Reddish Egret (Egretta rufuscens) Conservation Action Plan November 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary �������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1 Introduction ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2 Conceptual Model for Reddish Egret Conservation ��������������������������� 4 Status of Conservation Targets ������������������������������������������������������������ 11 Direct Threats ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 13 Discussion of Direct Threats ������������������������������������������������������������������ 16 Contributing Factors and the Conceptual Model ���������������������������� 23 Plan Actions and Monitoring ��������������������������������������������������������������� 25 Strategies, Objectives, and Activities ������������������������������������������������� 29 Final Recommendations and Follow-up Activities ���������������������������� 36 References �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38 Appendix A ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 40 Appendix B �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 48 Reddish Egret. Jim Gray ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This plan is dedicated to the memory of Rich Paul. Nancy Douglass Plan Dedication The Reddish Egret Conservation Plan is dedicated in memory of Rich Paul (1946 – 2005), an outstanding field ornithologist, who conducted extensive research on the Reddish Egret during his career with National Audubon Society. He was the manager of the Coastal Islands Sanctuaries and in his younger days worked at Audubon’s research station in the Florida Keys. He wrote the first status assessment for the Reddish Egret in 1991 and coauthored the Birds of North America species account in 2002. In 1994 he was named Wildlife Conservationist of the Year by the Florida Wildlife Federation; a year later he received the Golden Egret Award, Audubon’s highest career service award. In 2001, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation honored him with the Chuck Yeager Award for action and achievement. Acknowledgements Thanks go to many individuals from universities, private conservation organizations, state conservation agencies, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices (USFWS) that provided information used in developing this plan. We especially thank those who attended the Reddish Egret Workshop held in Corpus Christi, TX in October 2012 (see Appendix B for a list of participants). Completion of the plan would not have been possible without their guidance, support, and input. Jennifer Wheeler (USFWS), Clay Green (Texas State Univeristy), and Eduardo Palacios (Pronatura Noreste) provided day to day guidance and consultation during the completion of this project. Special thanks go to Stefani Melvin who established the Reddish Egret Working Group in 2005 and did much of the preliminary work for this plan. Funding for this product was provided by Focal Species funds through the Division of Migratory Bird Management, USFWS. Cover photo courtesy of William Majoros. Plan design by Debra Reynolds, USFWS Reddish Egret. Tom Grey EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Despite its large range, the Reddish Egret occupies a restricted belt of coastal There is nothing in habitat, is patchily distributed and has a relatively small and declining global which the birds differ population. Accordingly there is broad agreement that the Reddish Egret is in need of our conservation effort. Using the “Open Standards Approach for more from man than Conservation Measures” the Reddish Egret Working Group presents a range- wide conceptual conservation model for this species that highlights and ranks the way in which they the greatest threats to maintaining population stability and expanding the can build and yet population, explores the underlying causes of those threats, and identifies key strategies to address them. This document serves as a guide for conserving the leave a landscape as it Reddish Egret as a species throughout its range, proposing processes to identify focal colony sites and foraging areas, defined as the locations that should be was before. priorities for collective conservation effort. This plan also provides the context to ~Robert Lynd support management action for locally important locations. We recommend four over arching strategies: 1. Actively manage factors directly affecting Reddish Egret populations 2. Ensure that long-term stewardship and management of habitat is effectively implemented in focal colony sites and foraging areas 3. Develop and implement long-term monitoring of populations to support better decision-making at the local, regional and global scale. 4. Identify mechanisms for conserving unprotected focal areas. This plan emphasizes consideration of the way interventions will influence indirect and direct threats, and promotes activities to ultimately achieve the stated goals. Central to this process was compilation of current species information to identify focal nesting sites (Note: a colony implies nesting; a site is the physical space that can be occupied or not; a colony is always occupied, i.e., site + birds nesting) and foraging areas. Although this plan lists activities to address threats and proposes a list to calculate necessary investments, it is not a business strategy—yet. Next steps include further articulating activities, formulating metrics to measure success, assessing capacity and risk, and making this plan operational. It should be viewed as a milestone in an ongoing and evolving campaign by the Reddish Egret Working Group to restore and maintain viable Reddish Egret populations throughout the species’ range. Recommended Citation Wilson, T. E., J. Wheeler, M. C. Green, and E. Palacios. (eds.). Reddish Egret Conservation Action Plan. Reddish Egret Conservation Planning Workshop, October 2012. Corpus Christi, TX. REEG CONSERVATION ACTION PLAN | 1 INTRODUCTION The Reddish Egret is the rarest and least known of the Beginning in 2005, the United States Fish and Wildlife egrets and herons of North America. It is a habitat Service (USFWS) adopted a Focal Species Strategy1 to specialist, patchily distributed in a narrow fringe provide a process for better measuring its success in of coastal habitats in the Nearctic and Neotropical achieving bird conservation priorities. The purpose ecozones for all aspects of its life cycle. Specifically, of this strategy is to provide explicit, strategic, and the population lays within a narrow latitudinal range adaptive sets of conservation actions necessary for extending east from the Baja California peninsula, restoring species of concern to viable and sustainable including the Gulf of California, the Yucatan population levels. Reddish Egret was selected as Peninsula, the northern coast of Gulf of Mexico to a Focal Species to receive increased conservation peninsular Florida and islands in the Caribbean basin, attention by USFWS over the short term. namely Bahamas and Cuba. The global population of Reddish Egrets is estimated to be 5,000 – 7,000 To advance the conservation of this species, the individuals, with 3,500 to 4,250 breeding pairs (see Reddish Egret Working Group, a multi-organization Table 6). partnership with scientists and managers from U.S., Bahamas and Mexico was formed. The Working According to early naturalist’ accounts, Reddish Egrets Group first met in October 2005 to discuss the status were a common and resident species along the Gulf of Reddish Egret populations in Texas, Mexico, and Coast of the United States from Florida to Texas. Florida. From there, it was decided a status assessment The Reddish Egret population was decimated by the was necessary as the majority of information was at actions of plume hunters in the late 1880s. Although least a decade old (Paul 1991, Lowther and Paul 2002). breeding populations have significantly recovered, they The Status Assessment was completed in 2006 (Green are still reduced from pre-hunting levels. In addition, 2006) and formed the basis for subsequent investments the species is thought to be currently declining again in research and information collection. in nesting areas such as the Florida Keys and Florida Bay. 1 For more information on the focal species program visit the website at http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/ Survey in the Bahamas. Matt Jeffrey Reddish Egret pair. Emily Whittman 2 | REEG CONSERVATION ACTION PLAN Several projects to fill information gaps identified in the Status Assessment were undertaken in subsequent years (Bates et al. 2009, Palacios and Green. 2010, Green et al. 2011, Hill and Green 2011, Fidorra et al. 2011, Holderby et al. 2012, Hill et al. 2012). Additionally the many organizations represented in the Reddish Egret Working Group continued to undertake management activities to survey, protect, and foster local Reddish Egret populations and habitats. Conservation plans were developed to guide local and regional action [e.g., the Texas Gulf Coast (Vermillion and Wilson 2009)] yet a range-wide plan was needed. This Conservation Action Plan was conceived as a means to ensure that further investments in Reddish Egret conservation were guided by a shared set of range- wide goals and prioritized to most effectively reach those goals. Moreover, this comprehensive framework will allow each stakeholder to understand the contributions and intended outcomes of each local