Birdseye View: Avian Science meets Hurricane Recovery

Tagging red knots on Cape Cod. The yellow tag is a geo-locator; the lime green alphanumeric flag means it was banded in the U.S. Credit: USFWS

While the  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to respond to damage from 2012’s Hurricane Sandy—clearing out wind-felled timber or hauling hundreds of tons of debris out of coastal salt marsh—the agency is also using science to assess the full scope of the storm’s ecological impact and establish a baseline for future conservation efforts. Some Service research that’s been integral to Hurricane Sandy recovery and resilience efforts is already visible in projects like the recently completed beach restorations along New Jersey’s Delaware Bay. This region has long been seen as indispensable to migrating shorebirds like the red knot, whose eastern population has plummeted 80 percent in the past decade.

While many of the most impacted bird species are shorebirds, studies by the Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program (SHARP), a collaborative effort between the Fish and Wildlife Service and several other academic, governmental, and privately funded partners, are focused more on marsh birds such as the seaside sparrow, the willet and the clapper rail. According to Randy Dettmers, a senior biologist with the Service, one project funded under the Hurricane Sandy umbrella (and preceded by supporting SHARP research) has targeted more than 1,700 observation points across tidal marshes from Maine to Virginia for post-Sandy monitoring of migratory bird populations.

Survey regions for USFWS/SHARP Tidal Marsh Bird monitoring.

Partners in the SHARP collaboration include the Universities of Maine, Delaware, New Hampshire, Connecticut and State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as well as the Audubon Society, the National Park Service, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and many other state- and regionally based organizations. The program also employs dozens of graduate and undergraduate students who collect abundance, breeding and survival data by monitoring these sites and banding birds.

Student participants in the SHARP program, Left to Right: Chris Field, Univerity of Connecticut; Alison R. Kocek, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Mo Correll and Meaghan Conway, University of Maine. Credit: Margie Brenner/USFWS

Another Sandy-funded project launched by Dettmers and Service colleagues Chris Dwyer and Scott Johnston examines the prevalence and distribution of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV)—coastal plants that grow beneath the waterline and are primary food sources for wintering waterfowl, including the priority species Atlantic brant and American black duck. Studies of SAV in the wake of an intense storm like Sandy, Dettmers says, will provide an excellent picture of “how much of [the vegetation] is vulnerable to climate change impacts from sea-level rise and future major storm events and what the resulting impacts on wintering waterfowl populations are likely to be.”

American black ducklings nesting in coastal marsh. Credit: Peter McGowan/USFWS

Dettmers says the effects of predicted climate change will be increasingly challenging for coastal habitat and the species that depend on it. He expects that future storms and sea level rise will likely impact beach and tidal marsh habitats, affecting birds’ ability to find food and suitable nesting places, and that ultimately this may result in reduced bird populations.

“Species like the saltmarsh sparrow and seaside sparrow are endemic to the Atlantic coast marshes of North America,” he says.  “They don’t occur anywhere else in the world, and they’re highly vulnerable to sea-level rise and major storm impacts such as are expected from climate change. If tidal marshes in this part of the world are lost, we’ll lose those species as well.”

He adds that beach-dependent species like the red knot—already a candidate for threatened status under the Endangered Species Act because of other threats to its population—“will only be pushed further toward the endangered end of the conservation concern spectrum” if the loss of coastal habitat can’t be somehow stabilized.

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A clapper rail chick. Credit: Don Freiday/USFWS

To read more about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Migratory Birds program, click here. To read more about the SHARP program and its constituent collaborating agencies and institutions, click here.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been working to repair and restore public lands on the Atlantic coast since Hurricane Sandy impacted them in October of 2012. To learn more about the Service’s ongoing efforts to facilitate habitat recovery and build coastal resilience that helps protect communities, please visit www.fws.gov/hurricane/sandy.

 

A Blue Whale-sized Milestone

Cleanup workers at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Southern New Jersey have been busy of late, hauling garbage out of the marshes that line a 22-mile stretch of coastline near Atlantic City. The debris was dumped there when Hurricane Sandy made landfall at the refuge’s doorstep, sweeping up all manner of jetsam from the densely populated surrounding area and depositing it, as it were, on the front porch.

Debris scattered by Hurricane Sandy across the coastal marshes at E.B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (Credit Ryan Hagerty/USFWS)

Crews have been working through brutally cold days this winter to complete the cleanup in Brick Township. When the cleanup ends,the Service will begin restoring the marshes, making them a stronger front line protecting coastal communities during future storms.

The Service oversees work being done to remove debris from fragile marsh areas. (Credit Ryan Hagerty/USFWS)

As of early March, about 200 tons of debris—roughly the equivalent of a blue whale in sheer mass—have been removed, including boats, docks, remains of buildings, barrels, drums and fuel tanks, some of which contained contaminants.

“Lands protected as a part of Forsythe Refuge buffered inland areas from the full brunt of Hurricane Sandy…we will clean and restore this vibrant and resilient stretch of coast to sustain wildlife and protect the people of New Jersey in the future,” said Refuge Manager Virginia Rettig.

Refuge Manager Virginia Rettig gives Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell a tour of the marsh at Forsythe. (Credit Keith Shannon/USFWS)

Click here to read about how and where the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is working to restore natural areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy. You can also view photos of cleanup projects here.

The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge protects more than 47,000 acres of southern New Jersey coastal habitats which are actively managed for migratory birds.

Gifts from nature: Storm protection

Extensive damages from Hurricane Sandy – and Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 – have stirred many discussions on how to best protect our property from future storms. Some of those discussions include protections built in by Mother Nature.

Coastal Wetlands at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, MA. Credit: Kelly Fike/USFWS.

During this season of holiday giving, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would like to take time and reflect on the gifts we receive throughout the year from Mother Nature. Gifts of Nature are treasures to behold and wonders to be thankful for.

The storm protection offered by Mother Nature comes from wetlands, marshes, reefs and other natural buffers from storms:

• Wetlands and marshes function like big sponges, absorbing floodwaters and slowly releasing them.
• These areas also stabilize shoreline and channels from high erosion.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2009 report on wetlands reflects a continuous but slowing decline in all types of wetlands over time. The net wetland loss was estimated to be 62,300 acres between 2004 and 2009, bringing the nation’s total wetlands acreage to just over 110 million acres in the continental U.S. In the Northeast, areas of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York experienced the highest rate of freshwater wetland loss between those years.

Earlier this week, when we wrote about healthy waters, we referenced the important role of wetlands in that system. When you’re thinking about that new year resolution for healthy waters, consider helping wetlands too!