News Roundup

Today we're taking a break from featuring endangered species by state, but take a few minutes to see what we heard this week! Check back next week for features on the wonderful states of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.

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NJ Cape May County Herald: Water and Praises Flow at Cox Hall Creek Event
VILLAS — Like an epic movie, it was 11 years in the making but the ending is monumental. On Wed., June 20, officials from Lower Township and county agencies cut a ribbon dedicating the Cox Hall Creek Improvement Project which removed a derelict sewage pumping station and sent a pipe to Delaware Bay to allow cleansing salt water in the phragmites reed clogged creek.

Over hundreds of years, attempts to control water flow has allowed invasive plants to crowd out other wildlife. This project is part of a long-term effort to control invasive wildlife along the Delaware Bay of New Jersey. A team is working to restore 87 acres of wetlands to control water quality and flooding, as well as provide habitats for our native wildlife. Through our Delaware Bay Estuary Project and New Jersey Field Office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided much-needed resources to complete this project.

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Keeping our turtles off the roads

As families head out for summer vacations, we hope you'll keep your eyes out for a few creatures that may be on their own journeys. At this time of year, it's common to see amphibians and reptiles making their way across roads, nesting alongside or sunning themselves on or near the pavement. 

Young snapping turtle. Credit: Eric Schrading/USFWS

Reviving a river: Dam breached!

Each week, our folks at the Maine field office are driving by to check on the progress of the Great Works Dam removal, part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. 

The dam was breached this past Saturday! Watch the video here (you may want to skip ahead to minute 11).

Courtesy Penobscot River Restoration Trust

 
However, Old Town has seen some pretty serious rain lately. It may be a couple weeks before folks can get back to work. 

Credit: Steven Shepard/USFWS

 
See older photos here. 

Partnering to save endangered animals: New Jersey

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

Turtle collectors covet bog turtles because of their beauty and scarcity. Some people pay hundreds of dollars for one on the black market. On the other hand, some people take actions that harm bog turtles. The Endangered Species Act provides the bog turtle with protection for these sorts of activities. 

One man, even after informed of bog turtle presence and of the harm the tree removal would, damaged bog turtle habitat on his farmland. The land had been improved for bog turtles by a previous owner. Since the work was done, no bog turtles have been documented there. Read more of the story.

An example of the type of habitat where bog turtles can be found.
Credit: Gary Peeples/USFWS

Partnering to save endangered animals: Pennsylvania

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

We established the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Pennsylvania in part to protect the federally threatened bog turtle. Pennsylvania state agencies all identified habitat loss and fragmentation -- mostly due to development -- as the main threat facing North America's smallest turtles. 

When the refuge boundary was established, Cherry Valley was experiencing a surge in residential development that threatened the turtle’s habitat -- wet meadows and other shallow, sunny wetlands, known as fens. Refuge Manager Michael Horne says the first parcel acquired for the refuge provided “promising wetlands in terms of bog turtle management.” Read more of the story.

Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: USFWS

From the Appalachians to the Adirondacks to the Rhode Island coast

One biologist’s contribution to conservation

Today, in line with our feature of endangered species work in Rhode Island, we’re featuring one of the folks who is making this type of work happen--Ryan Kleinert, a 2012 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, where he studied wildlife and conservation biology, and a biological science technician for the Service.

Over the past three summers, I’ve seen numerous piping plover, American oystercatcher, and least tern chicks grow feathers and fly, and I’ve also seen many not make it past the first week of hatching.

A successful field season takes an enormous amount of time, dedication to detail, consistent effort and devotion. But it’s hard to describe how gratifying it is to see that egg hatch or chick fly away.

The most challenging aspect that I face while monitoring and protecting shorebirds involves circumstances that are completely out of my control, such as when a nest gets over-washed by a spring high tide. I have to consistently remind myself that I did everything I could possibly do for that nest, adult bird, chick, and so on.

Partnering to save endangered animals: Rhode Island

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

From the beginning, Avalonia Land Conservancy recognized Sandy Point Island as a treasure, a property unlike any others it owned – a sandy island enough removed from the shore to provide isolation and uniqueness while still close to home, says its former president Anne Nalwalk.

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began to monitor the use of the island by various shorebirds, the true value of Sandy Point as a nature preserve became most apparent. Avalonia has been amazed to learn the importance of Sandy Point to shorebirds that use it for nesting, resting and staging. Read the story.

Binti Ackley, a volunteer at Sandy Point, helps tag horseshoe crabs, watch
and protect shorebird nests and chicks, and educate visitors. Credit: John Ackley

Partnering to save endangered animals: Connecticut

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

Your only chance at seeing the tiny Puritan tiger beetle is in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and the Connecticut River in New England. Historically, there were 11 populations along the Connecticut River, but only these two remain.

The Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge has long been the driving force in protecting and restoring the embattled beetle population on state- and city-owned property in Massachusetts. It was only natural for them to lead the efforts to help protect and maintain the beetles' other population in Connecticut. Read more of the story.

Puritan tiger beetles are voracious predators, preying on other invertebrates
by chasing and catching them in a tiger-like manner. Credit: Susi von Oettingen/USFWS

Partnering to save endangered animals: New York

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

New York’s Long Island is home to more than 7 million people, two major airports, nine bridges, 13 tunnels, and one very rare plant—the sandplain gerardia. This plant with delicate pink flowers grows at a handful of sites on Long Island, where coastal grasslands have been crowded by development or non-native plants. 

A partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration led way to the protection of more than 100 acres for this plant and other wildlife. Read the rest of the story. 

Protection of the Sayville grasslands is critical to survival of
sandplain gerardia. Credit: Ed Sambolin

Reviving a river: Checking in at Great Works Dam

Each week, our folks at the Maine field office are driving by to check on the progress of the Great Works Dam removal, part of the Penobscot River Restoration Project.
 
The photo is taken from the Bradley shore on the east side looking at the dam from downstream. You can see the 1930s fishway in the center, with the pulp mill on the left.

We'll be seeing a lot more change on the section at left as continues. 



Credit: Steven Shepard/USFWS



This is part of a series on fish passage. Read the other blog posts here.

 

A day with the terns of Ram Island

Today you’re hearing from Brett Hillman, a biological science technician for the Service’s New England Field Office, as he recounts his work with shorebirds in Massachusetts. Brett assists the endangered species biologists and has the great pleasure of working with a wide variety of wildlife.

Before May 24, I never thought I could have so much fun and learn so much while being pooped on by hundreds of real-life Angry Birds! That all changed when I had the great pleasure of helping with some field work at a tern colony on Ram Island in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.

Partnering to save endangered animals: Massachusetts

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

A few decades ago, an uncontrolled wildfire roared through an area of pine barrens on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, burning 8 square miles down to the sandy soil.

Today, the communities and businesses of the town of Mashpee border these fire-prone barrens, as well as lands protected by federal, state and local agencies. Not only do thousands of people live here, but the rare New England cottontail has also found a home in the pitch pines and scrub oaks of the barrens. Read the rest of the story.

Contrary to what some may know, some types of young forests are dependent on
periodic wildfire. Fire management officers mimic the natural fire process to keep a
healthy space for plants and wildlife, including the rare New England cottontail,
which needs this habitat for survival.
Credit: Catherine J. Hibbard/USFWS

Partnering to save endangered animals: Vermont

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

Just over 10 years ago, state and federal biologists didn't know that the endangered Indiana bat spent its summers roosting in Vermont's Lake Champlain Valley.

After tracking bats into the valley, they teamed up to learn more about its habits. The information they collected would become vital for protecting and conserving Indiana bats and their key habitat when the disease white-nose syndrome entered the picture years later. Finish the story.

Partnering to save endangered animals: New Hampshire

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

Happy Pollinator Week! This week, we have a chance to learn more and recognize the little, hard-working animals that pollinate the majority of our flowering plants and crops.

Within this group of hummingbirds, bats, bees, beetles, butterflies and flies is the Karner blue butterfly, a small endangered butterfly found in oak savannas and pine barrens from eastern Minnesota to the Atlantic seaboard.

Partnering to save endangered animals: Maine

We're so excited about the new interactive map highlighting endangered species efforts in each state across the nation. Each day we'll feature a state, partner and animal. Subscribe on the right to keep up!

Almost 150 years ago, Maine’s fish commissioner saw the toll that over-fishing, pollution, dams, and loss of habitat were taking on Atlantic salmon.

He began exploring the possibility of raising salmon in captivity to restore wild stocks, and his husbandry work led to the creation of the first Atlantic salmon hatchery, a predecessor to the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery. The hatchery's work produces up to 3 million eggs that are raised for release in the wild. Read the rest of this story. 

Salmon are raised at Craig Brook and released in the Penobscot River.
Credit: Randy Spencer – ME DMR

Reviving a river: From the coast

Last week we celebrated the beginning of dam removal at the Great Works Dam in the Penobscot River in Maine. Today, you’ll hear from senior biologist Jed Wright in our Gulf of Maine Coastal Program. This office provided the project with the first federal funding and is making major contributions to restoring fish passage throughout the Penobscot River watershed.

The Gulf of Maine Coastal Program has been a strong supporter of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. We’ve provided both funding and technical assistance to the project, and we’re now building upon this unique opportunity by identifying and implementing priority fish passage projects at dams and road crossings throughout the Penobscot River. 

Reviving a river: Getting fish around those dams

Today, you’re hearing again from the head of our Maine field office, Laury Zicari. Last time we talked about the long history of native fish in Maine. Now, learn how we help get fish up and around those dams using fishways. 

 

Working to relicense hydropower projects while accommodating native fish is a challenge.

This past week, our team got together to do their annual compliance inspection. The team includes our Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hydropower relicensing biologist, Steve, the Natural Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) engineer Don, three fishway engineers from the our regional office, two NMFS law enforcement agents and hydroplant operators.
The inspection focused on compliance with fishway operating criteria and turbine operation protocols at the larger hydroelectric plants. 

Who’s talking about the Penobscot?

Hear, hear, make way for the fish! The joy for the Penobscot's future splashed all over the news, with more than 50 articles popping up over the weekend through yesterday.

Take a look at what they had to say:

"The dams will fall and the salmon will rise.

That may sound like prophesy, but it’s as certain as scientific predictions get these days, particularly in matters of ecological restoration." From a National Geographic blog

Which endangered animal calls your state home?

Find out what we’re doing to help. 

Today we’re excited to launch an interactive map where you can learn about efforts to protect your state’s wildlife in need. The Service developed the map to share stories of success and partnership built across America under the Endangered Species Act. 

The new, web-based interactive map has information about endangered species success
in every state. Find it at http://www.fws.gov/endangered.

Reviving a river: From the field

Yesterday, we celebrated the first step to removing the huge Great Works Dam on the Penobscot River. Today, you’ll hear from the head of our Maine field office, Laury Zicari. This office has done a tremendous amount of work to ensure that measures are taken to avoid, minimize, or compensate for the impacts on fish and wildlife from dams along the Penobscot.

Greetings from the Great State of Maine and the Maine Field Office!

I have worked in Ecological Services for about 22 years, transferring to Maine last year. This a great place to do the work of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Any map of Maine will show you the long history connecting our state with fish. You'll see many marvelous fish-related names derived from the language of the Native Americans that lived here long before European settlers arrived:

• Cobbosseecontee – Abenaki for “plenty of sturgeon” 
• Kenduskeag - Abenaki for “eel place or eel weir place” 
• Passagassawakeag – Malecite for “place for spearing sturgeon by torchlight”
• Passamaquoddy – Abenaki or Micmac for “plenty of pollock jumping”
• Wassookeag – Abenaki for “shining fish place”
• Alamoosook – Anglicized Malacite for "at the fish spawning place”
• Mattamiscontis – Abenaki for “alewife stream”
• Mattawamkeag – Abenaki for “fishing place beyond gravel bar”
• Androscoggin – Abenaki for “place where fish are cured”
• Medddybemps – Passamaquoddy-Abenaki for “plenty of alewives”

(From Brian McCauley's "The Names of Maine – How Maine Places got their names and What They Mean," 2004)

Reviving a river

The Penobscot River Restoration Project

 

The Penobscot River, New England's second largest river system, once flowed freely for more 100 miles from Maine's North Woods to the sea. 

Over two centuries, more than 100 dams were built that crippled its course, obstructing migratory paths of sea-run fish like Atlantic salmon, shad, eels and alewives and diminishing the water's health and food for wildlife upstream.

Today, hundreds will watch as we begin a new era for Maine's largest river by dismantling one of those dams: the Great Works Dam, 1,000 feet of concrete, timber and cribwork. Its removal is part of a broad effort that will eventually include removing two dams, modifying a third dam and increasing fish passage at four other dams (see map).

Connecting rivers connects us

Has a river been an important part of your life?  If so, you’re not alone.  Rivers and their tributaries are literally in our own backyards according to Rebecca Wodder, Senior Advisor to Secretary of the Interior.  Wodder recently addressed over 300 participants at Fish Passage 2012, a conference at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst campus.

   

Water flows freely on Yokum Brook in Becket,

 Massachusetts following removal of the Ballou Dam.  Credit:

Jan Rowan/USFWS.

The return of Atlantic salmon to reaches of the Kennebunk River in Maine once blocked by a 164-year old dam made a deep impression on Wodder about the resilience of rivers.  “It gave me a sense of hope,” she said.

That sense was a common theme among participants at Fish Passage 2012.  Over a hundred presentations addressed biology, hydrology, and engineering topics with the hope that our rivers  continue to provide connectivity not only for fish and wildlife, but for us as well!

Our broken rivers affect fish…and you.

A devastating storm hit Vermont in fall 2011. It brought water levels rivaling the historic flood of 1927. Among the $1 billion of damage were 960 damaged culverts that led to floodwater and debris wiping out roads and homes.

What does this have to do with the Fish and Wildlife Service? Well, what we found out is that culverts, or road-stream crossings, that allow fish to pass through can also pass high waters and debris. Culverts that we helped design to pass fish withstood the storm. But these structures, typically tube- or square-shaped, are often undersized or placed at the wrong height for water levels.

The Service's New York Field Office used this bottomless
culvert, shaped like an arch, to simulate a more natural
environment for fish. The project opened 18 miles of
waterway. More images.

So having the right size, shape and placement is good for surviving extreme weather. But there are other reasons we want structures to allow fish to move up and downstream.

Fish are indicators of how healthy our environments and rivers are. They represent a natural water system. At one time, our nation’s fish populations were among the richest and most diverse in the world. But as we developed, barriers were constructed across streams and rivers—from dams for irrigation, power and drinking water to culverts under roads. Much of these prevented aquatic wildlife from moving between their natural habitats. Once abundant fish populations have declined or entirely disappeared due to these barriers.

The impacts reach beyond fish and affect the local communities surrounding these waters. Aquatic resources provide recreational, commercial and subsistence opportunities. Barriers cause water quality problems for people and wildlife. Boaters rely on free flowing rivers. Out-of-use dams are dangerous and a liability to owners.

America has more than 6 million of these barriers that range from dams to culverts and obstruct the natural flow of water and natural movement of wildlife. In the Northeast, many of our Service programs are involved in projects to correct this problem, from the National Fish Passage Program to the Coastal and Partners for Fish and Wildlife programs. Check back with us throughout the month for examples of how we’re helping free our region’s waters.

Videos: 

Importance of Fish Passage 

A River Couldn't Run Through It 

The National Fish Passage Program in Vermont

This is part of a series on fish passage. Read the other blog posts here.