More than just metal: Banding provides essential information

What’s in a band?

We’re not talking about musical geniuses that sing and play in harmony, but referring to the Service’s black duck banding efforts. For decades, national wildlife refuges have worked with state partners to band and monitor black ducks. This important effort helps establish hunting seasons that maintain a healthy number of ducks within their habitat.

Black duck at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland.
Credit: Scott Nielson/USFWS

Best of 2012: 7) Connecting people with nature

We're bringing in the new year with a look back at our milestones for 2012. Check back each day for featured events and activities from across the Northeast!

Volunteer at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in
New Jersey releases a mourning dove after a bird banding
program at the refuge. Credit: Larry West

Released mourning doves, ensured that sea turtle hatchlings made it to the ocean safely, and monitored bat species. Those are just a few of the activities Service volunteers and youth employees had the chance to do while working at national wildlife refuges, field offices, and other Service facilities in 2012. As a natural resource agency, we strive to connect people with nature in meaningful ways that inspire and empower them to take action and make positive changes in natural resource conservation.

Meet Ranger Dave

Today you're hearing from David Sagan, park ranger and visitor services specialist at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey.

As we thank Mother Nature today for her gift of wonder, we would also like to honor someone who is sharing that gift with many others. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service honors one of its own each year with the “Sense of Wonder” award inspired by conservationist and author Rachel Carson.

This year, David Sagan, park ranger and visitor services specialist at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey, represented the Northeast Region as the 2012 regional nominee for the national awards. Today, Dave shares his personal thoughts about the excitement and passion he sees in the young people and families that take part in his programs.

It was spring of last year, and I was leading a group of young students from a nearby city along the trail. A young girl stopped suddenly in her tracks. She stood stiff as a board staring at her elbow.

Needed: Batman-proof bat caves

Today you're hearing from
Eric Schrading, a biologist
in our New Jersey Field Office.
Read more from Eric.

Sure, some people either don’t understand or don’t like bats.

They make up fearful stories about bats and their habits and associate them with villainous creatures such as vampires. But let’s lay down some facts about these truly unique and wonderful creatures.

Bats are the world’s only flying mammals. They can consume nearly one-third their body weight of insects in less than half an hour (that’s a lot of agricultural and forest pests, mosquitoes, and stink bugs), and they are also one of the only animals that are associated with one of America’s most popular superheroes: Batman.

Dammed once, restored now

Today you're hearing from Eric Schrading, private lands coordinator in our New Jersey Field Office, as part of our series on fish passage.

The expense of owning a dam can be quite surprising to a landowner. Dr. Calvin Shen owned a 220 acre farm on Pohatcong Creek in central New Jersey, and on that creek was an earthen dam.

In late 2008, Dr. Shen realized the unreasonable costs of maintaining that 80-year-old Class 2 dam. That’s when he reached out to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to explore ways to breach the dam and restore the Pohatcong Creek.

Partnering to save endangered animals: Delaware

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!

And we're back! Time to feature Delaware and one of its most renowned avian visitors--the red knot. 

Back at the end of May, biologists cheered when a legendary red knot was seen in Delaware Bay. This dove-sized shorebird was tagged in 1995 in Argentina and is thought to now be around 19 years old. If an odometer tagged along with the bird, it would read over 350,000 miles, thanks to its yearly migration from Argentina to the Canadian Arctic.

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

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