TOPICS
HABITAT NEEDS FOR GULF COAST WILDLIFE
WATERFOWLBREEDING POPULATION AND HABITAT SURVEY
MIGRATING BIRDS THREATENED BY GULF OIL
MISSISSIPPI COULD HOLD BACK OIL
OIL SPILL NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER
Using Sound Science, Fish and Wildlife Service Addresses Urgent Habitat
Needs for Birds and Other Wildlife Along the Gulf Coast
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is coordinating efforts along the Gulf Coast to safeguard wildlife such as shorebirds, waterfowl, marsh birds, sea birds and sea turtles from the effects of oil. Working closely with state, federal and non-government partners, the Service is identifying the most pressing habitat needs of these at-risk species, recommending strategic habitat conservation activities to address those needs, and helping to implement projects along the coast from Florida to Texas. Based on the current distribution and impacts of oil along the Gulf’s marshes and coastline and the millions of waterfowl and shorebirds that will soon migrate through or will spend the winter in this area, Service biologists are working to restore and bolster wetland habitats and food sources in nearby, uncontaminated areas in Louisiana, the Chenier Plain of east Texas, and the lower portion of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.
These efforts are designed to restore and protect habitat for resident species along the Gulf Coast, as well as to address concerns about the coming fall migration of some 5 million waterfowl and other migratory birds that will arrive in or pass through the Gulf Coast region throughout the fall and winter months. By quickly initiating these habitat conservation projects, the Service and its partners hope to minimize the chance that migrating or wintering birds will come into contact with contaminated coastal habitats. Also, because food resources for migrating birds have been reduced, degraded or lost due to the oil spill, the Service and its partners’ efforts will help ensure the availability of adequate food to compensate for these losses.
Leading the development and implementation of migratory bird habitat restoration projects along the Gulf Coast are the Service’s Joint Ventures -- collaborative, regionally based, public-private partnerships that work to conserve bird habitat within specific geographic regions. Joint Venture scientists are providing the strategic and scientific underpinnings for habitat restoration efforts, bringing together conservation partners and marshalling resources to address spill impacts to wildlife in the short and long term.
“We know that clean-up and recovery from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will be a long-term process, but we cannot wait to begin assessing and dealing with the impacts to our natural resources,” said Dan Ashe, Acting Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. “For migratory bird conservation, the Joint Ventures are the forum of multiple partners, including scientists and wildlife managers, leading our inclusive, strategic, and adaptive response to the ever-changing situation in the Gulf.”
Migratory bird habitat restoration will help support many other species, including mammals, fish, and reptiles. The Service is working with a wide network of partners to specifically address the needs of these other species. The agency is working with partners to establish Landscape Conservation Cooperatives that will eventually provide this same level of science and planning for all wildlife species.
The Service’s habitat restoration efforts will also support the Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative, an effort launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to work with farmers, ranchers and other landowners to manage portions of their land to enhance habitat for migrating birds in portions of eight states.
Through two components – one available on private agricultural lands and the second on Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) easement lands -- NRCS will work in cooperation with private landowners and other partners to establish habitat and food sources as well as improve the overall habitat management on participating lands.
More information about the NRCS Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative is at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/nrcs_migratory_birds.html.
The 2010 preliminary estimate of the total duck population from the traditional survey area of the Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey is 40.9 million birds. This is similar to last year’s estimate of 42 million birds and is 21 percent above the long-term average.
This report summarizes information about the status of duck populations and wetland habitats during spring 2010, focusing on areas encompassed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) and Canadian Wildlife Services’ (CWS) Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey.
The Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey samples more than two million square miles of waterfowl habitat across the north-central and northeastern United States, south-central, eastern, and northern Canada, and Alaska. The survey estimates the number of ducks on the continent's primary nesting grounds.
Highlights from the survey in the north-central United States, south-central and northern Canada, and Alaska (the traditional survey area) include:
· Estimated mallard abundance was 8.4 million birds, which was similar to the 2009 estimate of 8.5 million birds and 12 percent above the long-term (1955-2009) average;
· Estimated abundance of American wigeon (2.4 million) was similar to 2009 and to the long-term average;
· Gadwall estimated abundance (3 million) was similar to 2009 and 67 percent greater than the long-term average;
· The estimated abundance of green-winged teal was 3.5 million, which was similar to the 2009 estimate and 78 percent above their long-term average of 1.9 million;
· Blue-winged teal estimated abundance was 6.3 million, which was 14 percent below the 2009 estimate, but 36 percent above the long-term average of 4.7 million;
· Estimates of northern shovelers (4.1 million) and redheads (1.1 million) were similar to 2009 and were 76 percent and 63 percent above long-term averages;
· The northern pintail estimate of 3.5 million was similar to the 2009 estimate and 13 percent below the long-term average of 4 million;
· The canvasback estimate of 0.6 million was similar to the 2009 estimate and to the long-term average;
· The combined (lesser and greater) scaup estimate of 4.2 million was similar to that of 2009 and 16 percent below the long-term average of 5.1 million.
In the eastern survey area (northeastern United States and eastern Canada), the population estimate for mergansers was 386,000, 15 percent below the 2009 estimate and 14 percent below the 1990-2009 average.
American black duck populations were similar to the 2009 estimate but 7 percent below the long-term average of 479,000. All other duck population estimates in the eastern survey area were similar to the 2009 estimates and the 1990-2009 average.
Habitat conditions during the 2010 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey were characterized by average to below-average moisture and a mild winter and early spring across the entire traditional (including the northern locations) and eastern survey areas. Conditions across the Canadian prairies were similar to 2009. Portions of southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba improved, but a large area along the Alberta and Saskatchewan border remained dry and moisture levels in portions of Manitoba declined from last year.
The 2010 estimate of ponds in Prairie Canada was 3.7 million. This was similar to last year’s estimate (3.6 million) and to the 1955–2009 average (3.4 million). Wetland numbers and conditions remained excellent in the eastern U.S. prairies, but habitat conditions were poorer through the western Dakotas and Montana. The 2010 pond estimate for the north-central U.S. overall was 2.9 million, which was similar to last year’s estimate (2.9 million) and 87 percent above the long-term average (1.6 million).
Fall and winter precipitation in the eastern Dakotas generally improved the good habitat conditions already present. However, wetland habitats in the western Dakotas and Montana were not recharged, resulting in poorer conditions than in 2009, at the time of the survey.
The annual survey guides the Service’s waterfowl conservation programs under authority of the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Service works in partnership with state biologists from the four flyways – the Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific – to establish regulatory frameworks for waterfowl hunting season lengths, dates, and bag limits.
By Steve Gorman and Ernest Scheyder
LOS ANGELES/FORT JACKSON, La. — Despite the images of oil-soaked pelicans flooding the media in recent weeks, wildlife experts say the toll on sea birds from BP's Gulf Coast oil spill is smaller than was anticipated, so far.
That is expected to change drastically for the worse.
Scientists warn that as shifting weather and sea conditions conspire with the dynamics of avian life cycles, a tremendous number of birds will soon be put in jeopardy.
In the coming weeks, millions of waterfowl and other birds that flock to the Gulf Coast on their annual fall migration will arrive in the region either to roost for the winter or to make brief stopovers en route farther south.
With toxic crude still gushing from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and streaks of the slick creeping inexorably farther inland, many more birds and other wildlife that nest, feed and find shelter on shore are likely to become casualties.
"To this point, we haven't seen a lot of oiled wildlife based on the size of the spill," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Catherine Berg said. "(But) there's still a lot of oil out there. There's still a lot of wildlife in the area."
Birds migrating through the Gulf largely dodged a bullet in the spring when newly escaped oil from the ruptured BP wellhead took longer than expected to wash ashore.
"A lot of those birds were safe on their spring passage, but they won't be safe on their fall passage," said Greg Butcher, bird conservation director for the National Audubon Society.
Wildlife officials are taking various steps to minimize the risks, cordoning off rookeries with containment booms, paying farmers to flood fields that could serve as temporary bird-friendly wetlands, and considering new duck hunting restrictions.
Authorities are even weighing the possibility of capturing baby pelicans to move them out of harm's way, said Jay Holcomb, head of the International Bird Rescue Research Center.
Rehabilitation centers in the Gulf have treated over 800 oil-impaired birds and released at least 250 back to the wild.
..The birds are tagged, and some have come through twice, said Holcomb, who oversees rescue operations out of the main treatment facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana.
"A lot of these birds ... want to come back to their nest," Holcomb said. "Most spills are over really quick, but this is like a new spill every day. It's really discouraging."
Drop box and body counts
A container labeled "Bird Carcass Collection Drop Box" in a corner of the Fort Jackson center is a grim reminder of the difficulties the rehab teams face. Over 100 oiled birds brought there have died or been euthanized, Holcomb said.
To date, more than 2,000 dead and debilitated birds have been counted along the entire Gulf Coast — quadruple the number reported a month ago when the government first began posting its daily tallies.
But Holcomb said partial or skeletal remains with no visible signs of oil exposure account for most of the 1,165 dead specimens found so far and unlikely were spill victims.
The high proportion of older remains from birds that died of natural causes can probably be attributed to the intense efforts to find and catalog every animal that may have been killed or injured in the disaster.
Those counts are more than just academic. They ultimately will help determine how much BP will be expected to pay into a compensation fund for wildlife damages.
Dr. Michael Ziccardi of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the University of California at Davis, said dollar figures attached to birds counted as casualties of past spills have ranged from $500 to $20,000 per individual. Factors include whether the bird was an endangered species and whether any economic or commercial value could be ascribed to the animal.
Exxon Valdez much worse, so far
As disturbing as pictures of oiled wildlife have been, the 850 oil-fouled birds found alive to date and hundreds more known to have died pale in comparison to the 250,000 seabirds estimated to have perished from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound.
"That may change as time goes on because more and more birds are probably going to be oiled," Holcomb said.
Experts say high winds and seas from any number of storms, including Hurricane Alex, could push more oil into the fragile patchwork of salt marshes, beaches, islands and inlets composing the Gulf's ragged shoreline. The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season that officially began last month is expected to be one of the more active in recent years.
Moreover, the Mississippi River's drainage into the Gulf is starting to dissipate after a robust spring outflow — fed by heavy rains and Tennessee floodwaters upstream — that helped keep oil away from shore in the early days of the spill.
As the river levels fall, the Gulf's waters will be drawn back up toward the mouth of the Mississippi and farther into the delta, along with more of the oil on the surface.
Pelicans, gannets and other plunge-diving species were among the hardest-hit at the spill's outset because they feed in open water — where the oil was then most present.
Shorebirds such as sandpipers, and wading species like egrets and herons, are next in line.
"We have a lot of birds on rookeries. We have a lot of birds in the marshes, just roosting locally. Pretty soon, we're going to get an influx of waterfowl as they come in here to molt post breeding season," Berg said.
After mating and nesting in freshwater inland areas, many ducks and geese venture to the coast to molt, losing their worn summer feathers, then growing winter plumage, before continuing their fall migration. In between, they are flightless.
"Think about it. A whole bunch of ducks that can't fly, on the water," Berg said.
Billion birds pass through
The Gulf Coast straddles the Mississippi Flyway, one of the world's major bird migration corridors and one that brings about 1 billion birds from more than 300 species through the region each year.
Tens of millions of sandpipers and plovers from Alaska and Canada will be arriving within days on their way to Latin America, Butcher said. Most roost in the uplands away from shore but venture down to the beaches, mudflats and sand bars to feed at low tide.
Herons and egrets that have stayed fairly stationary while nesting are now on the move with their young, potentially becoming more exposed to oil in the marshes, he said.
Hoping to create safe, clean rest stops for migrating birds as alternatives to wetlands fouled by oil, a land conservation agency of the U.S. Agriculture Department announced this week it would pay growers to convert cropland to bird habitat by flooding rice fields.
Gulf authorities have had success here and there in keeping oil out of some prime bird real estate.
Hundreds of pelicans and other birds remain safe for now on Grand Terre Island, a major roosting ground in Louisiana's Barataria Bay that has been encircled with soft and hard boom.
Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser and other local officials made the island's protection a top priority, though they acknowledge that a large storm could tear through the artificial barrier. Some of the surrounding marshes already have been fouled as oil continues to creep farther, especially during morning and evening tides.
"God forbid if we have another Katrina, we'll be picking oil off Bourbon Street," Nungesser said.
OIL HAD HIT THE FRAGILE GULF COAST WETLANDS. TO FIGHT IT, THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI RIVER MUST GET EVEN MIGHTIER,
SCIENTISTS SUGGEST.
Brett Israel
The battle plan is simple: Open the floodgates on the Mississippi River leg that runs through New Orleans and the rushing water will block the BP Deepwater Horizon oil gusher from harming the delta wetlands further.
"The Mississippi River's plumbing provides a potential benefit to reducing the movement of oil onshore from shelf waters," said coastal wetlands ecologist Robert Twilley of Louisiana State University, who supports the plan.
The plan, backed by researchers at LSU and the National Audubon Society, calls for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open concrete gates built within the river's levees about 315 miles (507 kilometers) upriver from the Gulf of Mexico. In theory, this would release enough water to wash away the gunk that is approaching from the Gulf. The extra flow could also flush out the oil that has reached coastal wetlands such as the Wax Lake Delta at the mouth of the Mississippi.
The Old River Control Structure, as the river's plumbing is called, routes about 70 percent of the Mississippi River through New Orleans, and 30 percent to the nearby Atchafalaya River.
The Mississippi River's stream stage, a measurement of water height above the river bed, is as high as 42 feet (13 m) near the Old River Control Structure, which is relatively high. The plan recommends shifting the water flow to send up to 81 percent of the river through New Orleans to beat back the oil.
Even if the Corps doesn't approve the plan, the river may be able to fight off some of the oil on its own.
AUDUBON LAUNCHES NATIONAL OIL SPILL VOLUNTEER RESPONSE CENTER
Facility in Mississippi to mobilize more than 13,000 volunteers
New York, NY, June 4, 2010 -
A new national Volunteer Response Center is gearing up to channel the energies of a growing force of volunteers seeking to help birds, wildlife and habitat to weather the assault of the Gulf oil spill.
The National Audubon Society will use the facility in Moss Point, Mississippi along with organizers deployed to affected areas in four states to contact, coordinate and mobilize more than 13,000 volunteers who signed up with Audubon in the first weeks of the disaster. That number is expected to grow.
"The volunteer response to this growing disaster has been amazing," said Sean Saville, National Field Director for the National Audubon Society. "People just want to do something to help, and with the additional coordinating capacity at our new Volunteer Response Center we can engage volunteers in a positive and timely way and also help set realistic expectations about what volunteer opportunities are available. Volunteers with the right skills and a positive attitude can make a world of difference by being available when and where they're needed."
Early in the crisis Audubon teams responded to urgent requests from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Louisiana, recruiting and scheduling scores of volunteers to work dockside shifts to assist federal and state wildlife agencies in their recovery and transport of oiled and injured birds. Though initial needs were lower than expected, the vital staffing goes on. Across the Gulf Coast, volunteers screened for special skills are helping to identify and mark fragile coastal areas to protect habitats and nesting areas from damage as clean-up operations become necessary.
"Things have been pretty hectic since my arrival, but the National Audubon Society has really stepped up to coordinate volunteers for different areas of the State," said Beth Pattinson, an employee of the US Fish & Wildlife-Alaska working out of the Houma, Louisiana Unified Command Center as the Volunteer Coordinator for this area of the spill.
"All I have to do is make a request of the folks I work with at Audubon for a location where hands, hearts and skills are needed and Audubon fills that request. Each day, I get to talk to the volunteers as they check in for their area and it makes my day. What a wonderful group of committed, concerned and good-hearted people."
Audubon says most people simply want to help. Though it will take a while to reach out to all registered volunteers by phone, those who are called are reassured upon learning that that there will be future opportunities to help, including participation in long-term restoration efforts.
Anticipated volunteer activities include:
• Volunteer Response Center Staff — scheduling volunteers, identifying and coordinating engagement with new projects, logistical support, arranging training, office management, etc.
• Coastal Bird Survey — collecting data and photos on bird resources and impacts across the coast according to specific scientific protocols.
• Wildlife Transport Facilitator —assisting USFWS and Tri-State Bird Rescue with volunteers scheduled in round-the-clock shifts in key locations for injured/oiled wildlife recovery and transport operations throughout the coastal region.
• Bird Capture and Rescue Materials — volunteers are needed to make nets, cages and other materials to assist trained professionals in oiled bird rescue efforts.
• Citizen Science Monitoring — submitting electronic information on birds sightings at Important Bird Areas, refuges or sanctuaries to assess population impacts, numbers of target species or species of concern
• Bird Hotline Operators –- providing on-site bird expertise for our Volunteer Response Center as well as possibly in field offices of BP, Tri-State Bird Rescue and others involved in response efforts to address issues related to bird sightings, handling, species identification, etc.
A fixture in the Gulf for decades, Audubon is well known to community leaders, resource management agencies and conservation-minded residents. Its priority efforts to arresting the erosion of coastal land and restore the health marshes are vital to maintaining storm protection, protecting birds and wildlife, and ensuring the prosperity of coastal communities. From wildlife monitoring to restoration projects and dealing with invasive plants, volunteers will play important roles in the restoring the long-term health of the region.
"Audubon has been working for the health of Gulf for years. We can help volunteers to make a difference now, when it's needed most, and together we can help the region grow even stronger long after the headlines fade," said Dr. Mark LaSalle, Director of the Pascagoula River Audubon Center in Moss Point.
"The renewed attention about the state of our natural resources will do much to help engage volunteers in meaningful efforts to document their status through Citizen Science programs like the newly launched Audubon Coastal Bird Survey, and then to help restore habitats long impacted by over development."
Audubon's Volunteer Response Center is located at: 6016 Highway 63 in Moss Point. Interested volunteers may register online at www.audubon.org and will be contacted shortly as opportunities arise.
The Response Center facility and operations are made possible in part by a donation from Chevron, a long-time supporter of Audubon conservation education efforts in the region.
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