Refuge Update July/August 2010 Vol 7, No 4
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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service July/August 2010 | Vol 7, No 4 RefugeUpdate National Wildlife Refuge System www.fws.gov/refuges U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff help release two rehabilitated brown pelicans – transported from Louisiana – into the wild near Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas in late June. See related stories on Pages 2, 20 and 22. (USFWS) LCCs and I&M: Parallel Missions Oil Spill Presents By Karen Leggett An Extraordinary Challenge andscape Conservation By Bill O’Brian Cooperatives – self-directed Lpartnerships that link science he Deepwater Horizon oil spill response is uncharted territory for all involved, and conservation delivery – have including the three dozen national wildlife refuges potentially in harm’s way. moved from concepts to functioning entities since they were first proposed T This spill is clearly in a league of its own – and not just because of the sheer more than a year ago. Many have volume of oil. formed steering committees, named First, “even the term ‘spill’ is not quite right. This isn’t a spill; it’s an uncontrolled coordinators and identified priority release of oil,” says Jewell Bennett, a biologist based at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife species and habitats. Already, projects Service office in Fairbanks, AK, who served as operations coordinator of the Unified are being launched that will inform Command wildlife rescue and recovery effort in Louisiana in late May and early June. conservation actions on the ground. Second, unlike cold-water spills with which the public is familiar – such as the 1989 Nine LCCs are being established in Exxon Valdez spill – this is a warm-water spill. 2010; several have projects already underway. As of May, the Plains and Third, unlike other spills that typically occur as one-time events in relatively shallow Prairie Potholes LCC is supporting water close to land and immediately overwhelm wildlife and habitat, this incident has three activities: examining the effects been emanating from a source more than 50 miles offshore in extremely deep, current- of climate change on grassland filled water. It took about a month for the first oil to come ashore in Louisiana, and it is and wetland bird distribution moving unpredictably in various locations along the Gulf Coast. and abundance; producing digital All of which makes rescuing wildlife and protecting habitat an extraordinary maps of wetlands throughout the challenge. continued on pg 22 continued on pg 23 Chief’s Corner Saving Our Conservation Heritage RefugeUpdate On June 16 – But no matter what happens, you will Ken Salazar Address editorial Day 58 after the see Service people working tirelessly to Secretary inquiries to: Deepwater Horizon recover the wildlife and protect the lands Department of the Refuge Update oil rig exploded in and waters that constitute a rich and Interior USFWS-NWRS the Gulf of Mexico – rewarding way of life. That’s just what 4401 North Fairfax Dr., Rowan Gould more than 475 U.S. Service people do on behalf of a nation Room 634C Acting Director, U.S. Arlington, VA Fish and Wildlife we love. We know how important natural Fish and Wildlife 22203-1610 Service people resources are to the very foundation of Service Phone: 703-358-1858 are working in our lives and our livelihoods. Now, that Fax: 703-358-2517 Greg Siekaniec Greg Siekaniec E-mail: Louisiana and other message is being televised around the Assistant Director – [email protected] Gulf Coast states world as we witness the damaging effects National Wildlife to protect and understand the fragile of discharged oil on the nation’s beaches, Refuge System This newsletter is published on recycled marshland, habitat and wildlife. marshes, bird and marine life, and the Martha Nudel paper using soy-based very communities we call home. Editor in Chief Some are serving as public information ink. officers, diligently getting out the facts. We don’t stand alone in our dismay and Bill O’Brian Managing Editor Others are wildlife biologists, contaminant trepidation. Millions of Americans are C experts, fire management experts, glued to TV, the Internet – whatever administrative officers, cartographers their favorite medium is – to see what will and a host of other specialists. All are happen to oiled birds, fish, endangered working 14 days straight, often from 7 in sea turtles and the hundreds of species the morning to 9 at night, for one simple that are our mission. People care – reason: We are dedicated to and believe in tremendously. the mission of conservation. Listen to one woman who worked Inside In early June, I met many Service for just a year in the Refuge System employees in the various incident headquarters as a writer before moving Saving a Butterfly command centers established to respond home to Tuscaloosa, AL. Here’s what she In Oregon, habitat restoration efforts and assess damage in the Gulf. Their wrote to me: are paying off for the endangered passion was evident. Whether advising in Fender’s blue butterfly. Page 5 a command center, staffing a skiff patrol “I’ve found myself actually weeping over the last five weeks. Every summer, my sector, managing evidence collection, “Green” Meeting in Alaska handling oiled wildlife or walking family rented a quite simple cottage To offset the carbon footprint of its beaches as pre-assessment surveys, on the Alabama/Florida line: Twenty project leaders conference, the Alaska their dedication was unmistakable. miles along the Alabama/Florida line Region is donating 2,500 trees to Red Almost to a person, personnel from of unsullied beach! When I was 11, I River National Wildlife Refuge, LA. other agencies, departments and BP could walk out the door and down miles Page 6 commented on how professional, skilled of gorgeous beach – white sand, clear and knowledgeable Service employees aquamarine water, dunes and sea oats. are, and how they look forward to That was years ago, and now expensive Counting Solution Holes for Key Deer McMansions are built on what was once working with the Service under less National Key Deer Refuge, FL, is cheap-per-acre coast. But even today, the trying circumstances in the future. taking stock of its freshwater solution sand was still white; the water still clear; holes to make sure they can support its News from the Deepwater Horizon oil it still smelled wonderfully of saltwater; namesake deer. Page 7 discharge changes almost hourly, so keep and the pelicans still dived . until now. I apprised by visiting our Web site, http:// can’t begin to tell you how sad I am, how www.fws.gov/home/dhoilspill/index.html. angry, and how so distressed.” FOCUS: The final outcome for wildlife and the Tomorrow’s Conservation Leaders � residents of the Gulf area is nowhere in The Fish and Wildlife Service feels the Inside and outside the National sight. As Acting Service Director Rowan same pain. That’s why our people work Wildlife Refuge System, people and Gould told one pair of reporters, “This 14-hour days in hopes of maintaining our programs are working to cultivate will affect fish and wildlife resources in nation’s conservation heritage. There are the next generation of conservation the Gulf, and maybe across the continent, no words that express the gratitude we leaders in America. Pages 8 to 15 for years to come, if not decades.” owe all Service employees for stepping up in this difficult time. We look to the future for better days. 2 • Refuge Update Putting the “Wet” Back Into Wetlands � By Mary Tillotson manager Mike Tansy. During culpted over time by glacial melt, two field seasons, wind and fire from the sandy heavy equipment Sbottom of a dry lake bed in what pushed the earth is now Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, piled up along the Strangmoor Bog National Natural Walsh Ditch back Landmark is the largest patterned fen in into place at 16 the Lower 48 states. points, creating Strangmoor’s 9,600 acres lie within “ditch plugs.” the 25,150-acre wilderness of Seney “Some of the plugs National Wildlife Refuge. The patterns are 60 feet wide, at Strangmoor, striations of wet and dry 20 feet high” says land, “took thousands of years to create,” Corace, “which says Mark Vaniman, Seney Refuge gives you an idea manager. “Man’s only been tinkering of the dimensions [with the ecosystem] the last century of this ‘ditch.’ ” After an eight-year restoration project at Seney National Wildlife Refuge, or so. We’re trying to return it to what MI, areas adjacent to Strangmoor Bog are as close to their natural state as nature built.” Good Sign: they have been in more than 100 years. (Erin Cooney) Dying Trees After an eight-year restoration project at From aerial Seney Refuge, areas adjacent to the fen photos, he and are now as close to their natural state as conservation, says Corace. “There are Vaniman know some wetlands are probably more eagles and ospreys here they have been in more than 100 years. reviving. “Trees are dying, and that’s a “We’re trying to put the ‘wet’ back in now than before Europeans came to the good sign,” says Corace. Pines that had area. They’re thriving on CCC ponds.” wetlands,” says Seney Refuge forester spread opportunistically as the fen dried Greg Corace. out are now dying off, as they should. Refuge staff and graduate students From the 1880s until the early 1900s, from Michigan Technological University “We can see the habitat reverting,” says have begun studying the impact of the logging companies cleared pines from Vaniman. “Water’s going where it should the dry stretches of the refuge that restoration project. And Corace and be going, taking out trees that shouldn’t colleagues from Ohio State University once had vegetation patterns similar to be there.” Strangmoor.