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. 

Not just rocks: The mussels of our rivers and streams

Today you’re hearing from Meagan Racey, who handles public affairs and media relations for Ecological Services, on her recent encounter with freshwater mussels. This post is part of a series running all month on freshwater mussels, highlighting their importance to the Northeast landscape and the concerted efforts underway to ensure their future in our waters.

The sky beamed blue above, and the sun shined down on me below as I sliced the clear water with my paddle—shwoosh down the right side of the kayak, and shwoosh down the left side. From the shoreline, a great blue heron watched me wearily, and up ahead a bald eagle peered from the treetop. Minnows darted under the water and water bugs glided across the top.

It’s hard to beat a day on the water. My trip down a portion of New England’s longest river, the Connecticut River, started at Greenfield, Mass., and amid all the beautiful details I mentioned above, one unmentioned characteristic struck me the most – the littering of freshwater mussels poking up from the bottom of the clear river.

Reviving a river: From the Atlantic Salmon Federation

Andy Goode, vice president of U.S. programs
for the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

Today you're hearing from Andy Goode, the vice president of U.S. programs for the Atlantic Salmon Federation, an international conservation organization dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of wild Atlantic salmon and the ecosystems on which their well being and survival depend. ASF is a partner in the internationally recognized Penobscot River Restoration Project, re-opening nearly 1,000 mile of habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon, sturgeon, river herring and eight other species of sea-run fish in Maine.


The Penobscot Project offers a rare, far ranging, and for the foreseeable future, our only opportunity to restore a significant run of Atlantic salmon in the southern range of the species. For the first time in 200 years this project will directly address the primary threat to Atlantic salmon restoration by reducing multiple dams in Maine’s largest salmon river, thus offering the real potential to reverse the longterm decline of salmon in the United States.

A creative solution to invasive plants problem at a Delaware park

Two new recruits are spending their summer at Brandywine Creek State Park tackling invasive plants by doing what they do best – eating.

Two river water buffalo, named Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger, are chowing down on invasive plants at a rate of 20 pounds per day as part of the park’s prescribed grazing project. By both eating the plants and crushing the root mat with their weight, the water buffalo are proving very effective for controlling invasive plants like canary reed grass.

Julie Slacum stands with one of the water buffalo. Credit: USFWS

Wetlands ecologist receives award for significant service

Just earlier this year, we cheered for our colleague Ralph Tiner when his work was recognized among the 30 most influential publications in wetland science over the past 30 years. Well, we’re at it again!

On June 11, Ralph was awarded the Department of Interior Superior Service Award for his contributions in leadership, coordination and expertise to his field and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wetlands Inventory program.

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 contractor was able to get back to work late last week (hurray!). Check out the photos taken by the Penobscot River Restoration Trust.

Partnering to save endangered animals: Maryland

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!

In Maryland and other states, bog turtles are most often found on private lands. These lands need long-term maintenance to maintain quality habitat for bog turtles; otherwise the vegetation growth advances or exotic species invade. 

On Deb English’s horse farm, the solution was grazing by sheep and goats. 

The abundance of bog turtles in pastured wetlands like those on English’s farm suggests that grazing has historically maintained the openness of wetlands needed for habitat. English and her family worked with the Maryland Bog Turtle Partnership to improve a section of their farm for the turtles. 

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

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

Where land meets water: Research continues to reveal the value of our wetlands

Wood frog laying eggs in Kettle Pond vernal pool at
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: Thomas Tetzner

With American Wetlands Month, May, coming to a close, we’d like to take some time to recognize the importance of our Northeast wetlands and the work that our experts are doing to protect them. Wetlands act as the kidneys for our communities, cleansing water, filtering pollution and sediment, and regulating nature’s systems.

They are most simply defined as the vital links between land and water. Some of their characteristics, such as flooding and insects, earned wetlands a bad reputation in history, and people filled them for farming or building. Research revealed their true values—drinking water, flood control, buffers for extreme weather, different habitats and wildlife, and places for fishing and other recreation—and legislation, namely the Clean Water Act in 1977, marked our need to protect them.