People Behind a Stronger Coast: Nancy Pau and Susan Adamowicz

Susan Adamowicz, Ph.D. and Nancy Pau have been working with local communities to defend coastal ecosystems against storms in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The two biologists are key players behind invasive species removal and high salt marsh restoration projects at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

Local communities and landowners play a major role in the success of these projects. Pau cites local conservationist and Town of Newbury selectman Geoff Walker as an example.

“There is only so much we can do on protected lands to address resiliency issues,” she says. “A lot more can be done off refuges through decisions made by landowners and towns, especially as towns think about resiliency projects of their own. Having people like Geoff involved, people who understand the big picture of the marsh and how dependent the towns are on the natural ecosystems, is really great. He can speak to the issues that are important to the town.”

Collaboration between biologists and landowners is important when it comes to protecting vulnerable natural areas from storms and sea-level rise. Adamowicz says the high salt marsh habitat is crucial to helping people and wildlife alike withstand and recover from events like Hurricane Sandy.

“Healthy shoreline ecosystems provide much-needed protection for our human communities,” says Adamowicz. “The restored salt marsh will buffer waves and swallow up storm surges.”

Healthy salt marshes also serve as nurseries for fish that support offshore fisheries and support birds such as the saltmarsh sparrow, black rail and black ducks, which rely upon this unique habitat.

This work will allow future generations of wildlife and people to call the shoreline home — and that benefits everyone.

 

Susan Adamowicz, Ph.D. examines Spartina patens, which dominates the high marsh habitat. Susan is the salt marsh biologist for the Land Management Research and Demonstration Area that includes Parker River NWR. She carries out marsh restoration techniques, including use of “runnels,” or narrow, shallow channels, to restore appropriate tidal ebb flows in rapidly declining high salt marsh.

The work of biologists and partners to restore high salt marsh is important to both human and wildlife communities. In addition to supporting coastal resiliency, the marsh acts as a nursery for small fish that support offshore fisheries. American black ducks seek solitude and refuge in salt marshes like these, which provide critical wildlife habitat along the Atlantic Flyway.

The sun rises over sand dunes that separate Parker River National Wildlife Refuge’s inland salt marsh habitat from the Atlantic Ocean. Historic ditches dug to drain the marsh for harvesting salt hay and controlling mosquitoes now cause harmful ponding. Water trapped between ditches saturates the soil, preventing oxygen from reaching plant roots. To keep marsh plants from dying, biologists dig narrow, shallow channels, or “runnels,” to allow water to drain in a more natural way.

Nancy Pau is a wildlife biologist at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Much of her work focuses on restoring resilient salt marsh habitats in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. One way she restores resiliency is removing invasive plants, like perennial pepperweed and Phragmites in the Great Marsh. Here, Nancy poses along Plumbush Creek, with Plum Island Turnpike’s drawbridge and causeway in the background.

Historically, this bridge spanned the width of Plum Island River, which connected Plum Island Sound to the Merrimack River. When it was upgraded, fill was placed on the sides of the bridge that limited the amount of water entering and exiting Plum Island Sound. Biologists are using models to look at ways to restore more natural flows under the bridge.

Looking inland across the salt marsh at sunrise, you can see sturdy grasses and shrubs that protect sand dunes from erosion. The marsh protects coastline property by buffering waves and swallowing storm surges, while also providing habitat for wildlife.

Working with partners, volunteers, and landowners is essential to the success of these interrelated projects. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can do only so much on protected land. Working with volunteers like Geoff Walker, a conservationist, long-time hunter, activist, and selectman in nearby Newbury, helps conservation organizations accomplish more within the community.

An immature bald eagle soars above the salt marsh, scanning for prey.

Perennial pepperweed is an invasive plant newly colonizing salt marshes on the East Coast. With seeds that spread with the tides, it readily out-competes native marsh plants, decreasing biodiversity. Pepperweed has been eradicated in many parts of the refuge. The focus is now on eliminating it throughout the Great Marsh watershed and other sites in New England.

Monitoring erosion in the marsh is vital to understanding the way water and sediment move throughout Plum Island Sound. Scientists believe that marsh erosion is an integral part of a resilient marsh. In systems with low sediment supply, when sediment from these eroding banks gets deposited on the marsh surface, it will help marshes keep pace with sea-level rise.

Susan Adamowicz walks through the salt marsh beyond the remains of one of the refuge’s many relic “marsh hay” “staddles,” or platforms.

Natural landscapes and human-built structures are both important for protecting coastal homes and residents from the threat of storm surges. Together, they make a more resilient coast.

All photos by Steve Droter

Tiny Technology That’s Making a Big Difference

Technology is amazing. Here in the Northeast Region, new advances in technology are allowing us to find out so much more about animal behavior than we have ever known before. Armed with this knowledge, we are able to make much better choices about how to protect these animals. One example of an animal that is benefiting from these technological advances is the saltmarsh sparrow.

Credit: Katrina Amaral

These are tough times for the tiny saltmarsh sparrow. Their only home, the saltmarshes along the Atlantic coast of the United States, are becoming increasingly scarce due to development and rising sea levels. With fewer places to live, saltmarsh sparrow populations are decreasing as well.

In order to determine the best way to help the sparrows, researchers need to know more about their behavior, how they are using the marshes, and which locations are most important to their survival.

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

Because these birds are so small, only weighing about as much as 8 pennies, individual birds have been difficult to track with traditional tracking devices, which were much too large and heavy for them. However, researchers from several of our region’s National Wildlife Refuges, along with other partners, are using today’s tiny tagging technology to find out exactly what these birds are up to!

 

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

The MOTUS tracking system uses nano-tags, miniature radio transmitters that are extremely lightweight. All nano-tags transmit at the same frequency, but each tag has its own identifiable pulse rate.

Credit: Bri Benvenuti

Receiving towers pick up these pulses when a tagged bird flies within a radius of 12 kilometers. Researchers have installed these towers in an expansive network up and down the eastern coast of North America, among other areas. The yellow dots in the map below represent current tower locations.

Credit: Bird Studies Canada- Motus Wildlife Tracking System, http://www.motus-wts.org

Credit: Kate O’Brien

 

One of the most exciting things about this system is the collaboration between researchers and organizations, all working together to collect and share data in an effort to conserve wildlife. The data that they are collecting is not restricted to saltmarsh sparrows. Researchers are studying bats, butterflies, and various other bird species using the nano-tag system as well. Data from the network of towers is downloaded and shared with researchers, providing a service to conservationists everywhere.

So what does this mean for our little saltmarsh sparrow?

Credit: Brian C. Harris

Actually, we aren’t sure yet. This system is so new that data is just beginning to come in. However, we are already discovering some amazing things!

Credit: Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program

For example, preliminary data shows that a few saltmarsh sparrows flew from the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Wells, ME to the Connecticut coastline, a distance of over 150 miles, in just one day!

Migratory route of three saltmarsh sparrows. Credit: Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program

As we learn more about the behavior of these tiny birds, we will begin to answer many questions that we could only guess at before. This knowledge will guide us as we work to conserve their most important habitats in an effort to ensure their survival for generations to come.

This saltmarsh sparrow project is a collaboration of several partners, including the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Connecticut, and the Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program.

For more information, please explore the following links:

Past blog posts about the Region’s nanotag programs

Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program

Motus Wildlife Tracking System

Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook

Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex on Facebook

Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook

Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge on Facebook

A Morning with Monarchs

Hopefully, you remember Katie Banks Hone, the homeowner from Massachusetts that gave us a tutorial on how to grow monarchs! She’s back this year shedding more insight about her successful monarch tagging program.

On a sunny, yet blustery, late September morning fifteen children and their families gathered at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, Mass. to see monarch butterflies, learn about their migration, and send them on their way to their wintering grounds in the mountains of Mexico. Before we let the wind carry them away, they were all affixed with a tiny ID sticker. If these butterflies are found anywhere along their migration, or in their winter forests of Mexico, the information can be reported to Monarch Watch and traced back to being tagged at the refuge. This gives researchers information on individual monarchs and helps further our knowledge of these unique insects.

A tagged monarch rests on a flower next to a happy observer!

Tagging monarchs is very easy. The sticker is simply stuck to the oval pattern on one of the lower wings. When I started tagging for the first time last summer even my four-year-old could do it. Many people ask if it affects the insect’s ability to fly and the answer is no. It’s similar to you putting on one sock.

Monarch release!

After the children and I put tags on the monarchs we brought them out to the refuge’s native gardens and let them go one by one in the goldenrods and other fall nectar plants. A few of them took a sip of nectar then immediately took off, headed in a southerly direction. But others stuck around and even landed on the children making for some very nice photo opportunities for the families participating.

Of all the facts participants learned about monarchs that day what amazed them the most was how a tiny insect, weighing less than a paper clip, can make its way 3,000 miles to Mexico having never been there before. How they do it still remains mostly a mystery to us. But these children and their families are hoping our five make it and then return to Texas next spring to mate and start the cycle all over again.

Katie teaches a migration lesson.

By planting native milkweeds, the only food monarch caterpillars can eat, you can help sustain this declining species. By planting native nectar plants you can also help sustain the monarchs fall migration and support other pollinators too.

How well do you know the monarch butterfly? Take this quiz to find out!