his is your window into the work of the Georgia Department Conserving nongame species and restoring and preserving wildlife T of Natural Resources’ Nongame Conservation Section. habitats are central to making sure this natural heritage is available for our children and their children to enjoy. Our mission at Nongame Conservation is straightforward and critical: Conserve the more than 95 percent of native Georgia wildlife species Besides helping maintain our quality of life, these programs that are not legally fished for or hunted – called nongame – as well support our economy. In 2011, some 2.4 million people spent a as rare plants and the habitats these plants and animals need. total of more than $1.8 billion watching wildlife in Georgia! That work affects us all, whether it’s acquiring lands along the This report details nongame research, surveys, conservation Altamaha River for conservation and recreation, sizing up the programs, education, land acquisition and habitat management alligator snapping turtle population in Spring Creek or teaming with during the fiscal year from July 1, 2013, to June 30, 2014. Included partners to keep Georgia aster off the Endangered Species list. are our successes and our challenges. Conserving Georgia’s Nongame Wildlife 2014 FISCAL YEAR REPORT One continuing challenge is funding. We do not receive state Report copies, including a six-page summary, and video highlights appropriations for conserving nongame. Instead, we depend on are available at www.georgiawildlife.com/conservation/ grants, contributions and fundraisers, such as the eagle and AnnualReport. hummingbird license plates. Thank you for your interest in conserving Georgia’s nongame And 2014 featured some good news regarding license plates. A law wildlife and natural habitats. If you have questions or comments, change made this year holds great promise for turning around a three- please email me at [email protected]. year decline in wildlife tag sales and renewals, our primary fundraiser. Jon Ambrose Chief, Nongame Conservation Section GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES | WILDLIFE RESOURCES DIVISION | NONGAME CONSERVATION SECTION CONSERVATION EDUCATION AND OUTREACH n BIRDS n FRESHWATER n n Waterbird Conservation Initiative AQUATIC SPECIES Regional Education Centers n n Youth Birding Competition n Red-cockaded Woodpecker Recovery Aquatic Conservation Initiative n Give Wildlife a Chance Poster Contest n Partners in Flight n Robust Redhorse Conservation n Social Media n Bird Surveys n Wood Stork Nests n PLANTS AND Promoting Awareness Bald Eagle Nests NATURAL HABITATS Swallow-tailed Kite Nests and Roosts n Sandhills Conservation LAND ACQUISITION, n AMPHIBIANS n Rare Plant Surveys on Public and AND REPTILES Private Lands EASEMENTS AND n Coastal Habitat Conservation n Sea Turtle Conservation and Research CONSERVATION n Coastal Wet Oak Flats Survey n Sea Turtle Stranding Network and n Restoration of Mountain and Coastal At-sea Recovery PLANNING Plain Bogs n Bog Turtle Conservation n Habitat Improvement on State Lands n Chattahoochee Fall Line WMA: n Alligator Snapping Turtle Population and the Interagency Burn Team Almo and Fort Perry Tracts Study n Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance n Griffin Ridge WMA: n Gopher Tortoise and Eastern Indigo n Ginseng Management Program Morgan Lake Tract Snake Conservation n Georgia Conservation n Biotics Database Development n Gopher Frog Restoration Tax Credit Program n n North American Amphibian n Conservation Planning Monitoring Program PRIVATE LANDS n Eastern Hellbender Conservation n Private Land Activities Surveys n Forestry for Wildlife Partnership FINANCIAL AND n Striped Newt Restoration n Army Compatible Use Buffer ADMINISTRATION Conservation n MAMMALS n Community Wildlife Project n Nongame Wildlife Conservation Fund n North Atlantic Right Whale n Nongame License Plates Conservation n INVASIVE SPECIES n ‘Give Wildlife a Chance’ State Income n Georgia Marine Mammal Stranding ASSESSMENT AND Tax Checkoff Network MANAGEMENT n Weekend for Wildlife n Florida Manatee Conservation n TERN n Bottlenose Dolphin Contaminants n LAW ENFORCEMENT n Federal and Other Funding Project FOR NONGAME n Administration and Personnel n Small Mammal Conservation Photo credits for cover: Bog turtle (Todd Pierson) Georgia aster (Michele Elmore/TNC) Sicklefin redhorse (Brett Albanese/GaDNR) Yellow-rumped warbler by Angus Pritchard (Linda May/GaDNR) Wood storks (Mary Ellen Urbanski/USFWS) Contents Disentangling a right whale (FWC /NOAA permit 15488) 2 CONSERVING GEORGIA’S NONGAME WILDLIFE CONSERVATION Waterbird keep the site free of vegetation, promote beach- Conservation Initiative nesting seabirds and discourage nesting by gulls. In other updates: Georgia’s barrier island beaches, coastal salt marshes and freshwater wetlands support 86 Keyes/GaDNR) (Tim n DNR and partners including the University of species of seabirds, shorebirds and wading birds, Georgia, St. Catherines Island, Little St. Simons collectively known as waterbirds. The Waterbird Island and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were Conservation Initiative includes: awarded a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant to control predators at a number of key n Protecting important colonial waterbird nesting nesting sites for American oystercatchers. habitats. Partners completed the field component of the project in summer 2014. This project not only n Conducting surveys to determine the status and habitat needs of resident, migratory and led to higher nest productivity for oystercatchers wintering waterbirds. than DNR has documented recently, but should provide an adaptive management tool to help n Creating partnerships for long-term conservation River Marsh Island after abandoning it for several managers determine when predator control efforts of wetland-dependent bird species. years. Overall pelican nesting numbers were still low, are needed. Two trappers hired by Nongame Conservation efforts include protecting and however, compared to records from five-10 years ago. Conservation removed 87 raccoons, 17 feral hogs Sciences) Conservation for Center Winn/Manomet (Brad managing five sand islands for beach-nesting Island Catherines chick on St. Banded American oystercatcher and two coyotes from Little St. Simons, Egg and migratory birds. While this effort is especially Nongame staff and partners tracked seabird Island and Little Egg Island Bar. Thanks in part to valuable for seabirds, resident and migratory colonies on Little Tybee Island, Ogeechee Bar, those efforts, most of the 32 oystercatcher chicks shorebirds also benefit from protecting critical Ossabaw Island, Little Egg Island Bar, Little St. documented during 2014 are presumed to have nesting and resting areas that are free from Simons Island, Pelican Spit, Brunswick Dredge fledged. The summer not only provided the highest disturbances. One of the areas, a dredge-spoil island Island, Satilla Marsh Island, Little Cumberland count of oystercatcher chicks in Georgia, a record near Brunswick, supports one of the largest colonies Island and Cumberland Island National Seashore. 28 chicks were banded. Several rooftop colonies also were monitored, mostly of nesting seabirds on the South Atlantic Coast. n DNR coordinated the second year of a major new in the St. Mary’s area. Significant productivity was migratory shorebird survey based on a regional study The summer of 2014 was a good one for beach- noted on Pelican Spit and Brunswick Dredge Island. by shorebird researchers with the Conserve Wildlife nesting birds. The relatively few extreme tide events These two sites are free from mammalian predators, Foundation of New Jersey and the U.S. Geological and storms during nesting season allowed for solid a factor that often leads to high productivity. Survey. Repeated surveys were conducted at productivity among most beach-nesting birds. 23 sites during fall 2013 and spring 2014. A Although Little Egg Island Bar had a small mixed Created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2007 combination of DNR and Fish and Wildlife Service shorebirds help survey and Doris Leary Pat volunteers Georgia seabird colony that was partially washed over, a and owned by the state, the dredge-spoil island near colony of 450 brown pelicans returned to Satilla the Brunswick shipping channel is an important nesting site for waterbirds. In 2014, 6,473 royal tern nests were documented, along with 50 sandwich tern nests, 90 black skimmer nests, three for gull-billed terns, 250 for least terns, five for brown pelicans and 250 for laughing gulls. The Nongame Conservation Section is working with the corps to Birds FISCAL YEAR 2014 REPORT 3 staff, island managers, and volunteers conducted In 1999, DNR developed the nation’s first statewide woodpeckers already use as foraging habitat. Over the the surveys, which are aimed at helping generate red-cockaded woodpecker Habitat Conservation coming years, recruitment clusters will be installed in more accurate population and trend data for a Plan to provide management options for private suitable places at Lake Seminole WMA to encourage number of Arctic-nesting shorebirds. landowners. The plan includes options for mitigated the expansion of red-cockaded woodpeckers. n Researchers documented 121 pairs of American incidental take and for Safe Harbor. To supplement the red-cockaded woodpecker oystercatchers on the Georgia coast. Safe Harbor targets landowners in southwest population at Silver Lake, Nongame Conservation n Georgia, where plantations managed for the northern A graduate