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 Others are wildlife biologists, contaminant trepidation. Millions of Americans are Managing Editor 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. After the trees were gone, and Michigan Tech hope to find funding speculators dug an extensive system of What should be there are beavers, and to further assess wetlands restoration at drainage ditches hoping to sell the land they’re returning, building dams in a Seney/Strangmoor. to immigrant farmers. Excavated soil wetland environment that welcomes Such a study, says Corace, would help was piled alongside the ditches and left. them again. draw a road map of what steps toward “These aren’t the shallow ‘ditches’ I The irony, says Corace, is that wetlands wetlands restoration should come next. played in as a kid,” says Corace. restoration means humans are less able For example, what are the pros and cons to use heavy equipment to plug more of restoring some CCC-altered wetlands. They are more like contemporaneous ditches. The land’s too soggy for heavy Vaniman says that such a broad trenches dug for World War I: wide, deep machinery. Beavers and their dams – and disastrous for the wetlands. The assessment would reveal more than have become partners in the restoration whether the restoration project is Walsh Ditch was “the great-granddaddy project. of the ditches,” says Corace, “at least 15 achieving its intended goals on the miles long.” “Developers,” Corace says, “wanted refuge: “There is such a vast expanse of to simplify the environment. We’re publicly owned land on the Upper But soil in the area is sandy – poor for trying to restore the complexity of the Peninsula, we can see not only what farming. The growing season in the natural order. Beavers are part of that restoration is doing at Seney, but on the Upper Peninsula is short. Farmers didn’t complexity.” huge, contiguous blocks of land that come; the land lay fallow. In 1935, the border the refuge. This is a chance to do area reverted to federal control as a In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation work on an ecosystem scale.” wildlife refuge. Corps (CCC) expanded the wetland drains. The CCC work altered the Mary Tillotson is a frequent contributor The wetlands restoration project began “natural” landscape. But it must to Refuge Update. in 2002, directed by former refuge be viewed in the broader context of

RefugeRefuge UpdateUpdate •• 33 Four Refuge System Employees Honored �

Andrea Nancy Haugen, Jean Takekawa, VanBeusichem, park ranger refuge manager visitor services at Sherburne at Nisqually manager at National National Wildlife Montezuma Wildlife Refuge, Refuge, WA, National Wildlife MN, until her received the Refuge, NY, retirement 2010 Warren G. received the in May 2010, Magnuson Puget American received the Sound Legacy Recreation 2010 Legends Award for her Beacon Award winner Coalition’s Legends Award winner Award from Magnuson Puget tireless efforts Andrea VanBeusichem, Beacon Award Nancy Haugen, the American Sound Legacy Award to restore more Montezuma National Sherburne National winner Jean Takekawa, Wildlife Refuge, NY for creative use Wildlife Refuge, MN Recreation Nisqually National than 760 acres (USFWS) of technology. (USFWS) Coalition. Wildlife Refuge, WA of the refuge to VanBeusichem The Legends (USFWS) tidal wetlands. developed a self-guided cell phone tour Award acknowledges extraordinary The largest at Montezuma Refuge in the Finger personal efforts to enhance outdoor such restoration on the West Coast, the Lakes region of New York. Visitors call recreation programs and resources. project involved partnerships with the a local number at identified stops along Under Haugen’s leadership, the five- greater Puget Sound community and a walking/auto tour route to hear short mile-long Blue Hill Trail, traversing contributed to groundbreaking science on messages about the refuge – information the refuge’s oak savanna, woodlands, estuarine restoration monitoring. about emergent marshes, bald eagle prairie and wetlands, earned recognition recovery and the history of the Erie as a National Recreation Trail. Haugen Canal. coordinated the work of more than 840 volunteers while developing a strong partnership with the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and guiding the development of the refuge’s very active Friends group.

The 2010 Federal Land Manager, a Take Pride in America Award, is Dawn Grafe, supervisory park ranger for the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Grafe is credited with establishing a coastal volunteer program that is a model for outreach and interpretation on a large scale. Working successfully with numerous partners, Grafe added new interpretive sites, coordinated training and organized volunteers to control invasive plant species and lead environmental education field trips. Grafe has been praised for sustaining and growing a volunteer program to meet refuge needs, finding creative solutions to problems (such as seasonal housing) and using available resources and talent to combine forces and produce superior results.

Dawn Grafe, supervisory park ranger at Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex, is the 2010 Federal Land Manager. (Roberta Guarino)

4 • Refuge Update Saving a Butterfly �

By Susan Morse resulted in the isolation of butterfly have the resources to keep up with,” says populations that were once interconnected. Smith, “so we’re very excited about that.” n Oregon’s Willamette Valley, a fragile That native prairie has shrunk to less creature’s survival has hung on refuge than 1 percent of its historic distribution For their efforts, staff at the Willamette Ibiologists’ ability to woo private because of farming, development and a Valley complex and their partners won landowners to join in habitat restoration century’s suppression of fire. Left alone, a Recovery Champion award from the efforts. The effort is paying off, and now most of the undeveloped prairie land would U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The the Fender’s blue butterfly, an endangered turn to forest. awards recognize Service employees species, is enjoying its highest population and colleagues for contributions to the in more than a decade. “The biggest threat to remnant prairies recovery of threatened and endangered is the invasion of woody vegetation or species. “It’s an exciting story,” says Steve Smith, nonnative or even native plants due to lack private lands biologist for the Willamette of fire,” says Smith. “Prairie habitat is For a complete list of the Recovery Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex. replaced by forest habitat.” Champions, visit http://www.fws.gov/ “Valley-wide, Fender’s blues now number endangered/recovery/champions/index. as high as 6,000, up by more than 1,500 So refuge staff have interceded, html. from estimates in 2005, not bad for a aggressively mowing, pulling or chemically creature thought to be extinct until 1989.” treating weeds on refuge land, harvesting Susan Morse is a writer-editor trees and staging controlled burns. in the Refuge System Branch of The Willamette Valley, nestled between They’ve also persuaded 65 to 70 private Communications. the Oregon Coast Range on the west and landowners to preserve prairie remnants the Cascade Mountains on the east, is on their land in the same manner for about 150 miles long and 50 miles wide. the benefit of the It stretches from the mountains south of butterfly. Eugene to the Columbia River in Portland. Its population has grown dramatically Working in in recent decades. Roughly 2.6 million partnership with people, or 70 percent of Oregonians, live in state and university the valley. scientists, refuge biologists have It is also the only habitat for Fender’s identified areas blue butterflies. The largest population of key habitat, of Fender’s blues in the Refuge System protected core occurs at Baskett Slough National Wildlife populations of the Refuge, one of three refuges in the listed species and Willamette Valley complex. returned thousands The small blue butterfly, with a wing span of acres of habitat of one inch, lives only in native prairie, to their original home to its host plant, Kincaid’s lupine, condition. They and native wildflowers that provide the have cultivated butterfly with nectar. The life cycle of a native forbs and Fender’s blue begins in late spring or early expanded seed summer when an adult female deposits an collections to egg on the underside of a Kincaid’s lupine ensure genetic leaflet. The egg soon hatches and the larva diversity. They’ve feeds on lupine leaflets. The larva may not only doubled pass through one molt before dropping known parts of to the ground in mid-June or July, when the Fender’s it goes into hibernation for the fall and blue butterfly winter. In the following March or April, the population, they larva begins to feed on fresh lupine leaflets have discovered again. After three to four additional molts, new populations of it emerges as a butterfly in May and the species. begins the cycle again. “We actually have more cooperators Thanks to Willamette Valley National Wildlife Refuge Complex staff and However, Kincaid’s lupine is a threatened partners, the Fender’s blue butterfly is recovering in Oregon. (USFWS) species, and loss of native prairie has on projects than we

Refuge Update • 5 “Green” Meeting in Alaska = Trees on Louisiana Refuge �

By Helen Armstrong and Bruce Woods ome might have questioned the Alaska Region for holding a S project leaders’ conference in February 2010. It was a time of tight budgets, and there was a risk that the event might be perceived as an unnecessary generator of greenhouse gasses, particularly because it focused largely on climate change. Those who planned the gathering were not blind to such concerns. They were determined that the conference would be “green.” So, before the first poster was produced, planners settled on ways they could reduce the event’s environmental impact: • They provided reusable coffee mugs, and purchased bus tokens to encourage attendees to use public transportation. As a result of a carbon-offset donation from the Alaska Region to The Conversation Fund’s Go Zero program, 2,500 trees will be planted at Red River National Wildlife Refuge, LA. (USFWS) • They provided U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service vehicles for short-term needs, reducing the use of personal vehicles • Two staffers walked to and from the lands are being reforested with oak, and encouraging carpooling. event, each logging 11 miles for the cypress, green ash and other native • They held the meeting in downtown week. species. Anchorage, enabling people to walk to • Eight used public transportation, Although the Alaska Region recognizes restaurants and stores. traveling a total of 230 miles by bus. that such an offset is not a perfect • They distributed materials solution, the process was a learning Planners estimated that the gathering’s electronically to minimize handouts. � experience that will help make future footprint totaled approximately 29.8 events greener still as the Service works • They installed a central recycling bin short tons of carbon dioxide. But, in to become carbon neutral by 2020. in the hotel. � the end, Regional Director Geoffrey Haskett and his directorate team Helen Armstrong of the Alaska Region’s These efforts alone could not make for decided to compensate for more of the Office of Subsistence Management leads a green meeting. So the region decided region’s carbon footprint than simply the regional carbon-neutral task force. to further offset the impact. Organizers the conference. They also offset all of Bruce Woods is the region’s chief of first surveyed attendees to determine the electricity the region consumes in a media relations. the conference’s carbon footprint. They year, as well as all of the greenhouse gas learned that: emissions generated by regional motor • Approximately 30,000 air miles were vehicles, furnaces and boilers. All told, accumulated. the region calculated that it would cost about $24,000 to plant 2,500 trees to • About 7,300 miles were driven in cars offset everything. and about 2,000 miles in trucks to get to the conference. The region then contacted The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero program. • Two attendees rode bicycles to and Using a federal grant, the region from daily meetings. (One rode purchased 2,500 trees that will be planted 20 miles roundtrip every day. In next year at Red River National Wildlife February! In Alaska!) Refuge in Louisiana. That refuge was established in 2002, and its agricultural

6 • Refuge Update Counting Solution Holes for Key Deer �

By Phil Kloer Key deer are dependent on freshwater in a setting where freshwater can be scarce – the Florida Keys, the only place where the federally endangered deer live. At National Key Deer Refuge, freshwater collects in small ponds that form in limestone. These ponds are known as solution holes, but are they plentiful enough, and fresh enough, to support the petite deer? That question is being addressed by two Student Conservation Association interns in a project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Kristie Killam and Joshua Albritton are splitting a $50,000 contract to study the refuge’s resource holes this year.

Specifically, they are re-inventorying Key deer habitat is the focus of a Student Conservation Association project funded by the American about 270 solution holes on or near the Recovery and Reinvestment Act at National Key Deer Refuge, FL. (USFWS) refuge. They are comparing what they find with data from the last time the solution holes were sampled in the 1980s. to the University of Tennessee to pursue the solution holes: alligators, turtles, They hope to determine if the holes have graduate coursework in ecology and leopard frogs, blue wing teal, egrets changed measurably in terms of salinity, evolutionary biology. Killam’s seven years and ibises, racoons, dragonflies and biodiversity, wildlife usage and even their of experience as a wildlife biologist in damselflies. Since the project started, very existence. Florida, three years as an environmental Killam says, it has blossomed beyond consultant in Maryland and 13 years as a the Key deer into a broader look at “These holes haven’t been thoroughly public high school science teacher make endangered species (particularly marsh inventoried for more than 20 years,” her a wildlife veteran. As part of her rabbits), invasive plants (Australia pine says refuge manager Anne Morkill. “So, transition back into a natural resources and Brazilian pepper plants) and invasive Kristie and Joshua are doing a biological management career, she visits roughly wildlife (green iguanas and fire ants). assessment of as many as they can.” Last half a dozen solution holes a day. Some time, the solution holes were hand-drawn are as small as six inches in diameter; But the refuge’s namesake and the on maps. This time, the interns are using others as large as several meters wide. salinity of the solution holes remain the a Global Positioning System (GPS) device primary focuses. “Anything below 15 to mark the holes’ precise locations and By comparing salinity and biological parts per thousand is drinkable,” entering the data into a Geographic data, the study may help determine if Albritton says, referring to salinity Information System (GIS). climate change is affecting the solution measurement, “and anything above that, holes and, thus, Key deer on the the Key deer are going to avoid that “The way these holes work,” Morkill fragmented, 9,200-acre refuge, which is hole.” says, “is that the Miami oolite limestone intersected by private lands with homes on top is less porous than the coral-like and by roads. Phil Kloer is public affairs officer for the Key Largo limestone found elsewhere Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and in the Keys, so rainwater is captured in It’s too early to draw conclusions, but, Wildlife Service. pond-like formations. But because the says Killam, preliminary findings indicate elevations are low – an average of less that, “in areas that have been developed, than three feet above sea level – storm there has been quite a loss in the number surges and rising sea levels are bringing of solution holes that can be used by more saltwater into these basins.” wildlife. Some are even fenced inside people’s yards.” Visiting Personally Killam has taken the lead on the project In many ways, the study is also an for the summer while Albritton returns informal census of wildlife that frequent

Refuge Update • 7

Focus . . . Tomorrow’s Conservation Leaders � For Employees: Plenty of Pathways to Success

By Bill O’Brian BranchReference/ Leadership n his remarks to the White House Training.htm. Conference on America’s Great It will introduce I Outdoors in April, President you to: Stepping Obama made half a dozen references to Up to Leadership nurturing a sense of conservation in the (SUTL), a six- next generation. Two months earlier, month leadership Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had program directed Department of the Interior for Service bureaus to increase youth employment in employees in 2010 by 50 percent. grades GS- “Fulfilling the Promise,” the strategic 11 and GS-12; vision document that has served the the Advanced National Wildlife Refuge System since Leadership 1998, has a chapter devoted to leadership, Development and the new Vision Process, which will Program (ALDP), result in an updated vision for the Refuge for GS-13 and Washington Office. And, in 2006-07, he System, has one of its five Core Teams GS-14 employees; and the Leadership participated in the ALDP. dedicated to much the same subject. Challenge Workshop, a three-day program offered at the National He encourages employees to think big, The Refuge System Division of Budget, Conservation Training Center (NCTC). shed any natural reluctance they may Performance and Workforce has feel and enroll in the leadership courses. projected that approximately 20 percent Williams also recommends the “There’s nothing to be afraid of – it’s of System employees will retire within Department’s Senior Executive Service just training. It might be a stretch for five years and nearly 45 percent within Candidate Development Program you, but not an uncomfortable stretch.” 10 years. (SESCDP) at www.doi.gov/hrm/ The payoff, Williams says, is “you’ll be pmanager/ed6g.html for upper managers able to inspire others and, in the end, Clearly, fostering tomorrow’s and, for employees at grades GS-5 deliver more wildlife conservation on a conservation leaders is a priority at through G-9, The Wildlife Society’s larger landscape.” the top and an urgent matter for the Leadership Institute at http://joomla. Refuge System. wildlife.org/. [Related article on Page 14.] As with any journey, personal initiative is required. To take a short online course The Refuge System offers many paths One concern Williams has is that Refuge about creating an effective Individual to career advancement. Along with System employees do not take part in the Development Plan (IDP) of your own, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it SUTL and ALDP programs to the same go to http://training.fws.gov/led/idp/. provides plenty of guidance if you know degree that other Service employees do. An IDP forces you to put your career where to look. The low participation rate probably hurts thoughts in writing, Williams says, Career Pathways Report the ability of Refuge System employees “and I think there is value in that … It Larry Williams, chief of the Division of to advance into the Service Directorate, also gives you an opportunity to have Budget, Performance and Workforce, he says. a conversation about your career with says one place to start is http://www. Williams knows the advancement terrain. your supervisor.” fws.gov/Refuges/about/careerResources. As a college student in the late 1980s, he This issue of Refuge Update takes a look html. There you will find links to a series volunteered at Eufaula National Wildlife at how people and programs, inside and of Career Pathways Reports designed Refuge in Alabama. He soon secured outside the Service, are working to to point the direction for individuals a permanent GS-4 trainee position at engage young people and cultivate the interested in visitor services, realty, Eufaula and before long moved to St. next generation of conservation leaders conservation planning, refuge manager Marks Refuge in Florida to continue his in America. and senior leadership positions. training. Later he worked as an assistant You will also find a link to the Service’s or deputy manager at national wildlife Leadership and Employee Development refuges in South Carolina, California page, http://training.fws.gov/LED/ and Mississippi before coming to the

8 • Refuge Update

Kids Get to Know Creatures Through Creative Arts �

By Chantel Jimenez magine a block party – the kind of gathering where everyone is invited I to meet, mingle and get to know their neighbors. Imagine that the hosts are a 316-acre Southern California marsh and an adjacent nature center. Imagine that the invited guests are all residents of the San Diego’s South Bay area, especially the children. That will give you a notion of what the May 22 “Get to Know Your Wild Neighbors Through Art” event was like at Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, which is just south of San Diego and just north of Tijuana, Mexico. The gathering, co-sponsored by the refuge, the Chula Vista Nature Center, San Diego Gas and Electric, San Diego National Wildlife Refuge manager Jill Terp works with children at May’s “Get to Know Your and the Robert Bateman Get to Know Wild Neighbors Through Art” event. (USFWS) Program, was a kid-friendly BioBlitz- like experience in which young guests were urged to write about, draw pictures The children hit the Sweetwater Marsh The May 22 event was designed to of and simply learn about their wild trails with biologists, refuge managers, introduce the community to the Robert neighbors and the biodiversity found in park rangers and volunteers as they Bateman Get to Know Program, which their own backyard. recorded the species around them. the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Replica animal scat and tracks provided launched in Southern California in 2009 The goal of the Get to Know Program an opportunity for the kids to learn about as an art, writing and photography is to encourage children, ages 18 and the wildlife signs that scientists study. contest for young people. The 2009 younger, to abandon an increasingly A bird bingo game taught kids how to contest drew 7,000 entries from across sedentary lifestyle, get outdoors and use binoculars in the field. Plankton net the United States. To see the 2009 bond with nature through the creative drags opened young eyes when brittle contest winners and to learn how to arts. Its motto is “Connect, Create, stars, fiddler’s crab and crab larvae were participate in the 2010 contest, visit Celebrate.” found within the nets. http://www.gettoknow.ca/us/contest/. About 100 children from San Diego Sweetwater Marsh, a unit of the San who participated in the event were Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Chantel Jimenez is an environmental encouraged to walk the trails. The the east side of south San Diego Bay, was education specialist at San Diego children investigated what lives in San once home to the Kumeyaay Indians, National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Diego Bay and inventoried plant and later housed a kelp-processing facility animal species they saw. They were and most recently was a commercial given a field journal, developed by tomato farm. It was established as an the Get to Know Program, to use as urban refuge in 1988 and now supports a guide to explore the trails, draw the populations of light-footed clapper rail, animals they encountered and write California least terns, Western snowy the names of wildlife they saw at the plovers and the state-listed Belding’s Chula Vista Nature Center, a living savannah sparrow. museum that focuses on wetlands and coastal resources.

Refuge Update • 9

Focus . . . Tomorrow’s Conservation Leaders � The Young and the Refuge

By Ashley Hodges trails and remove invasive plants. ocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado has “It has the Rnot only transformed a landscape potential to that once housed a chemical munitions turn kids’ lives plant. Its robust youth employment around,” says program also is transforming the lives of Rocky Mountain young men and women. Arsenal Refuge manager Steve Native Americans first occupied the Berendzen. 16,000-acre expanse of shortgrass prairie northeast of Denver. Then In addition to came homesteaders after the Civil War. improving habitat, During World War II, the land was home the young people to a chemical-weapons manufacturing learn about facility. Eventually, Shell Chemical Co. natural resource Members of Mile High Youth Corps remove invasive Russian olive trees at leased the land and, in partnership with management. Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, CO. (USFWS) the Army and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife They visit the Service, began to clean it up. And, after refuge’s bison a pair of nesting bald eagles was found, enclosure and an on-site repository who stands out with my work ethic and Congress determined that the site would where confiscated, illegal animal items dedication.” become a national wildlife refuge, which are stored. They learn that without In cutting down Russian olive trees, it did in 2004. Since then, the land has good habitat there is little wildlife, and Solis improves wildlife habitat and gains continued to undergo extensive cleanup that controlling weeds and invasives is valuable experience. “It brought me and restoration. one step in habitat management and a whole new level of experience,” she restoration. The refuge’s youth employment says. “The 10-hour workdays pushed program, which began five years ago, Polishing Future Leaders my boundaries and helped me grow as a provides a necessary labor force on “This is a great opportunity while person.” the refuge, teaches young adults about you’re going to school,” says Seanacie Christopher Vieyra, also a second-year natural resources, gives young people an Donoho, a STEP employee who is also corps member, finds inspiration in the interesting, invigorating job and plays completing a certificate in geographic transformation of Rocky Mountain a role in training the next generation of information systems (GIS) at Arsenal. “It’s cool coming to an area conservation leaders. Metropolitan State College of Denver. where they used to make chemical bombs “You learn more when you’re out in Each year, the refuge hires youth and now they’re conserving wildlife and the real world than when you’re in a trying to restore the natural habitat,” through the federal Student Career classroom listening to lectures.” Experience Program (SCEP) and says the Northern Arizona University Student Temporary Employment Young people hired at Rocky Mountain environmental engineering student. Program (STEP). Those students do Arsenal Refuge develop leadership Ultimately, the program at Rocky everything from welcoming first-time skills. Take Veronicca Solis. The 19-year- Mountain Arsenal Refuge is about refuge visitors to banding kestrels. old Denver-area resident, a student at education, stewardship and, most the University of Portland in Oregon, In recent years, the refuge has important, leadership. “It gives young is in her second year on the refuge with people an opportunity to do work they partnered with Mile High Youth Corps, a Mile High Youth Corps. nonprofit that offers meaningful service can be proud of,” says Berendzen. “It opportunities and education to young “The hundreds of thousands of Russian helps them take ownership of the people, and with Groundwork Denver, a olive trees can be overwhelming,” says refuge.” nonprofit that focuses on at-risk youth. Solis, chuckling about the invasive trees Ashley Hodges is a student at Howard Through these partnerships, and with she has worked hard to control. “But I University in Washington, DC, funding assistance from the Denver learned that when push comes to shove, and a SCEP intern this summer at Botanic Gardens and Shell, the refuge I like to see results. A work ethic shows Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, hires crews each summer to maintain your character. I want to be someone NY.

10 • Refuge Update

“Perfect Synergy Between the College and the Refuge” �

By Bill O’Brian marsh, flooded woodlands and upland forest. “It’s a perfect teaching trail,” ichael Noonan thinks big, says Noonan. demands excellence and M understands “cool.” Each middle schooler is given binoculars. The CAC students present carefully Asked why he founded Canisius scripted lessons that seem spontaneous Ambassadors for Conservation (CAC), to the middle schoolers. But when wildlife the Canisius College biology professor happens by, the CAC students go off script replies: “I want to leave the world a better to discuss it. “My students have to be able place.” And, he says, “to inspire the next to [instantly] deliver a lecture about a fox generation of citizens to be good stewards or a cedar waxwing or a wood duck or a of wildlife.” leopard frog or whatever they find.” They Over the past five years, CAC has also must be able to find the relevant page introduced more than 7,500 schoolchildren in Peterson Field Guide to Birds within 15 seconds of seeing a bird, he says. to wetlands and wildlife at Iroquois The Canisius Ambassadors for Conservation National Wildlife Refuge, NY. program has introduced more than 7,500 middle At lunch, the collegians sit with the middle school students to wetlands at Iroquois National schoolers – chatting and being “science “It’s very important to the refuge. We’re Wildlife Refuge, NY. (Michael Noonan) now hitting 2,000 kids a year that we kids who are cool.” might not otherwise reach,” says refuge Playing Games manager Thomas Roster. “A lot of times, Roughly 30 college students apply for The day concludes with Jeopardy!- and it’s showing an inner-city kid something Pictionary-style “eco-games” in which that he or she has never seen before. eight slots annually. The winnowing process includes a live tryout in which energized middle schoolers compete It’s an opportunity that would be lost if based on questions about the trail walk. [Noonan] were not doing it.” each applicant is assigned a species and 24 hours later must give a five-minute, kid- In Pictionary, Noonan says, a task might CAC is an ambitious environmental friendly presentation about that species. be to draw detritus. “It’s a challenge – and education effort based at the college in we have 11-year-olds doing it. And the Buffalo, 30 miles from Iroquois Refuge. Then, Noonan takes the CAC students kids are screaming, ‘Detritus! Detritus!’ ” Noonan meticulously trains and uses on an all-expenses-paid conservation trip “to someplace exciting … It’s not just The program is “a perfect synergy college students as inspirational role between the college and the refuge,” says models for schoolchildren. travel. It’s educational travel. They take the equivalent of a three-credit course Noonan, a Friends of Iroquois National “For a middle school child,” says Noonan, crammed into a three-week period.” Wildlife Refuge board member. Since “a college student is really a cool thing. To This year’s trip to the Texas Gulf Coast 2006, 34 CAC students have led tours have a college student be really excited in February before the oil spill focused at Iroquois Refuge, including Sarah about wetlands, and birds and bird on whooping cranes and culminated at Lang, now a visitor services specialist at migration really does establish a coolness Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Past Sachuest Point Refuge in Rhode Island. factor for the young children.” destinations include the Arctic National What advice would Noonan give a refuge Wildlife Refuge (twice), British Columbia To excite the collegians about wetlands, that wanted to emulate CAC at Iroquois? and Florida. After returning, the CAC Noonan challenges them, mentors them Start small with a pilot project in students “practice, practice, practice” and offers them a conservation trip of a partnership with a university or an for weeks on end being ambassadors at lifetime. In return, they must work for Audubon Society chapter. “You have to Iroquois Refuge. five weeks – from the college school year’s have very effective, dedicated instructors,” end to the middle school year’s end – as Next, says Noonan, “we advertise the he says. “At the college, for me to get very wildlife ambassadors at Iroquois Refuge. program to every middle school in a four- effective, dedicated, excellent [student] instructors, I have to dangle an exciting How It Works county region” and tackle the logistics of scheduling about 25 middle school day wildlife trip in front of them.” The program is funded primarily by trips a year to Iroquois Refuge. Canisius College with help from the Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Each refuge day trip starts with a two- Refuge and the refuge. It costs about hour, wetlands-focused tour on Swallow $35,000 annually. Hollow Trail, which includes emergent

Refuge Update • 11

Focus . . . Tomorrow’s Conservation Leaders � A Q&A With Nature Photographer Dudley Edmondson

udley Edmondson, author of the Williams Jr. and other African Americans up, there is a white face attached to 2006 book, The Black & Brown who love nature and are committed it. People of color get the impression D Faces in America’s Wild Places, to conservation. Edmondson has held that it’s not for us. You see people like has been a nature photographer for 21 photography workshops at Minnesota Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold, years. Valley National Wildlife Refuge. He is and it seems like it’s always been that also a filmmaker and public speaker. way. There is the impression that the He traces his passion for the outdoors to According to his Web site (http:// outdoors and conservation are things Hoover Reservoir near his hometown of dudleyedmondson.com/), he hopes “to that white people do. And, for African Columbus, OH, where his family often encourage other African Americans to Americans, the history of race in this picnicked. As a boy, he found nature discover the beauty and solitude of the country matters. There is almost a to be a therapeutic refuge from life’s natural world.” matter of safety attached to it. Fifty tension, and he turned his bedroom into a years ago in the South, you could get conservatory of sorts, full of aquariums, Here are excerpts from a recent Refuge hung for walking along a country road in insectariums and terrariums. “I learned Update interview with him. the middle of nowhere. To this day, I am at an early age that nature calms me and cautioned by family members to be safe settles me,” he says. Q. Why do you think African Americans in particular, but ethnic minorities in remote places. In 1989, he became a nature in general, tend to not visit national Q. What tips do you have for National photographer after spending substantial wildlife refuges and other remote natural Wildlife Refuge System management time at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve on outdoor settings and generally are less and staff who want to attract Americans Lake Superior near Duluth, MN, where active in conservation? of all ethnicities to refuges and he now lives. A. I don’t really believe there is one conservation? The Black & Brown Faces in America’s particular reason for it. It’s complicated. A. I don’t know that this is anything that Wild Places is designed to present I don’t want this to be taken the wrong one particular agency could address. outdoors role models for young people way, but conservation and the outdoors It may be more of a Department of the of color. It includes portraits of a black have an image problem. Whenever Interior issue rather than the Fish and cowboy from Minnesota named Hank something along those lines comes Wildlife Service alone. There is a certain amount of information that needs to get out. There needs to be a PSA type of campaign like Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No.” I know that the Fish and Wildlife Service has done PSAs about getting kids and families outside. I think there needs to be more of that kind of thing for non-whites to explain to them all of the things that belong to them – something to let them know that there are more than 600 million acres of public land that belong to them. It has to show people that the land can be welcoming, friendly and restorative. Q. What tips do you have on how to best interest young people of color in conservation careers? A. I think going into school systems and figuring out some sort of “shock and awe” campaign that really gets the interest of young people. I have worked with the National Park Service in the Dudley Edmondson has been a nature photographer for more than two decades. (Courtesy Dudley Gary, IN, area and talked to kids in Edmondson) Michael Jackson’s old neighborhood

12 • Refuge Update

Edmondson took this photograph of sunset at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in central Kansas. It is one of his favorites. (Dudley Edmondson) there. Almost like the military recruiters, years old, and I’m 48 now. black and brown people in them. The you have to sell the children on outdoors Wilderness Society is trying really hard, and conservation. Particularly, sending Q. What is your favorite place you and it has a pretty diverse governing black interpretive rangers to schools have ever visited on a national wildlife body. And then, of course, there is the would work. I was just at Loxahatchee refuge? Fish and Wildlife Service, which has Refuge in Florida, and I know there A. I’ve been to so many, it’s hard to say. arranged for me to do public speaking are black rangers there. I can’t see you I think the thing that sets the refuges across the country. Also, the Black sending a black ranger into a school apart from, say, the national parks is Swamp Bird Observatory outside system and kids not being interested. access. I’ve spent more time at Ottawa Toledo, OH, which has been attempting When you bring something to kids that National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio than to get a much more diverse birding they have never seen or heard of, they any other refuge. I would drive 2½ hours community, even when it might not be take an interest. every weekend from Columbus to spend the most popular thing to do. Directors half a day watching peregrines or bald Kim and Kenn Kaufman have made a Q. What do you most appreciate about tremendous effort. being on a national wildlife refuge or in eagles passing through. Quivira Refuge other remote natural settings? in Kansas is up there pretty high for Q. I understand that you got into me, and probably Chincoteague Refuge birdwatching as a senior in high A. For me, it’s mostly about the solitude in Virginia. The access at both was very school. How did that happen? Can you and being at peace with the natural good, and, in terms of the wildlife, what remember any specific birds that got world. There is something comforting was there was very approachable on foot. your attention and why? for me when I see plants and animals that I know. It’s almost like seeing Q. Can you name three or four A. It would have been the result of my old friends that I haven’t seen in a organizations that are making a art teacher, who was an avid birder. The while. I recently went out for a seven- concerted effort to engage people of color species was the peregrine falcon. I was mile nature run, and I heard the first with nature and conservation efforts? just totally amazed with their aerial skill warblers of the year. It was like, “Those A. I can think of two off the top of set and speed. It’s jaw-dropping, really. are my buddies; I haven’t seen these my head. One is REI. Its marketing guys since last year.” I’ve been totally department has taken a look at my invested in nature since I was 12 or 13 suggestions and created catalogs with

Refuge Update • 13

Focus . . . Tomorrow’s Conservation Leaders � Leadership Institute Guides Emerging Professionals �

By Laura Bies One assignment is to conduct an oral history interview with a leader in he Wildlife Society had long the wildlife field to be archived in the realized that, without active society’s Celebrating Our Wildlife T intervention on our part, large- Conservation Heritage program. scale workforce trends in America could Some readings, such as 7 Habits of deplete the professional conservation Highly Effective People, teach general field and threaten our overarching leadership and time management skills. mission: to ensure a world where humans Others, such as Jack Ward Thomas’s and wildlife coexist. So, in 2006, we essay On Being Professional: The launched the Leadership Institute. Responsibilities of a Worthy Vocation, We did so after the coming “brain are specific to the wildlife field. drain” was reported in a 2004 study, Early on, participants read an Demographics of Retirement and instructional text published by the Professional Development Needs of Biologist Bridgette Flanders-Wanner with a hawk society, The Leadership Workbook: State Fisheries and Wildlife Agency in South Dakota. (USFWS) Building Leadership Skills in the Employees. That study, conducted by Natural Resource Professions and Steve McMullin, an associate professor Beyond. It includes basic information in the fisheries and wildlife science Refuge in Arizona – is taking part in about human behavior, the foundation department at Virginia Tech, found that this year’s program. The classes of 2006, for developing any management or 77 percent of employees in state fish and 2007 and 2008 each had 10 participants. leadership style. It provides guidance wildlife leadership positions across the Thanks to funding from the Refuge on how participants can evaluate their country could retire by 2015. System, the institute was able to accept own behavioral characteristics, and 15 participants this year and last. “We’re concerned about the numbers of it explores current knowledge about conservation leaders that are projected Defining a Career Vision how people react, cope and learn in to retire in the next decade,” says “Because proper training and various situations. Throughout the book, Michael Hutchins, executive director of recruitment is such an important exercises encourage the reader to self- The Wildlife Society. “We established ingredient for our success in the Refuge evaluate, evaluate the actions of others the Leadership Institute to address the System, we provided funding for The and develop new leadership skills. upcoming shortage.” Wildlife Society to expand the number of “That book, for me at least, was a very program participants,” says Noah Kahn, The six-month-long Leadership Institute visceral experience because it made you national performance manager for the is designed for individuals who are two answer some very difficult questions Refuge System. or three years out of school and working about yourself ” and your work style, full- or part-time in a professional wildlife Each year, the institute begins in May says Bridgette Flanders-Wanner, a management or conservation position. and culminates in intense mentoring wildlife biologist at Huron Wetland Limited slots are available for recent activities and training at The Wildlife Management District in South Dakota college graduates who have shown Society’s Annual Conference in October. and a 2006 participant. “It’s a very strong evidence of leadership skills. All Participants come from state, federal and guts-out-on-the-table experience” that applicants must be members of The nonprofit conservation entities across the you have to share with co-workers and Wildlife Society. country. During the spring and summer, supervisors. participants receive five distance- The institute’s goal is to train participants Flanders-Wanner, who has remained learning and hand-on assignments, in the skills needed to increase the affiliated with the institute, heartily as well as a reading list, to help them number of leaders in the society and the recommends it to other young wildlife prepare for the annual conference. wildlife profession as a whole. professionals: “The conference alone – Through these assignments, participants just to reach that cross section of wildlife Now in its fifth year, the institute become aware of their leadership skills biologists from across the country – is boasts 45 alumni, including six current and abilities, begin to define their visions worth it in itself.” or former National Wildlife Refuge for natural resources and their career, System employees. A seventh Refuge and start thinking about a means to Laura Bies, director of government System staff member, Lindsay Smythe implement these visions. affairs at The Wildlife Society, – a biologist at Kofa National Wildlife coordinates the Leadership Institute.

14 • Refuge Update

Gamble on Your Dream �

By Jerome Ford y interest in nature was inevitable because I grew up M in rural north Louisiana. My grandfather was a farmer, carpenter and timberman. He was a proud man who taught us to be fearless, determined and independent. As a young boy, I thought I could do anything that I chose. I decided that I wanted to be a scientist. As I made my way through high school as a true student athlete, I thought the history of life and how all living things are connected were the most amazing concepts known to man. I spent endless days learning from my grandfather how to preserve the land that had taken great care of my family for many generations. My parents constantly reminded my siblings and me that we had no choice but to take care of the environment, because it had taken good care of us. In short, I had a debt to repay to nature. The author got his first chance at leadership as project leader at Bayou Cocodrie Refuge, LA. (USFWS) When I went off to college, I had no idea how to express my love for nature or how project leader at Holla Bend Refuge, AR, I also say: Utilize role models and to repay my debt to the land. Luckily, and, three years after that, got my first mentors; always know, as my grandfather the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chance at leadership as project leader at knew, that you can do anything you set sent a representative from D’Arbonne Bayou Cocodrie Refuge, LA. I developed your mind to; be resilient; select a dream National Wildlife Refuge to Grambling that refuge from the start with a truck, a and live it; do not let anyone tell you that State University. I knew immediately boat and an ATV. I posted boundary, built you are not allowed to make your dream a that the Service was the avenue for me. the first office, wrote the first hunt plan reality. I decided to delay graduation and obtain and the first water management plan, and the required wildlife courses to qualify as performed many other firsts. Six years Jerome Ford is the U.S. Fish and refuge manager. later, hard work continued to pay off as Wildlife Service assistant director for migratory birds. Over the next two years, I did cooperative I became project leader at Tensas River education stints at D’Arbonne and Tensas Refuge, where I had been a co-op student. River Refuges, both in Louisiana, and at You truly can come home again. Mississippi Sandhill Crane Refuge. To After six years at Tensas River Refuge, meet the co-op requirements quickly, I I became the special assistant to Service worked summers, holidays and adjusted Director Dale Hall. Hall valued three my fall schedule so that I could work four traits he said we shared: honesty, days a week (including weekends) during integrity and trust. He always said that my final semester. I took a gamble on my every human being is looking for those dream, and it was paying off. three things in all people, and that people Values That Endure will endlessly gravitate toward a person My first job with the Service came two who has them. I say to aspiring leaders: months before graduation. I started as a If these three things make up your core refuge manager at Logan Cave Refuge, and guide your life, then people will seek AR, three years later became deputy you out.

Refuge Update • 15 Around the Refuge System �

Wisconsin Tennessee and Cross Creeks National knew we had two kittens was maybe 10 Seven whooping crane chicks – nearly Wildlife Refuges at what is usually one of years ago.” The extra kitten puts the double the combined total over the past their busiest times of the year. endangered species’ known total at 13 decade – hatched at or near Necedah on the refuge. All of the estimated 50 “There has been pretty severe damage on National Wildlife Refuge in late May and ocelots remaining in the United States our levees” in the Duck River Unit of the early June, according to refuge manager live in extreme South Texas. The Laguna Tennessee Refuge, said refuge manger Doug Staller. As of mid-June, five of the Atascosa Refuge kittens were born John Taylor. “The receding flood waters chicks had survived, three on the refuge sometime in April; their mother has been caused considerable erosion and scouring and two on adjacent property, Staller said. named Esperanza, which means “hope” of levees and roads, and debris removal “We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said. “We in Spanish. To see photos, visit Viva the from boat ramps, roads and fields will take are excited to see this many chicks hatch Ocelot! on Facebook, a page created by weeks … We haven’t been able to add it successfully, and about the possibility of Friends of Laguna Atascosa National all up yet, but there is certainly hundreds fledging wild chicks this year.” Wildlife Refuge. of thousands of dollars of damage on Before this spring, only four whooping Tennessee and Cross Creeks refuges.” Colorado cranes had hatched in the wild at Necedah Lightning hit a herd of bison at the Rocky As of late May, Taylor estimated, 90 since reintroduction to the eastern Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife percent of roads and boat ramps on the United States began in 2001 under the Refuge in late May, and a biologist saw impacted units were still closed. “Some of auspices of the Whooping Crane Eastern a bolt strike and kill a cow. “It was a the roads won’t be open till the end of the Partnership. Of those four, only one very unusual moment in time to be able summer or into the fall” because of public survived into adulthood. The whooping to have somebody witness the lightning safety concerns, he said. crane is an endangered species. The bolt actually hit the cow and the herd,” Necedah population, one of only three Farming was also halted on the refuges. Of Terry Wright, supervisory range land wild populations of whoopers in North the six farmers who work with the refuges management specialist at the refuge, America, summers in Wisconsin and on waterfowl management operations, told the NBC-TV affiliate in Denver. migrates to winter in the Southeast. three had total losses for the season, and The refuge plans to salvage the carcass and see if the bison can be mounted and Tennessee one had partial loss, Taylor said. One farmer lost three tractors to the flooding. displayed in its new $7 million visitor The May flooding that inundated center. Bison were reintroduced to the Nashville and left the Grand Ole Opry Texas refuge in March 2007 and 48 remain. waterlogged in the state’s worst flooding For much of this spring, staff at Laguna since 1944 also did considerable harm to Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge Georgia thought that a The popular Cane Pole Trail at female ocelot on Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge the refuge had is now wheelchair accessible as a result recently given of a novel partnership between Trails birth to one kitten. Unlimited and the refuge. The trail, But, in June, which parallels the Suwannee Canal close examination for less than a quarter-mile, leads to a of photographs platform overlooking an open area of taken by remote swamp. Before the makeover, it was an camera at night uneven, root-filled dirt trail. Now, after showed that the construction of a five-layer artificial mother ocelot had surface that involved tons of clay, gravel two offspring. and other materials, the trail looks like “It’s really good natural dirt but will wear like concrete. news,” Laguna It’s the first time the U.S. Forest Service Atascosa Refuge has assigned Trails Unlimited to a project wildlife biologist at a national wildlife refuge, assistant Jody Mays told refuge manager Maury Bedford, told the the Brownsville Web site Macon.com. Herald. “Ocelots Washington, DC can have one Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar or two kittens. announced in June that the Migratory Two whooping cranes with hatchlings at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, The last time we WI. (Matt Strausser/International Crane Foundation) Bird Conservation Commission has

16 • Refuge Update approved $35.7 million for refuge acquisitions and wetlands grants for migratory birds. Of that amount, $30.4 million will conserve more than 6.1 million acres of wetlands and associated habitats in the United States and Canada under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, and $5.3 million in Federal Duck Stamp funds will add about 1,850 wetland acres to six units of the National Wildlife Refuge System. The latter funding will acquire and restore 180 acres of bottomland wetlands at Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, AR; acquire 288 acres for protection of wetlands at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, TX; protect 866 acres that support wintering waterfowl at Lower Hatchie National Wildlife Refuge, TN; protect 243 acres of wetlands and upland fringes at Edwin B. Forsythe Starting next June, visitors will be able to view wild bears in the O’Malley River area of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, NJ; protect National Wildlife Refuge, AK. (USFWS) 162 acres of northern forest wetland and waterfowl nesting habitat at Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, University, and two graduate students time. It’s certainly one of the highest – if NH; and protect 110 acres of riparian made the discovery when they were not the highest – density on the refuge.” habitat at Stone Lakes National Wildlife collecting data at the refuge for a study Refuge, CA. about the relationship between pollinators A former drug-running vessel that has and rare desert plants. Both of the new been retooled for research duty and was Minnesota and Wisconsin featured in the May-June issue of Refuge More than 160 people entered the Upper species are distinct forms of the genus Perdita, according to Tanner. The new Update, has been renamed the Arlluk. Mississippi River National Wildlife and Arlluk means “orca” in the native Alutiiq Fish Refuge “Island Naming Contest” this species have not yet been named. A lab operated by the U.S. Department of language. The vessel will ferry biologists, spring. The public was asked to help name conservationists and law enforcement nine newly constructed islands in a 3,000- Agriculture in Logan, UT, has confirmed the find. Tanner told the Salt Lake officers around the Alaska Peninsula and acre backwater area between Brownsville, Becharof National Wildlife Refuges. MN, and Stoddard, WI, built as part of an Tribune that stumbling onto a new species Environmental Management Program- made him “feel like a child again.” California funded project to restore habitat for Alaska A new canoe area dedicated to a former migratory birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish Beginning in June 2011, wildlife refuge employee opened to the public this and mammals in Pool 8 of the Mississippi photographers and other visitors to spring at Tule Lake National Wildlife River. The names selected were: Broken Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge will be Refuge. Visitors may use their own Bow Island, Snake Tongue Island, Small able to view wild bears in the O’Malley non-motorized boats or check out a canoe Fry Island, Log Island, Old Scribbler River area of the refuge. The opportunity available on-site when the refuge visitor Island, Cant Hook Island, Cygnet Island, is scheduled to be open to guided groups center is open. The canoe area is in Dabbler Island and Raft Island. The of 10 people or fewer from late June to Discovery Marsh, which often dries up winners received a certificate designating late September annually. A 12-foot-by-20- during the late spring and summer, so their contribution to the project. foot viewing platform is to be built this visitors should contact the refuge before summer. “We’d expect that folks coming planning a trip. Wildlife viewing Nevada opportunities vary seasonally. The canoe Two new species of bees were discovered to O’Malley would see quite a number of bears,” refuge manager Gary Wheeler area was developed in memory of David this spring at Ash Meadows National Champine, a refuge visitor services Wildlife Refuge northwest of Las told the Anchorage Daily News. “There have been times we’ve documented 60 specialist who died in 2009 at age 40 after Vegas. David Tanner, who is a biologist battling a lifelong heart condition. and postdoctoral fellow at Utah State bears or more fishing on O’Malley at one

Refuge Update • 17 New Technology Aids Understanding of Puma

By Shawn Gillette Collars remain on the animals for up to a the study. year. They are programmed to fall off the ore than 150,000 visitors each animals and be retrieved. “Refuge staff has been excited by the year view and photograph an data collected so far, which is shedding Mamazing diversity of wildlife Furman’s researchers rely on two key light on how these animals use their at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife data-collecting tools – modern GPS environment,” says Vradenburg. “We Refuge in New Mexico – from sandhill telemetry equipment and the strategic were surprised by some of their prey cranes and snow geese to elk and deployment of advanced remote cameras. selection. One cat exhibits a skill for javelin. But one species seldom seen The researchers “mark” cats with GPS taking down large herbivores such as in the Middle Rio Grande Valley is the equipment and monitor their known the non-native African gemsbok and elk secretive puma, better known as the locations. Comparisons can then be made in addition to more abundant small prey, mountain lion. with the number of “unmarked” cats seen such as beaver, raccoon and badgers.” on cameras to create a statistically strong Refuge staff members have found tracks, measurement of puma populations. Daily The camera array, says Vradenburg, has scat and even remains of animals killed monitoring of telemetry equipment been particularly effective in providing by puma, but until now, there was little provides information on movements, data to make better population estimates. hard data on numbers of puma on the habitat use and prey selection. More cats have been caught on film than refuge or prey. A new partnership with were trapped and marked, confirming Furman University in South Carolina Puma territories can be large, extending what refuge staff has long suspected will establish baseline data on this apex in some cases 100 miles or more. Because – that several cats include the refuge predator at Bosque del Apache Refuge, Bosque del Apache Refuge represents within their territorial ranges. “It’s including population estimates, habitat only a portion of that territory, other difficult to determine or predict when use and prey selection. partners – such as the New Mexico the cats will utilize the bosque,” says Department of Game and Fish, USDA Vradenburg. “Their territories are large, Furman researchers had been Wildlife Services and San Andres and they come and go as they please.” developing and testing techniques National Wildlife Refuge – are assisting for gathering data about the puma on in the study. “Research such as this Refuge staff members are encouraged by private ranch lands near the refuge. project is only successful when multiple the study’s initial results. “There’s no They were excited to partner with the partnerships are involved,” says John doubt that the techniques used in this refuge to test those techniques. On Vradenburg, land management, research study can be applied to the monitoring of February 1, a contract field biologist and demonstration biologist at Bosque other species,” says Vradenburg. Refuge with several years of experience in del Apache Refuge, who is coordinating staff will continue to work with partners tracking and trapping large carnivores on this study for up to a year and then set up operations analyze the data in on Bosque del the hope of Apache Refuge generating an and worked with accurate refuge staff to understanding of establish an array the population of humane traps density and in areas known to territorial ranges be frequented by of the elusive puma. Southwestern puma. Within weeks, the contractor Shawn Gillette captured and is supervisory marked several outdoor recreation puma. Tissue planner at Bosque samples were del Apache taken, and the cats National Wildlife were measured Refuge. and weighed before being safely fitted with a collar A new partnership between Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico and Furman and released. University in South Carolina will establish baseline data on the puma, including population estimates, habitat use and prey selection. (USFWS)

18 • Refuge Update “Adopt an Area” Gives Merritt Island a Real Pick-Me-Up �

By Kathy Eichinger When people decide to adopt an area, they sign an agreement and schedule he spring day is crisp and clear. their first cleanup. After their first Your long-awaited Florida cleanup, the groups function largely on T vacation is finally a reality. After their own. Not only has the program touring Kennedy Space Center, you visit reduced litter, it has given individuals Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, with limited time a sense of stewardship a 140,000- acre sanctuary that overlays in the refuge. the space center. “I know I’m making a big difference,” Your first stop is Scrub Ridge Trail, says Adopt an Area volunteer Lucy where you will be looking for the Pruss, a 25-year-old lawyer from nearby threatened Florida scrub jay. If you Cocoa, FL. “When people see you out get really lucky, you might see two in the hot sun picking up trash, it’s endangered residents, the gopher surprising how often they stop and say, tortoise and the Eastern indigo snake. ‘Thank you.’ And I hope that people who You pull into the trailhead parking lot see me will think twice before throwing and are horrified to see food wrappers, trash out the window.” Styrofoam containers, cans and bottles strewn about. Like other participants, Pruss, whose group has adopted a two-mile portion of Your next stop is Bairs Cove boat ramp, Adopt an Area volunteer Lucy Pruss: “When people see you out in the hot sun picking up trash, Black Point Wildlife Drive, is required to where you hope to see endangered it’s surprising how often they stop and say, ‘Thank go out three times a year. But, she says, Florida manatees lounging in the basin. you.’ ” (Tom Crandell) her group is “trying to do it every other You also see monofilament tangled in the month to try to stay on top of the trash.” mangroves. For which refuge ranger Corona is truly You wonder about the refuge habitat and Giving Ownership “People really respond to this. They grateful. Without people like Pruss, she wildlife, and you think, “Can’t they do says, litter removal “wouldn’t get done anything about the littering problem?” just love the refuge. And when they come out here and see the litter, it at all, and it would look horrible. The They can, they have, and it’s working. drives them crazy,” says Merritt Island program gives the presentation that the Refuge ranger Nancy Corona. “I’ve refuge cares, and it does it with limited In April 2009, Merritt Island Refuge been here seven years, and there are funding.” launched Adopt an Area, an anti-litter certain areas that just get beat up” Kathy Eichinger is volunteer program patterned after the national despite the best efforts of the refuge’s “adopt a road” campaign. Individuals, coordinator for the Adopt an Area two law enforcement officers, who are program at Merritt Island Refuge. families, businesses, clubs and other stretched beyond thin. “It’s so unsightly. organizations adopt a roadway, shoreline, For more information, contact refuge It’s ugly. It’s a safety issue. It gets very ranger Nancy Corona at Nancy_ trail or high-traffic spot at the refuge. frustrating.” For agreeing to clean up their area at [email protected]. least three times a year, adopters receive The Adopt an Area program “seems to a certificate of adoption. Soon after their have an effect by giving ownership to first cleanup, a small sign recognizing an area,” Corona says. The posted signs their service is placed in the adopted may dissuade potential litterers, and area. Additionally, an annual hot dog they give participants a morale boost. roast honors Adopt an Area volunteers. “The structure and the recognition give the volunteers a kind of hope, rather As of April 2010, there were 18 groups than having them feel defeated week in the program, and 247 individuals after week.” had contributed 494 volunteer hours. They had removed more than 350 The program is easy to maintain. bags of litter as well as tires, waste oil, Promoting it is easy, too – in local monofilament, concrete blocks, boat newspapers, at the refuge visitor center parts and other debris. and entrances, and at nearby retail locations. Once the program is explained to interested parties, a portfolio of pertinent information is mailed to them.

Refuge Update • 19 “Thanks for Everything You’re Doing for Us Down Here” �

By Bill O’Brian Hebert is one of more than 600 Service • People like . . . Kayla DiBenedetto, a staff members who have contributed biologist based in the Service’s Baton harlie Hebert was standing on to that effort since the Deepwater Rouge office who displayed dogged the dock at Cypress Cove Marina Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20. persistence and impressive athleticism C in Venice, LA, squinting slightly in This article recognizes just a handful with a net as a member of a multi- the late-afternoon twilight and patiently of individuals from the Service, the agency team rescuing oiled brown answering on-camera questions from a National Wildlife Refuge System and pelicans in 100-degree heat after an Fox News Channel television crew. other entities whose work in southeast arm of the spill overwhelmed Barataria Hebert was exhausted. He’d been Louisiana was observed during a two- Bay off Grand Isle, LA, on the first working 15 hours daily with just two week period in late May and early June. weekend in June. days off in the previous month. Yet here The article is by no means definitive. Rather it is a snapshot meant to give the • People like . . . Sharon Taylor, a he was, taking more time to describe to Service veterinarian based in Carlsbad, the public the nuances and challenges of reader a sense of what it feels like in the affected region and to acknowledge the CA, who was deployed in Houma for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Unified six full weeks, May 1 until June 11, and Command wildlife rescue, recovery and extraordinary effort and skills of some dedicated people. now is rotating in and out of Louisiana. rehabilitation effort. Taylor oversees the Unified Command Hebert, a biologist and oil spill response • People like . . . Ron Britton, who took veterinary operation, runs the wildlife coordinator in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife over for Hebert as deputy chief of the morgue in Louisiana and coordinates Service Pacific Region, had just driven Unified Command wildlife branch in the release of rehabilitated birds into more than two hours to Venice, and he late May and helped reenergize the the wild at places such as Merritt was in the waning moments of a 30-day rescue and recovery effort. Britton, a Island, Pelican Island and Egmont detail, in which he had served as deputy supervisory wildlife biologist at Alaska Key National Wildlife Refuges, all chief of the Unified Command wildlife Peninsula/Becharof National Wildlife in Florida. On June 6, flying back to branch at the BP Operations Learning Refuge Complex, applied lessons he Houma with a Coast Guard crew of Center in Houma, LA. learned in the Exxon Valdez spill to four, after a bird release in Florida, fortify a personnel structure that the right engine of the C-144 twin- The Houma location is one of five emphasized interagency teamwork propeller plane Taylor was on caught Unified Command centers dedicated and the need to be available to the fire, forcing an emergency landing. No to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill news media. one was hurt. response. The center is reminiscent of NASA Mission Control in the movie • People like . . . Ken Litzenberger, • People like . . . � Acting Service Director “Apollo 13” – a building full of 800 or so James Harris, Jack Bohanan and Rowan Gould, who quietly rallied and smart, committed, sleep-deprived men their staffs at the Southeast Louisiana guided haggard Service personnel at and women trying to address urgent, National Wildlife Refuge Complex. the operations center in Houma and, vexing problems with no firm precedent Bohanan, the refuge manager at Delta on occasion, in the field. In early June, for how to proceed in the face of a and Breton Refuges, recently wrote: when Gould stepped onto the Service disaster, in this case the worst oil spill in “The hardest part of working this spill barge at Dennis Pass to visit the 35 American history. is the unknown. We don’t know exactly or so Service rescue and recovery how much oil has actually been released workers living there, it was as if the into the Gulf, we President himself had stepped onto don’t know where an aircraft carrier. The boost to staff exactly it will morale was palpable; people were go, and we don’t taking pictures of people taking know how much pictures with Gould. impact it will have on the resources • People like . . . Mike Downie, a entrusted to our supervisory law enforcement officer care. Dealing at the Southeast Louisiana National with the unknown Wildlife Refuge Complex, and Mark is probably the Littlefield, a Service wildlife biologist biggest source of based in Sacramento, CA. Downie fatigue, greater and Littlefield were the bosses of the even than the long Dennis Pass barge, and they and their days of arduous crew graciously accommodated media About 35 wildlife rescue and recovery workers live on the Service barge at crew after media crew who boarded Dennis Pass off Venice, LA. (Bill O’Brian/USFWS) work.”

20 • Refuge Update Kayla DiBenedetto, a biologist based in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Baton Rouge conservative office, carries an oiled brown pelican she helped net in Barataria Bay off Grand Isle, LA. (John D. Miller/U.S. Coast Guard)

their vessel even though it was clearly • People like . . . public information • People like . . . professional fishermen- disruptive to their routine. officer Doug Zimmer in the Joint turned-wildlife-rescue-and-recovery Information Center (JIC) in boat drivers Alfred “Hawk” Pete, • People like . . . Jason Duke, a Robert, LA. Zimmer, a supervisory Lou Domino and Albert Ballard, Service GIS coordinator/information information and education specialist who day after day took out-of-town technology specialist based in for the Service in Lacey, WA, provided strangers out on the water. Despite the Cookeville, TN, and his colleagues, patient, steadying advice on countless fact that this spill has imperiled their who developed a detailed Service occasions. livelihoods, the three men beamed with map of the Unified Command wildlife pride and showed exceptional patience rescue and recovery operation and the • People like . . . Mike Patterson, John and maritime skill as they navigated shoreline cleanup assessment team Miller and Ann Marie Gorden of the the marshes, bayous and bays of (SCAT) in Louisiana. The map, which U.S. Coast Guard. The latter two took coastal Louisiana. When asked what he is updated daily at http://www.fws.gov/ photos for the Service when one of our would do if Gulf of Mexico commercial home/dhoilspill/maps.html, is so useful cameras malfunctioned, and all three fishing doesn’t recover, Ballard, a and distinctive that it is regularly were a pleasure to work with. In fact, 38-year-old father of two who speaks in used by the media as a backdrop all of the dozens of Coasties, as they a comfortable Cajun cadence, replied: for interviews, often without proper call themselves, stationed at Houma “I don’t know. I’ve never had a job on attribution. Duke and his colleagues were unfailingly professional, polite land in my life.” have since developed a similar map for and competent. Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. And finally, here’s a nod to the three • People like . . . Richard Blackburn, young servers in four separate Louisiana • People like . . . Jay Holcomb a motorboat operation certification restaurants who, upon seeing my Service and Barbara Callahan of the instructor based at J.N. “Ding” Darling shirt, said: Thanks for everything you’re International Bird Rescue Research National Wildlife Refuge, FL, who doing for us down here. They happened Center, who oversaw the Fort Jackson coordinated Service boat schedules to be speaking to me, a Refuge staff Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in out of Venice and Grand Isle with member with a minor public information Buras, LA. The tireless work of their remarkable efficiency and grace under role, but, really, they were thanking the staff speaks for itself. hectic, ever-changing conditions. Service as a whole.

Refuge Update • 21 Oil Spill Presents An Extraordinary Challenge — continued from page 1 As of mid-June, in coastal Louisiana the tread lightly wildlife rescue and recovery operation and carefully to was a joint venture of the Service, avoid injuring or the Louisiana Department of Wildlife stressing healthy and Fisheries, the U.S. Department birds, trampling of Agriculture (USDA), Tri-State nests and ruining Bird Rescue & Research and the sensitive coastal International Bird Rescue Research habitat. Center. (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA – The teams often was conducting offshore searches for sea must make turtles and mammals.) difficult, nuanced A wildlife rescue and recovery team based on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife decisions, Hebert Weather permitting, scores of boat teams Service barge at Dennis Pass searches for oiled birds in Garden Island Bay says. Not all birds a day staffed with personnel from the near the mouth of the Mississippi River off Venice, LA. (Bill O’Brian/USFWS) can or should Service, USDA, the state and the bird be captured. A rescue organizations conducted coastal stressed bird In a warm-water spill, such as this Louisiana rescue and recovery missions. sometimes needs to be given time to one, oiled birds are less likely to The teams, which worked from staging settle down before capture is attempted. die immediately from exposure and areas at Hopedale, Dennis Pass, Grand An oiled adult protecting or shading hypothermia because they remain Isle, Cocodrie and Trinity Island, were chicks presents a dilemma because warmer. So, they generally have a higher supported by daily helicopter surveillance rescuing the adult would leave the chicks rate of survival – in the short term, at out of Lakefront Air Operations near vulnerable to predation. Generally least. The birds can become severely ill New Orleans. That aerial observation speaking, oiled birds that are able to fly or die from ingesting oil, of course, but identified where oil had moved overnight (and thus can forage for food) are not stress also can compound the effects of and where birds – generally brown captured. oiling and lead to death. pelicans, northern gannets, egrets and herons – may have been affected. All Bird Triage And because the whole rescue and recovery effort is part of a comprehensive recovered birds were taken to the Fort Each time a team encounters an oiled scientific damage assessment, the capture Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center bird, the team must “make sure the process is painstakingly executed. At in Buras, LA, for examination, treatment remedy is not worse than the problem,” every step of the way, rescue, recovery and cleansing. according to Charlie Hebert, a biologist and rehabilitation personnel must protect and oil spill response coordinator in the On the water and in the coastal marshes, the scientific integrity of the data derived Service’s Pacific Region who served as the rescue and recovery teams’ missions from each bird so that the eventual deputy chief of the Unified Command were not simple roundups; they were scientific investigation will be able to wildlife branch in Houma, LA, in May. surgical expeditions influenced by a accurately determine what happened to Rescue and recovery personnel must number of factors. the bird. When considering the overall wildlife mortality of the spill, it is useful to keep For the Latest Information . . . two other points in mind: For the latest information on the number of birds, sea turtles and mammals that have been rescued, recovered or released along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, • Small fish have been observed feeding Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on oil patties in the water, and wildlife began on April 20, go to http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931, biologists have no clear idea what effect pull down the Currents Ops tab, click on Fish and Wildlife Report, and open the this oil in the food chain ultimately will daily PDF at the bottom of the screen. The daily PDF chart contains a detailed have on the fish themselves or on the breakdown by state, type of animal and level of oiling. birds that feed on those fish. For detailed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maps of the Unified Command wildlife • The Gulf Coast is one of the most fertile rescue and recovery operation and the shoreline cleanup assessment team (SCAT) bird nesting grounds in the world. operation along the Gulf Coast, go to http://www.fws.gov/home/dhoilspill/maps.html. Several nesting areas have been oiled, particularly on Chandeleur Island at For Service fact sheets regarding many aspects of the spill, including the Natural Breton National Wildlife Refuge, LA. Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Program, and links to national Those oiled eggs, which will not hatch, wildlife refuges potentially in harm’s way, go to http://www.fws.gov/home/dhoilspill/ were not, as of mid-June, being counted factsheets.html. in collected bird totals.

22 • Refuge Update LCCs and I&M: Parallel Missions — continued from page 1 LCC; and assessing the status of all are trying to help priority aquatic habitats in the region. the Service and The Pacific Islands Climate Change the conservation Cooperative will be estimating future community identify rainfall changes over the Hawaiian ‘how much,’ ‘how Islands from 2046–2100. The Arctic much more’ and LCC will begin long-term monitoring ‘where’ in terms of of the impacts of climate change on water resources. glaciers and rivers in the Arctic National What are the Wildlife Refuge. limiting factors? What are the The North Atlantic LCC will be parameters we developing maps and computer models need to target to predict how habitat conditions will conservation be affected by such stressors as urban action?” growth and changing climate. The LCC New inventory and monitoring biologists will be stationed at Glacial Ridge will develop user-friendly tools to help Integrating National Wildlife Refuge, which is part of the Plains and Prairie Potholes make decisions regarding such stream Multiple Landscape Conservation Cooperative. (USFWS) fish as Eastern brook trout. Such tools Initiatives include maps of stream fish habitat The LCCs will and a Web-based program that refuge function across cooperation to emerge over time. managers can use to evaluate different regions and also as a national network Already, staff resources are intertwined. management actions in streams as of science capacity responding to The Service is co-locating staff hired small as 30 feet or river basins that run broad-scale issues ranging from through the I&M program with some hundreds of miles. development to endangered species. LCCs. New I&M biologists will be They will use climate change data from stationed at the Fergus Falls Wetland As interim coordinator for the Gulf eight new Department of the Interior Management District Office and Glacial Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCC, Bill Climate Science Centers as well as Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, both Uihlein is excited about the potential data gathered through the Refuge in Minnesota and part of the Plains of LCCs to address problems that no System inventory and monitoring (I&M) and Prairie Potholes LCC. Four single agency can solve. He is working program being developed at the new new biological positions, including a to ensure that the LCC is “adding Natural Resource Program Center in hydrologist, aquatic/marine specialist, value to the conservation community Fort Collins, CO. Center Chief Mark terrestrial species specialist and a without risking partnership fatigue.” Chase says, “We are going to collect, forester/botanist, will be added at The Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks store and make available information Alligator River (NC); Cape Romain LCC is itself a combination of three about resources in the Refuge System (SC); Okefenokee (GA); and Savannah existing landscape-level joint ventures that is credible, scientifically rigorous (SC) National Wildlife Refuges. Their that support migratory birds and and reliable.” He sees the LCCs as one work will focus on Refuge System the Southeast Aquatic Resources of the center’s customers. I&M priorities and feed into the South Partnership. Twenty-four agencies, Atlantic LCCs. including the Service, belong to one or “We expect that LCCs will use the more of the joint ventures. information we provide to generate LCCs will not make conservation predictive models about habitat and management decisions for any partner or Collaboration is the engine that drives relationships of species and habitat,” refuge. Rather, they will provide the LCCs. “It takes time to nurture says Chase. “In return for that, our high-quality science on which such successful partnerships, says Uihlein, decision makers on the ground will get decisions should be based. “LCCs “yet LCCs must also demonstrate support tools that will help them make develop a blueprint for landscape success in using shared resources wisely.” management decisions and set land sustainability,” says Uihlein, “and it’s up To that end, the Gulf Coastal Plains and acquisition priorities. If, for example, you to managers to decide how and where to Ozarks LCC is initiating development are interested in duck production, it will implement particular practices based on of an aquatic resource database that be helpful to know that a particular 200 that information.” will be linked with water resources data acres of land is better than a different Karen Leggett is a writer-editor being collected in the Plains and Prairie 200 acres, based on predictive models.” in the Refuge System Branch of Potholes LCC. “We need to stitch all the The Refuge System I&M program and Communications. LCCs together across the Mississippi the LCCs are developing on parallel River watershed,” explains Uihlein. “For tracks; Chase expects patterns of example, with this particular project, we

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A Look Back . . . Warren Parker

nce, red wolves roamed as far says Parker. “Red wolves are part of the north as Pennsylvania and as far ecosystem of the Lower 48 states.” Owest as central Texas. No longer. In 1980, they were declared extinct in “It was an exciting time,” recalls Taylor. the wild. “We were writing a new chapter in wildlife management. Never had a Today, more than 100 live in northeastern species been reintroduced into the wild North Carolina – the world’s only after being determined extinct.” Chris population of wild red wolves. That is Lucash, a young biologist at the time and due in large part to the leadership of still at Alligator River Refuge, says, “It Warren Parker. took a lot of courage and determination to write that new chapter. They did it Parker began his career as a wildlife with an unflappable sense of optimism.” biologist at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, GA, in 1957. In 1984, he became Parker retired in 1991, after 34 years the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s in the Service. Yet, he is never far from first red wolf project coordinator. That wolves, consulting with the Arizona same year, John Taylor became the Game and Fish Department on its first manager of the newly established Warren Parker, John Taylor and Chris Lucash Mexican gray wolf recovery program and tag a red wolf in the late 1980s. (Courtesy of Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Warren Parker) speaking to the public about red wolves NC. The two began a professional whenever he can. He listens to them howl friendship that continues to this day. at night near his home in North Carolina. Parker took part in the June celebration Taylor says Parker’s honesty and of Taylor’s retirement from Tennessee “The red wolf is fortunate,” says Lucash, personality won the day. “Warren is River National Wildlife Refuge. “that men of such caliber came along always smiling, even at a public meeting when they were needed.” Having determined that Alligator River when there is a lot of heat. You can’t help Refuge was an appropriate site to but like the guy and believe him.” reintroduce red wolves, Parker, Taylor “If you start saying, what good are and a team initiated plans to bring grizzly bears or elk, where do you stop?” captive-bred wolves from Tacoma, WA, to North Carolina. Public opinion was the biggest problem, recalls Parker. Send Us Your Comments Families worried about the safety of Letters to the Editor or suggestions about Refuge Update can be e-mailed to their children and pets, while sportsmen [email protected] or mailed to Refuge Update, USFWS-NWRS, worried about deer. 4401 North Fairfax Dr., Room 634C, Arlington, VA 22203-1610.