demit married her husband, Glenn Demit, in 1966, and they eventually “When she welcomes people, she had four children. She became an welcomes them not only to Alaska, alcoholism counselor and maintains not only to the Tetlin National Wildlife her certification “because sometimes Refuge, but to her homeland, to the people just want to talk. Sometimes place where her ancestors lived for they need to call and check in, and I thousands of years,” Steen says. “She always want to be available to help.” loves Tetlin—the land, the habitats, the wildlife, the people—and she’s able Later, she became a special education to communicate that. She also spends aide for the Northway school district. a great deal of time just helping people out, including traveling to Fairbanks “I had that position for 10 years, and and Anchorage to visit elders and I loved every minute of it,” Demit other community members who are says. “Working with those kids was in the hospital.” one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.” Upper Tanana Athabascan culture remains the central anchor to Demit’s Demit’s life changed again in 1991, life. She still speaks, and thinks, in her when the Service posted an opening native language and is teaching it to for a park ranger at the Tetlin younger tribal members to ensure it National Wildlife Refuge. She applied remains a vital and living tongue. She for the job and got it. She later still makes moccasins and mukluks became a refuge information from traditionally tanned hides, which technician, charged with overseeing she decorates with extensive and Tetlin’s visitor center in Tok. meticulous beadwork. And she still savors the traditional foods of her “It keeps me really busy from spring childhood. through fall,” Demit says. “I work on everything from our budget to refuge “I couldn’t get along without my fish statistics, but public contact and and moose meat,” Demit says. “When outreach is a big part of the job. I eat them, I’m taken back to our Tok and Tetlin are the first places fish camp, to the place where I was most people visit after crossing the happiest as a child. Food and language Canadian border on the Alaska are the bedrocks of our culture. Highway, and I’m often the first face Without both, I’d be lost.” n they see. I take that very seriously. I want to make sure they have a good GLEN MARTIN, freelance writer, Alaska Region impression of Alaska and Alaskans.”
Inside the Tetlin National Caribou at Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. Wildlife Refuge.
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 29 The War for Wildlife
Fish and Wildlife Service ensures fish and wildlife resources for the future.
By MARK MADISON
Hawaiian Monk seal at Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. JAMES WATT/USFWS (Top) Theodore Roosevelt on Breton Island Bird Reservation in 1915. USFWS (Right) Rachel Carson at Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania. SHIRLEY BRIGGS
30 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 Shortly after the end of the Civil War, a new battle drew Americans’ As its mission grew, Merriam advocated attention, the war for wildlife. From 1800 to1871, the precipitous decline for the more encompassing name of Division of Biological Survey in 1896. As in American fisheries drove the creation of the American conservation its budget, staff, and ecological mapping continued to expand, the Division evolved movement and the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Out of the wanton into the Bureau of Biological Survey in destruction of all American wildlife—furred, feathered, and finned—arose 1905—the last name change until its absorption in 1940 with the U.S. Bureau of a popular movement and an agency to help ensure this age of exploitation Fisheries into the new U.S. Fish and would never be repeated. Wildlife Service. With Merriam at its helm from 1885 to 1910, the Bureau of Biological Survey flourished as it carried out verfishing and habitat degradation in Fisheries in 1903) hired its first important conservation studies of wildlife. Othe eastern half of the United States permanent female scientist, Louella Cable. Merriam was friends with fellow orni- had noticeably reduced many fisheries in She witnessed a revolution in fisheries thologist Theodore Roosevelt, and the aftermath of the Civil War. To remedy science during her 43-year career as an together they helped create the first bird this environmental crisis, on February 9, aquatic biologist and scientific illustrator. reservation at Pelican Island, Florida in 1871, Congress created an independent For 69 years, from 1871 to1940, the Fish 1903, the origin point of the National U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries Commission and its successors built upon Wildlife Refuge System. While fish to investigate the decline in fish stocks their pillars of science, restoration, and culturists had mastered raising fish in and suggest possible remedies. This national conservation initiatives to help hatcheries, birds and mammals required modest mandate was embraced and restore fish populations and fulfill the new forms of management. Theodore expanded by renowned naturalist and early promise of the conservation Roosevelt established 51 bird reservations Assistant Secretary to the Smithsonian, movement. and 4 game ranges between 1903 and 1909, Spencer Fullerton Baird. As the first Fish a bold new experiment to conserve birds Commissioner, Baird set out to build a Congress established a parallel agency and mammals by protecting their habitat. continental conservation movement based in 1885 to protect terrestrial wildlife. The Biological Survey combined this early on science and fish stocking. Soon the Its origins were similarly humble, when habitat protection with the first federal Fish Commission established hatcheries the U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife protection. The 1900 Lacey Act across the nation tasked with stocking (USDA) established a Section of Economic and the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act lakes, rivers, and streams from Alaska Ornithology. The section’s modest both attempted to prevent the wanton to DC. Between 1872 and 1940, the Fish mandate was to study both the “useful” destruction of birds and other wildlife Commission distributed more than 200 birds (those that ate insects) and working in conjunction with the nascent billion fish and other aquatic species, “injurious” birds (those that ate crops) in refuge system in a two-pronged approach largely by specially designed Fisheries the rather narrow ecological outlook of to wildlife conservation. Rail Cars traveling 2,029,416 miles. farmers of the day. Like the early Fish After leaving the tracks, the fish traveled Commission, this little office had a gifted The Biological Survey’s early conservation an additional 8,104,799 miles by fish leader to expand its mission, naturalist C. measures were modestly successful, until culturists called “messengers.” This was Hart Merriam, one of the premier a combined economic and ecological truly the first continental-wide wildlife ornithologists and mammologists of the disaster in the 1930s drove innovations restoration effort. era. In 1886, Merriam expanded his one and a new agency. The drastic decline in office and one clerk into the Division of waterfowl numbers during the 1930s Dust Baird, a renowned naturalist, supported Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy Bowl led to a reorganization of the entire a strong scientific underpinning for the with a broader mandate to “educate” Biological Survey. President Franklin Fish Commission. The U.S. Fish Commis- farmers about all wildlife and conduct Roosevelt brought in Jay N. “Ding” sion established the marine biological studies on the geographic distribution Darling, an editorial cartoonist and avid laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, of plants and animals (which a later sportsman, as Chief to revive the Bureau in 1882, and it commissioned a small fleet generation would dub “ecology”). As befit in 1934. A waterfowl hunter, Darling of research vessels from 1880 to1926, this expanded mission, Merriam and his quickly enlisted his fellow hunters to including the U.S.F.C Fish Hawk, talented naturalists began to distribute support conservation through the Albatross, and Grampus. Baird, during continental studies of wildlife from Canada institution of a Duck Stamp; he drew the his tenure from 1871 to1887, had a scout’s to Central America in what he called first stamp that year. As these hunters eye for the best scientific talent. This “Life-Zone Maps,” which we would spent their buck (the original cost of the tradition persisted when in 1927, the recognize today as large-scale ecosystems. stamp) for ducks, it created a growing agency (renamed the U.S. Bureau of conservation constituency for the ››
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 31 Ira Gabrielson was the first Director of the In 1945 the Service created a small Office newly created U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. of River Basin Studies, which would become the origin point for ecological services within the agency. River Basin Studies biologists began to take a more comprehensive look at major public eradication than for conservation. works projects impacting fish and wildlife In that year, Secretary of the resources, working hard to find ecological Interior Harold Ickes persuaded solutions with the Army Corps of President Franklin Roosevelt Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and and Congress to move both the Soil Conservation Service. The office’s Bureau of Biological Survey unofficial motto in those early years was and the U.S. Bureau of “save the dirt!” Innovative ideas emerging Fisheries into the Department from this ecological think tank included of the Interior in an effort to the first National Wetlands Inventory create, what he hoped would (1952 to 1954) and the National Survey be, a new “Department of Hunting and Fishing Activity (1955) of Conservation.” That to take stock of wildlife habitat and those department never arose, who enjoyed it. but something nearly as important came out of this From 1940 to 1970, all fish and wildlife reorganization as the two bureaus resources were under the stewardship
USFWS were combined to form a new agency on of one agency, the Service. However, on June 30, 1940 — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife October 3, 1970, President Nixon removed Service. marine fisheries from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the newly created Continued from previous page The first Director of the newly minted National Marine Fisheries Service in the Service, Ira Gabrielson, noted in his 1943 Department of Commerce. The timing expanding refuge system. The 1937 Annual Report and in the midst of World was inopportune as this was shortly before Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife War II, that when the soldiers returned the passage of the Marine Mammal Restoration Act further strengthened this home, millions of Americans would be Protection Act (1972) and the Endangered sportsman-conservationist partnership. eager for the relaxation afforded by Species Act (1973), effectively dividing The P-R Act placed a small federal excise hunting and fishing opportunities. In the authorities for protecting wildlife tax on firearms and ammunition to greatly preparation for this influx of new and resources between two agencies, as it expand state wildlife work for both game returning sportsmen (many much better had been before 1940. species and endangered and threatened shots after military service), wildlife species. refuges expanded their access to hunters Other changes were occurring in this era. and anglers in the decades following the The Bureau of Fisheries hired Rachel At the federal level, Darling helped end of the war. Carson in 1935 and she rose to become created a series of migratory bird refuges chief editor for the Service. In that along corridors called “flyways” and, The Dingell-Johnson Federal Aid in prominent role, Carson first began to in so doing, created the first systematic Sport Fish Restoration Act (1950) placed describe the dangers of DDT and other expansion of the refuge system since a small excise tax on boating and sport toxins to fish and wildlife resources. The Theodore Roosevelt. The nation’s most fishing equipment, so the Service could research culminated in her best-selling successful youth-in-nature experiment, provide financial assistance for state fish book Silent Spring (1962), in which she the Civilian Conservation Corps, worked restoration, recreation, and management laid the framework for the modern on 44 wildlife refuges during the 1930s endeavors. Since their enactment, the environmental movement. and in that decade the number of refuges Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson expanded from 51 to 170. acts have provided nearly $21 billion Part of Carson’s legacy was an increasing dollars in financial assistance for wildlife emphasis on threatened and endangered By 1939, the Biological Survey was the restoration, hunter safety and education, species, clean water, and habitat premiere wildlife agency in the world and and sport fish restoration in states and restoration in the late 1960s and early no longer a particularly good fit for the territories under the auspices of the 1970s. In 1972, the Service renamed River USDA, which wanted more funds for Service’s Wildlife and Sport Fish Basin Studies to the Division of Ecological Restoration Program. Services to better reflect a recently ››
32 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 Wildlife Inspector with seized property. JOHN AND KAREN HOLLINGSWORTH
Continued from previous page Service into an agency that managed tribes, and individuals to conserve habitat wildlife without borders in the most for the fish, birds, other wildlife, and enlarged portfolio of protection, including ecologically sensitive manner possible. people. increasingly sophisticated analysis Ironically, some of these efforts involved of water pollution, coastal habitat removing non-native fish species, The origins of the Service and the destruction, and environmental impacts unwittingly stocked a century earlier American conservation movement of habitat loss. The addition of the by the U.S. Fish Commission and its began 150 years ago with one Fish Endangered Species Program to successors, to revive native fishes. Commissioner and a report outlining the Ecological Services in 1983 greatly causes of fisheries decline and a blueprint expanded its role to protect and restore As the agency entered its second century for recovery. Today 8,000 professional threatened and endangered wildlife. of wildlife work, its capacity grew to conservationists in the agency manage meet new challenges. The Service’s the world’s largest fish and wildlife In 1969, the Service created the first law enforcement role extended back conservation program. From one hatchery national wildlife refuge for an endangered to the 1900 Lacey Act providing critical in 1872, the Service now manages 70 species, the bald eagle, at Mason Neck, protection to America’s wildlife both on national fish hatcheries, 7 fish technology Virginia. Shortly thereafter, a number and off refuge lands. A new Division of centers, and 9 fish health centers across of endangered species refuges were Law Enforcement was created in 1972 the nation to improve, conserve, restore established across the country for condors, with the addition of special agents in and enhance fish and other aquatic eagles, and even endangered fish such 1973 and wildlife inspectors in 1975 at resources. From 1 4-acre Pelican rookery as the narrowly endemic desert fishes the forefront of combatting domestic in Florida, the agency now manages 567 protected at Ash Meadows National and international wildlife trafficking. refuges and 38 wetland management Wildlife Refuge in Nevada and San districts on more than 150 million acres Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge Migratory bird conservation took on an across the country. From the inaugural in Arizona. early federal role with the Migratory Bird Alaska’s Afognak Islands Forest and Fish Treaty of 1916, signed between the United Culture Reserve to protect sockeye Just as the Fish Commission had worked States and Canada. Building on the earlier salmon in 1892, this modern descendent of with global partners since the 1880s, flyways concept, the Service gradually the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries so, too, the Service expanded its role in worked toward a more comprehensive manages aquatic resources on more than international wildlife conservation when hemispheric conservation of migratory 685 million acres within 5 Pacific and it signed onto the 1975 Convention on birds that included a North American Atlantic marine national monuments. International Trade in Endangered Waterfowl Management Plan (est. 1985) Although the Service’s employees, habitat, Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. This and Partners in Flight (est. 1990), a public- and mission have grown and evolved over expanded conservation work beyond private partnership to conserve all land the last century and a half, its ultimate our own borders by joining 183 other birds in the Western Hemisphere. A goal has remained to ensure our rich signatories to help with international growing realization that birds do not American fish and wildlife resources are conservation of threatened species such recognize political borders and the Service enjoyed by future generations. n as tigers, great apes, rhinos, and couldn’t conserve all avians alone, led to elephants. Changes in the environmental the creation of the first joint venture. MARK MADISON, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sciences, and a growing environmental Beginning in 1987, over 5,700 joint venture Historian, National Conservation Training Center political movement, transformed the projects brought together regional partnerships of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, corporations,
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 33 curator’s corner
Buttons Ride the Rails Planning Doc, Art, or Both? Two buttons reside in the Fish and Aquatic The Service develops and implements a Conservation Archives at variety of planning documents to help guide D.C. Booth Historic National us in the effective management of the Fish Hatchery in Spearfish, wildlife, lands, facilities, and resources that South Dakota. “USFC” we administer for the public. Servicewide This is a series of notes stands for U.S. Fisheries planning initiatives date back to our about curiosities of Commission, or the U.S. predecessor agencies, and a number of the Service’s history Commission of Fish and historic planning documents are among the from both the U.S. Fish Fisheries, the predecessor holdings of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service of today’s Service. They & Wildlife Service Museum and Archives at the National are from uniforms worn by the fish car employees who Museum and Archives Conservation Training Center. Of course, transported live shipments of fish across the country via as well as the Service’s planning documents from 87 years ago look specially designed rail cars from the 1880s to 1947. We had 10 a bit different from those from today. For National Fish and fish cars over the years. Every fish car had a staff of five: a Aquatic Conservation example, the 1934 plan for North Dakota’s caption, a cook and three “messengers” to care for the fish. Upper Souris Migratory Waterfowl Project, Archives. We feature A 1923 report indicated that over the previous 20 years 72 which became Upper Souris National Wildlife submissions from Steve billion fish were distributed by fish cars that had traveled over Refuge, isn’t merely a plan — it’s a work of art. Floray, curator of the 2 million miles. The buttons are from between the 1880s and Of course when the Director of the Service is U.S. Fish & Wildlife 1903. The USFC was renamed the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries in an accomplished artist willing to help — Service Museum and 1903. (APRIL GREGORY) J.N. “Ding” Darling—what would you expect? Archives, and April (STEVE FLORAY) Gregory, curator of the National Fish and Aquatic Conservation Archives. Fish Hatchery Worth a Postcard
A quick glance at this postcard and most would not think it is an image of a fish hatchery. But small print across the top reads, “United States Fish Hatchery, Cape Vincent, N.Y.” A fish hatchery building of such size and stature, four stories of brick and mortar, is not what hatchery buildings look like today. Many of the early federal fish hatchery buildings were architectural works of art. The original blueprints for the Cape Vincent hatchery building are also housed at the National Fish and Aquatic Conservation Archives. The Cape Vincent federal fish hatchery was established in 1894 and the postcard is circa 1915. The hatchery raised trout, salmon, sturgeon, walleye, and whitefish. The hatchery was transferred to the state of New York in 1965 and is still in use for fisheries work. (APRIL GREGORY)
The First Refuge Manager’s Badge
President Theodore Roosevelt signed an Executive Order on March 14, 1903 to establish Florida’s Pelican Island as the nation’s first federal “…preserve and breeding ground for native birds.” Paul Kroegel, who lived on the mainland in view of Pelican Island, had served as the “unofficial protector” of the island’s birds for many years. Carrying his double-barreled shotgun, Kroegel worked hard to persuade market hunters to steer clear of the island. After Pelican Island became our first wildlife refuge, Kroegel was hired as our first refuge manager, then referred to as warden. In 2009, Kroegel’s granddaughter donated his badge, shotgun, revolver, pipe, and the refuge sign he placed on the island to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Museum and Archives. The next time that you’re at NCTC, check out Kroegel’s Pelican Island sign in our new museum exhibits. (STEVE FLORAY)
34 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 field journal
Conserving While Black Breaking Down Barriers in the Conservation
Community | BY DANA BIVENS
Working in the conservation industry is amazing and fulfilling. Here I am conducting field work at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, Florida.
Enjoying Yellowstone National Park. TRISHA PHY KAREN JANKOWSKI
In my industry, I am more than a 1% of visitors to national parks, national way to make someone feel unwelcome in minority… I am a rarity. forests, or national wildlife refuges while a new setting than feeling as though you nearly 95% of visitors were white. From don’t look the part. my own personal observations, the vast rofessionals as well as participants majority of my agency coworkers are We saw the power of prejudice when the Pin the conservation and recreation white and I am very aware that I look #BirdingWhileBlack movement grew community overwhelmingly identify as different from my peers. In reviewing this after Christian Cooper, a Black man who white. As an African American with mixed data, I can’t help but wonder why this is also happened to be a birder, was accosted ancestry, I stand out in a crowd. This the case. by a White woman who used his race as a has always been a part of my life, and it weapon to intimidate him into submission. is a fact that I passively accepted. Over Why are Black people underrepresented While her efforts failed, the encounter the past year however, as the national as conservation professionals and highlighted how the image of Black people discourse on racial equality reached a participants compared to the national in the outdoors can often make people fever pitch, I began to reflect on my distribution? This is undoubtedly an uncomfortable, and this fear and own sphere and the homogeneity in my extremely complex issue, but one reason discomfort can lead to acts of violence industry in order to help change the status lies in the optics of what it means to be a or intimidation. quo and open conservation and recreation conservation professional or an outdoor to all groups. enthusiast. Culturally, we as a society While speaking to a family member associate environmentalism with recently, I asked him why he never goes According to the 2019 US Census whiteness and privilege, and those who hiking or camping and why his family Estimate, African Americans comprise participate who do not fit this mold never took him when he was a kid. His 13.4% of the national population. Despite become a novelty that stands out. I can tell response was swift and decisive: “we this, African Americans only represented you from experience that there is no faster didn’t feel welcome or safe outside of ››
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 35 field journal
Continued from previous page running, and spending time in the country vocalize their experiences and this bravery is among my favorite pastimes. I can has helped me to realize that it is my our neighborhood.” My family members remember many instances when I have responsibility to challenge stereotypes did not feel wanted in rural settings or in been out jogging on rural roads or visiting no matter the venue and no matter the outdoor spaces because they were seen farms and people will walk outside and situation. I encourage all members of the as outsiders, and this lack of safety stare at me suspiciously as I pass. Other minority community as well as supporters and inclusion was a major barrier to times I have had drivers yell racial slurs at from the majority to do the same. There participation. My family members sensed me while speeding by. I started carrying can be no change in silence. Inaction is the same animosity when they left their pepper spray for personal protection silence. urban community, and so over time our because my skin color made me a target. family traditions evolved to exclude those To all who have felt unwelcome or who have questioned whether or not this world was for them, it is for all of us. Recreate, Hiking near Kohala National Forest and reinvent what it means to “look the Reserve, Hawaii. part” in conservation by participating and breaking down the cultural barriers ahead of you. Let’s work together to change these images for kids and future generations who may never have thought this world was open to them. If you dream of being a wildlife biologist or if you want to explore public lands in your area, there are resources out there to connect you and your community with the outdoors.
Here are a few:
n USFWS Jobs and Internships
n USFWS Urban Wildlife Conservation Program
n Find a national wildlife refuge near you DAVID JANKOWSKI DAVID
To all who have felt unwelcome or who have questioned n National Recreation Resources whether or not this world was for them, it is for all of us. If you need help identifying opportunities or if you want to share your conservation and recreation stories, email me at
36 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 our people
Northwest Regional Director. North Atlantic- and mentors who have helped transitions “The Service, our trust resources, Appalachian Region me grow and supported me to be and partners will benefit from my best at work and at home. It’s Chris’s proven leadership skills important to me to pay it forward, Columbia-Pacific and cooperative approach to Kyla Hastie and to do all I can to support our Northwest Region conservation.” has been workforce.” selected as Chris will lead a staff of approxi- the Deputy Inspired by her mother, a history Long-serving mately 48 employees in Boise, Regional and government public school natural Coeur d’Alene, and Chubbuck, Director for teacher, Kyla says she always resource Idaho. These offices manage the Service’s knew she wanted to be a public professional complex natural resource issues North servant. She developed a love of Chris throughout Idaho, requiring Atlantic- the outdoors growing up fishing Swanson has broad collaboration on landscape Appalachian Region. Kyla, a and camping with her family, and been named scales with a variety of partners. 22-year veteran of the Service, studied ecology at Southwestern state super- The office’s core responsibilities served as acting Deputy Regional University in Georgetown, Texas. visor for the include species conservation Director since October 2019. She completed her education at Service’s Idaho Fish and Wildlife and recovery, private lands and Indiana University’s School of Office (IFWO). conservation partnerships, listing “Kyla has shown her talents Public and Environmental Affairs, and classification of endangered and leadership in many areas, earning master’s degrees in Chris is the office’s deputy state species, federal agency assis- but I especially appreciate her environmental science and public supervisor and has been acting tance and consultation, and the leadership and dedication toward administration and combining her state supervisor since August assessment of contaminants on helping us work to create a interest in science with public 2019. He brings strong leadership natural resources. diverse and engaged workplace,” service. to the office through his emphasis says Regional Director Wendi on people and collaborative “Chris’s experience in partnering Weber. “She is passionate about Kyla says she is proud to work partnerships in the delivery of the and collaboration are traits that our employees and the conser- with such smart and passionate Service’s conservation mission. really stand out for him and will vation we achieve, and I know fish and wildlife professionals, as Chris has an established track be a valuable skill in leadership of she will work for all of us to well as support staff who oversee record of successful conser- the IFWO,” says Thorson. support our priorities and improve contracts, human resources, IT, vation and science leadership. He our workplace culture.” administration, communications, acquired this experience working He received a B.S., M.S., and and all of the other functions that in diverse habitat regions from Ph.D. from South Dakota State Kyla served as Assistant Regional makes conservation possible. the southeastern United States University. His Ph.D. dissertation Director for External Affairs from to the Prairie Potholes and the focused on sage-grouse ecology 2008 to 2019. She was responsible “Their work is so important, and Pacific Northwest, including five in the eastern edge of their range. for media relations, congressional I am inspired by the resilience, field stations and two Regional Chris and his family live in Boise, and tribal relations, stakeholder resourcefulness and perse- Offices. Chris has demonstrated Idaho. He enjoys spending time outreach, and communications. verance of our teams,” she says. exceptional leadership qualities outdoors and at a diversity of Before moving to the Northeast, “It’s exciting to be part of building in building teams and managing youth sports activities with his she worked for a decade in a conservation legacy together.” staff to achieve desired conser- wife and their three children. n various public affairs, communi- vation outcomes and has helped cations, and outreach positions in She and her husband, Keith, have develop the strong partner- the Southeast. She is a graduate two daughters and live in western ships essential to achieving the of the Service’s Stepping Up Massachusetts. n Service’s mission. To Leadership Program and of the Advanced Leadership “Home to numerous iconic Development Program. species and habitat types, Idaho has many important conservation “I feel fortunate to work for opportunities for the Columbia- an agency with such a noble Pacific Northwest Region,” says mission, and one that has given Robyn Thorson, Columbia-Pacific me so much,” Kyla says. “I have learned from many great leaders
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 37 our people
Headquarters Missouri Basin and Upper Chad is widely recognized by his honors Colorado Basin Regions peers, private landowners, and conservation partners in North After a Dakota as one of the leading six-month Headquarters Recently, the experts in designing and imple- detail as North Dakota menting habitat restoration, the Service’s Chapter of the enhancement, and creation acting Public Edward Wildlife projects on private lands. Chad Affairs Chief Stoker, a Society is dedicated to improving and in partners and awarded increasing wildlife habitat on Headquarters intergovern- Chad Maier private lands in North Dakota External mental affairs the presti- and works closely with private Affairs, Karen Armstrong has specialist in gious North landowners as well as internal been named the permanent Chief. External Dakota Habitat Award at their and external conservation Affairs, was annual meeting. partners to turn conservation Karen came from the U.S. recognized plans into realities. Geological Survey (USGS), with a Special Thanks for The award recognized Chad for where she worked for 33 years. Achieving Results, or STAR, his tremendous contributions to Chad exemplifies the corner- She started her career at USGS Award for his exceptional energy, grassland and wetland conser- stones of the region’s Partners in public affairs in 1987, but enthusiasm, and work in outreach vation on private lands across for Fish and Wildlife program she served in many roles over to new audiences. Eddie has North Dakota throughout his (Trust, Respect, Honesty, the years, all in communica- been an ambassador for the career. Flexibility, Friendship, and tions. Most recently she held Service in proactively seeking Two-way Communication), and the position of external commu- and developing relationships to Chad has spent his entire life his dedication to conservation is nications and web/social media help ensure that the Service in North Dakota and began his helping improve wildlife popula- officer. She also led the USGS remains relevant as our nation career working as a seasonal tions in North Dakota and helping web team, helping to migrate becomes increasingly more Service biotechnician at the Service achieve our mission. their website to a Drupal content urban and diverse. Eddie has also several refuges and wetland n management system platform, a tirelessly advocated for diversity management districts across project the Service is currently and inclusion in the Service’s North Dakota before being hired working on. outreach, recruitment, and hiring as a private lands biologist with of qualified staff as well as in the the Service’s North Dakota She replaces Gavin Shire, who delivery of products and services Partners for Fish and Wildlife moved to USGS as the Associate across the Service’s programs Program in 1998. Since then, Director of Communications and and regions. n Chad has been responsible for Publishing. Gavin was with the the restoration, enhancement, Service for eight years. n and creation of nearly 1,500 wetlands covering over 7,000 acres of wetland habitat. He has also restored more than 7,200 acres of grassland habitat and implemented livestock grazing systems on over 75,000 acres.
38 / Fish & Wildlife News Spring 2021 our people
In 2015, Cay received the Headquarters Jim’s experience in national and in memoriam Service’s Recovery Champions international program coordi- Award for her leadership in nation made him the “go to” promoting recovery planning as James (Jim) person for advice and assistance California-Great Basin the foundation for successful F. Voelzer, by colleagues in other resource Region conservation. Her involvement 80, of Brush agencies and organizations in the development of the Prairie, throughout the continent. He 1998 Recovery Plan for Upland Washington, was well-respected and thought With a career Species of the San Joaquin died January of among his colleagues and spanning Valley, California, was considered 3, 2021, of peers, and possessed a unique more than 30 to be ahead of its time as a complications capability to navigate difficult years at the multi-species, ecosystem-based related to planning and logistical challenges Service, Cay recovery strategy focused on the dermatocitosis. He was a native associated with his position. Goude will be protection of keystone species. of the Cayuga Lake area of During his career, he was respon- remembered upstate New York. Jim earned a sible for the successful conduct by the “Cay was a passionate biologist degree in wildlife management of some of the largest wildlife conservation and leader who accomplished at Utah State University followed surveys in the world, including legacy she leaves behind in untold victories for the protection by three years in the Army, the annual North American northern California. of listed species and precious including service in Vietnam as a Waterfowl Breeding Population landscapes. She connected first lieutenant, flying low-level and Habitat Survey, and the Starting as a wildlife biologist in many people at the right time for reconnaissance missions over Western Canada Cooperative the Service’s Sacramento Fish important causes,” say Valary enemy positions. Waterfowl Banding Program. He and Wildlife Office in 1984 and Bloom, biologist in the Bay-Delta oversaw many improvements rising to the office’s assistant office. Joining the Division of to these operations and others field supervisor, Cay championed Management and Enforcement that helped ensure their status the development of regional Cay was deeply committed to (now the Division of Migratory as some of the most reliable and habitat conservation plans and using her leadership role to lift Bird Management) in 1969, Jim longstanding wildlife monitoring the recovery of species. She other women in the agency and was a pilot-biologist (flyway programs ever developed. Jim’s was the driving force behind make space for their voices to biologist) assigned to conduct extraordinary ability to manage a nearly every regional HCP in the be heard. She gave each of her migratory bird surveys in portions diverse group of pilot-biologists Sacramento office jurisdiction, staff a marquee project to work of the United States, Canada, and and his overall responsibility including the East Contra Costa on under her direct guidance. Mexico as well as duck banding for the maintenance and safe County and Santa Clara Valley By providing these opportunities, in portions of western Canada. operation of more than a dozen Habitat Conservation Plans, her staff gained experience and He was stationed in Washington, complex airplanes will remain which protect thousands of acres confidence and honed essential DC, New Mexico, Missouri, and a hallmark of his professional of important habitat in highly negotiation and technical skills. Oregon during his 37 years with career with the Service. These urbanized areas. She also worked the Service, retiring in 2006. Jim accomplishments and others are alongside partner groups to “Cay held up her staff at every served 24 years as Chief of what an extraordinary testament to his conserve land for Don Edwards opportunity, always making time is now the Branch of Migratory long career in the Service and a San Francisco Bay National to call out their accomplishments Bird Surveys and several years reflection of his many contribu- Wildlife Refuge. and express appreciation,” says prior as acting Chief. He super- tions on behalf of our shared, Bloom. vised the Flyway Biologist group international migratory bird “She was able to bring together and advised Migratory Bird resource. n disparate entities and work Cay retired from the Service in Management headquarters staff toward finding common ground 2015. She passed away in early on status and needs for migratory without losing sight of conser- January after a courageous bird survey and banding activ- vation,” say Kim Squires, division battle with cancer. n ities. manager of the Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office.
Spring 2021 Fish & Wildlife News / 39 STANDARD PRESORT Division of Marketing POSTAGE AND FEES Communications PAID U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service INTERIOR 5275 Leesburg Pike PERMIT G-77 Falls Church, VA 22041-3803
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Who wouldn’t love a face like this? But the first trick is to spot them! Sculpins are international masters of disguise. Found throughout the world in a variety of habitats (rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans), these bottom-dwelling fish have the perfect camouflage to both avoid predators and ambush prey. This prickly sculpin is one of about 300 species of sculpin and was photographed by fish biologist Roger Tabor of the Service’s Western Washington Fish & Wildlife Conservation Office. ROGER TABOR/USFWS
Fish & Wildlife News Submit articles and photographs to: Submission deadline: Editor: Matthew Trott U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Summer 2021: by May 30 Assistant Editor: Jennifer Deschanel EA-Division of Marketing Communications Art director: Jane Pellicciotto, Allegro Design MS: EA 5275 Leesburg Pike Falls Church, VA 22041-3803 703/358-2512 Fax: 703/358 1930 E-mail: [email protected]