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GreenRoof Los Angeles
by Gregory Wright, SUN Utility Network, Inc.

California's energy and water crises are making politicians, planners, and landlords nervous. An international group of environmental planners and architects are recommending a package of practical solutions—the GreenRoof Los Angeles Plan.

Imagine that the gray roofs of Los Angeles' industrial, commercial, and public school facilities have been transformed into rooftop micro-solar electric and thermal energy stations, water distillation and storage facilities, micro-organic farms, and even micro-parks—an L.A. of the future that has caught up with the fundamental 21st century need for sustainable living.

Technology and architecture are making important, but not fully exploited, advances. "The roofs of our schools, industrial plants, shopping malls, apartment buildings, office buildings, and many other structures collectively are one of our most underutilized resources," says Les Hamasaki, president of SUN Utility Network, Inc., and a sustainable development planner. "The roofs of Los Angeles—and the roofs of most other cities—are prime real estate waiting to be put to many good uses."

A group of urban planners, architects, designers, solar technologists, ornithologists, ecologists, and sustainable energy advocates is being assembled by SUN Utility to create a multi-faceted plan for the city's roof tops. Led by Hamasaki and world-renowned architect Ken Yeang, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the GreenRoof L.A. team is pitching the vision to building owners and city leaders with an eye to the sky and a vision of the future.

"A wealth of functions is waiting to be tapped on our rooftops," states Hamasaki. "Energy production, water cleansing and storage, recreation, organic food production, and even bird habitat are uses to which the top surfaces of many buildings could be put. We have an opportunity and a need to rethink, redesign, and recycle our urban landscape, in particular the vast wasted roof space, into more productive use."

While GreenRoof's benefits are primarily directed to serve the needs of people, wildlife won't be left out. Various container and non-container plants, including herbs, shrubs, vines, grasses, and trees, are being considered for GreenRoofs in southern California to provide food (seeds, berries, fruits, nectar), roosting opportunities and vantage points, and shelter and nesting resources for local and migrating birds, and to support populations of appropriate insects and spiders. Envision a rooftop landscape interspersed with small fountains and ponds of moving water sparkling in the sun. It is hard to say who will enjoy these urban "islands in the sky" more—birds or humans.

Yeang is pioneering a new architectural form to take advantage of sunny climates to create the prototypical sustainable "bioclimatic city" of the future. Bioclimatic-skyscraper design principles, which underlie the GreenRoof L.A. enterprise, seek to optimize the use of the ambient energies and conditions of a structure's locale to enhance quality of life and to create a dramatic and beautiful new architecture. Applying the design principles of this century's best new buildings to the structures built in the previous century could reap enormous benefits both ecological and economic, aesthetic and practical. The roofline can serve the bottom line.

For more information, contact Les Hamasaki, President, SUN Utility Network, Inc., 626 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 711, Los Angeles, California 90017, (213) 623-9797, info@sunutility.com, www.sunutility.com.

Using Technology to Optimize Planning
by Kathy Maher, Ducks Unlimited Canada

Researchers working in conservation planning have long relied on a variety of techniques to map and manage their efforts. Through advanced technology, they are constantly striving to improve their planning, implementation, and evaluation.

The advent of geographic information systems (GIS) has accelerated researchers' ability to manage data. The GIS method refers to computer-based technology that records, stores, analyzes, and displays information about the Earth's surface. The information can include what is on the landscape, what is under it, the value of the land, and the location of natural resources, utilities, and human populations.

Brian Kazmerik, Ducks Unlimited Canada's (DUC) manager of GIS explains, "We have always wanted to direct our conservation efforts to the landscapes where we can make the biggest difference to waterfowl and other wildlife. About 4 years ago, we decided that we wanted to go beyond wetland mapping and combine information on waterfowl surveys, habitat capability, wetland characteristics, and nesting cover to focus our efforts where we could affect the largest portion of the waterfowl population." The GIS is the tool for the job. It has become DUC's main strategic planning tool, allowing researchers to combine data from many sources to derive new information. The GIS has become the common language for sharing land-related information among conservation partners. The thread that ties the data together is geographic location.

Ducks Unlimited Canada, in concert with its research arm, the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research, recently developed a major new system which relies heavily on GIS and waterfowl prediction models. This innovative Decision Support System (DSS) could revolutionize the way DUC and other partners plan and manage their conservation programs.

Perhaps the most exciting application of DSS is that users can overlay basic GIS data with a host of other variables. Ducks Unlimited Canada staff can now build a single planning map where it was previously necessary to incorporate several to show land cover, wetland inventories, and waterfowl populations. The other variables now readily accessible include moisture conditions, pair survey data, and land ownership. With DSS, much of the guess work is eliminated.

According to Rick Andrews, regional biologist with DUC in Brandon, Manitoba, "An interesting aspect of DSS is that it can actually refine our targeting in terms of promoting a new program on-the-ground. For example, by studying overlaid information of land use and farmer innovation, we can begin our efforts to launch a grazing club in an area where there are fewer cultivated and cropped acres and more acres of perennial cover. This means that we could anticipate less resistance in promoting a new conservation-friendly farming approach and hope that other farmers would be shown and taught by the efforts of the early innovators."

All of this means more efficient use of resources on the landscape and better results for the wildlife and people who call it home.

For more information, contact Karla Guyn, Conservation Programs Biologist, Ducks Unlimited Canada, P.O. Box 1160, Stonewall, Manitoba R0C 2Z0, (204) 467-3325, k_guyn@ducks.ca.

Banded Northern Hawk Owl Sets World Record
by Rob MacDonald, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Hardy Pletz of Edmonton, Alberta, has been banding birds for more than 25 years. It only takes a few moments of conversation with Hardy to detect his enthusiasm for banding raptors. On February 21, 2000, in an area of open pasture and cropland interspersed with trembling aspen, Hardy banded an after-hatching-year female northern hawk owl with band number 1327-06889. Little did he know that this simple act would be the first step in creating a world record.

On October 26, 2000, staff at the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) in Dillingham, Alaska, received a call regarding a dead northern hawk owl found along a road passing through open tundra bordered by mixed spruce/birch forest. Wrapped around the bird's leg was a band: number 1327-06889.

Calls to the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory and the Canadian Bird Banding Office identified Hardy as the original bander. Additional information indicated the owl had been banded at Bittern Lake, approximately 30 miles south of Edmonton. The band recovery in Dillingham was approximately 1,980 miles away, point-to-point—an extraordinary journey for a species regarded as non-migratory. Previous band recoveries of the owl in North America indicate movements from 12 to 161 miles. In Europe, the greatest distance traveled by a northern hawk owl was a record 1,116 miles. Hardy's bird journeyed 864 miles farther. It is now a part of avian history, setting the record for the longest recorded movement of a northern hawk owl in North America and in the world.

It is rare to get band-return information for the northern hawk owl, therefore, little is known about this species' movements. The owls are known to occasionally appear in regions south of their breeding range. According to Gordon Court of Alberta Environment: "Banding northern hawk owls is very popular among owlers in Alberta, and this species is targeted in years when they come down in good numbers." While ornithologists are aware of the bird's movements to the south, there is a paucity of information about movements to the north.

In Robert Armstrong's Birds of Alaska, the northern hawk owl is listed as rare to uncommon in southwest Alaska. "In most years, we only have one or two northern hawk owl sightings around Dillingham," said Refuge Manager Aaron Archibeque. "However, local residents have found this bird to be more common since the recovery of Hardy's bird, and it has elevated enthusiasm for birds in general in the Dillingham area."

Since the program's inception, bird banding and recovery have greatly enhanced our knowledge of birds' movements and their life histories. It is through the banding efforts of the world's federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and individuals that on any given day, a banded bird may be recovered, adding to our knowledge of avian biology. Hardy, his owl, and Refuge staff did just that.

For more information, contact Rob MacDonald, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, P.O. Box 270, Dillingham, Alaska 99576, (907) 842-1966 extension 314, rob_macdonald@fws.gov.

A Node in Cyberspace for Bird Data
by Mark Koneff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The process of assembling databases is often a challenging and time-consuming aspect of science-based bird conservation planning. While baseline bird population or habitat data may exist, it is frequently diffused among federal and state agencies and non-governmental organizations. Data may also be incomplete, unavailable electronically, or so poorly documented that their application is difficult.

In response to growing opportunities for integrated bird-conservation planning and increased demands for comprehensive databases, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (Service) Divisions of Bird Habitat Conservation and Migratory Bird Management and the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and Center for Biological Informatics have collaborated to develop a cyberspace Bird Conservation Node (Node). The Node, essentially a suite of Web pages and data access tools, is part of the National Biological Information Infrastructure, the USGS' internet gateway for accessing biological information. The Node's purposes are to provide electronic access to bird population and habitat data used in conservation and research and to promote public awareness of bird conservation issues. In time, the current partnership will expand to include other government and non-governmental organizations to allow linkages to additional bird databases.

The Node provides a Web-based interface for electronic access to bird population and habitat databases maintained by the Service and the USGS. The interface includes a Web-enabled mapping application as well as Web forms that function as database query builders. With the mapping application, users can view the spatial elements of a bird survey, for instance, survey strata or survey routes, overlaid on political boundaries, physiographic units, or landcover data, and they can perform simple map-based queries. The query-builder pages support complex relational queries of bird population databases. The results of these queries can be downloaded for further analysis.

Future plans call for the Node to allow remote users to incorporate various bird habitat databases within their local Web browser, geographic information system, or other mapping application without downloading and formatting these data. Optionally, users will be able download habitat databases and manipulate these files locally.

Presently, the Node and its query functions are considered prototypes, incorporating databases from only the North American Breeding Bird Survey, Colonial Waterbird Survey, Breeding Waterfowl and Habitat Survey, and Mid-winter Waterfowl Survey. Additional databases maintained by the Service, the USGS, and new partners will be incorporated in the future. As the Node grows, it will enable wildlife and land managers and other decision-makers to rapidly access bird data from distributed sources and use these data to design effective conservation strategies.

Visit these Web sites to begin your birds-in-cyberspace adventure: birdcon.nbii.gov (the Bird Conservation Node) and www.nbii.gov (The National Biological Information Infrastructure).

For more information, contact Mark Koneff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Bird Habitat Conservation, 11510 American Holly Drive, Room 301E, Laurel, Maryland 20708-4017, (301) 497-5648, mark_koneff@fws.gov.

Joint Venture Expands to the Caribbean
by Craig Watson, Atlantic Coast Joint Venture and Ramón Martínez, Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

The irrefutable ecological connection between the North American Waterfowl Management Plan's (Plan) Atlantic Coast Joint Venture habitats and those of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, and the potential to stimulate conservation partnerships in this U.S. Commonwealth, precipitated the Joint Venture management board's unanimous vote to include Puerto Rico as a partner.

The Joint Venture is the first to ask the international Plan Committee to endorse the extension of its boundaries beyond North America. At its August 2001 meeting, the Plan Committee recognized that the management board's actions are in keeping with the 1998 Plan update's vision of expanding partnerships, and it anticipates receiving an implementation plan that will provide the biological nexus to the Plan's goals.

Fourteen waterfowl species that breed in North America winter in Puerto Rico, including the blue-winged teal, northern pintail, American wigeon, and mallard. The island's habitats help these species to meet life-cycle needs. Of the 47 waterfowl species found in the Caribbean, at least three are regional species of concern: the white-cheeked pintail, masked duck, and West Indian whistling-duck.

Other bird groups make use of these vital habitats as well. Twenty-eight species of shorebirds have been recorded in Puerto Rico, with 24 being migrants. Puerto Rico's salt flats are critical stopover habitats in the Caribbean; daily peak counts have been recorded at over 8,000 shorebirds. These same birds travel the U.S. Atlantic Coast each spring and fall.

Some 284 bird species have been identified in Puerto Rico, with 132 being nearctic-neotropical migrants. The ovenbird, Louisiana waterthrush, American redstart, and worm-eating warbler are examples of those that breed throughout the Joint Venture and share wintering habitats with Puerto Rico's many resident and endemic birds.

Additionally, several threatened or endangered species occur in Puerto Rico. The island's mangrove forests, coastal lagoons, salt flats, herbaceous marshes, swamp forests, riverine forests, and moist tropical forests, provide habitat for all these species. Particularly important to Puerto Rico's wildlife are the Humacao Wildlife Refuge, the Cano Tiburones, the Cabo Rojo salt flats, the Caribbean National Forest, the Caribbean National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and the interior Karst area.

The island has lost approximately 50 percent of its wetlands through deforestation, agriculture, and urban development. However, where there has been loss and degradation, there also exist opportunities for restoration and enhancement—the work of a Plan joint venture. Mr. Carlos Padin, Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, sees the possibilities: "Partnership opportunities exist in Puerto Rico to help accomplish the objectives of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan and the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. We can all benefit."

By inviting Puerto Rico to become a partner, the Joint Venture management board recognizes that habitats must be conserved where North American breeding birds migrate and winter. This new partnership could be the catalyst for the development of other partnerships in countries where Atlantic Flyway birds journey, with Puerto Rico being the natural liaison for the Caribbean and Latin America.

For more information, contact Craig Watson, Assistant Joint Venture Coordinator, Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, 176 Croghan Spur Road, Suite 200, Charleston, South Carolina 29407, (843) 727-4707, craig_watson@fws.gov, or Ramón Martínez, Director, Bureau of Fisheries and Wildlife, Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, P.O. Box 9066600, Puerta de Tierra Station, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00906-6600, (787) 725-6110.

Where the Wetlands Are
by Eduardo Carrera and Gabriela de la Fuente, Ducks Unlimited de México

In Mexico, the conservation of wetlands is a relatively recent pursuit, which is why the information needed to guide conservation initiatives is either unknown or deficient. This lack of information about the real status of Mexico's wetlands caught the attention of Ducks Unlimited de México (DUMAC), a partner organization to Ducks Unlimited, Inc., likewise dedicated to conserving waterfowl and their habitats. It became apparent to DUMAC that a wetlands database was needed to enable conservationists to recognize those wetlands being affected most by human activities, to identify degraded habitats and those with high conservation potential, and to strategically plan for their protection.

To this end, DUMAC initiated the Wetlands Inventory and Classification Program in 1992. The main objective of the program is to create a geographic information system to identify, quantify, and track various types of wetland habitats, particularly those within Mexico's 28 key migratory waterfowl wintering areas. Using satellite images, biologists and technicians have been classifying the wetland resources that provide feeding and resting areas and vegetal cover for waterfowl. This inventory also allows for a systematic analysis of aquatic vegetation and uplands and enables changing conditions in those areas to be monitored over time.

The wetland classification system used by DUMAC is a modification of the one developed for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by wetland ecologists and outlined in Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States. The hierarchical classification structure progresses from general systems to subsystems to specific classes. The general systems identified by DUMAC include marine, estuarine, lacustrine, palustrine, riverine, and upland.

To date, a total of 14 million hectares of wetlands and associated uplands have been mapped, inventoried, and classified in the states of Baja California North and South, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Chihuahua, Durango, and Tamaulipas. Currently, classification work is underway on coastal wetlands in the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo. Next, DUMAC will focus on the central interior wetlands and those along the Gulf of Mexico.
Even habitat outside of those key wetland areas for waterfowl are often captured in the process of classification, providing valuable information on areas important to other wildlife species. Some of these areas are nationally or internationally recognized sites and include several biosphere reserves and Ramsar sites.

One of the most important outcomes of this database project has been the generation of baseline information needed for planning and implementing wetlands conservation and management projects throughout Mexico. Information gathered by DUMAC has been and continues to be shared with federal, state, and local governments, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, and universities to support their own conservation initiatives. Sharing information with resource users and decision makers at all levels will lead to more effective management of these important wetland areas and ensure the long-term conservation of habitats critical for migratory and resident waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife.

For more information, contact Eduardo Carrera or Gabriela de la Fuente, Ducks Unlimited de México, Ave. Vasconcelos 209 Ote., Residencial San Agustín, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, México C.P. 66260, (528) 335-1212, dumac@infosel.net.mx.

A New Dawn for East Texas Habitat Conservation
by Carl Frentress and Kevin Kraai, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

For years, technical assistance was the primary tool that wetland professionals in East Texas had at their disposal to assist private landowners interested in improving wetland habitat on their properties. Wetland owners were often turned away from cost-share programs due to restricted funds and/or narrow eligibility requirements. However, a new era has dawned in habitat conservation in East Texas—it begins with the East Texas Wetland Project (Wetland Project).

The Wetland Project, developed through a cooperative agreement among Texas Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Ducks Unlimited, Inc., is a component of Ducks Unlimited's Conservation of Agriculture, Resources, and the Environment Program, otherwise known as Texas CARE. This initiative raises money for wetland conservation projects throughout the State. The Wetland Project will provide technical assistance and cash incentives to create, restore, and enhance natural and manmade wetlands and their associated uplands.

Wetland Project objectives will be accomplished using such management practices as hydroperiod restoration, reforestation, plant propagation, vegetation management, site preparation, and fence construction for controlled grazing. Targeted habitat types include forested wetlands, degraded natural wetlands, moist-soil management areas, stock ponds, and harvested croplands. Focusing efforts on these habitat types benefits waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, and songbirds.

In a larger context, the Wetland Project is a major conservation delivery mechanism for the East Texas portion of the West Gulf Coastal Plain Initiative of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan's Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture. The Wetlands Project helps to advance the Joint Venture's habitat goals and supports its vision of integrated bird conservation.

The dawning of this new era of migratory bird management in East Texas promises to have measurable impacts on the landscape, being good for wildlife and for people. We all are benefactors, in some way, of durable and properly functioning ecosystems. This is an underlying, if unstated, goal of migratory bird habitat management.

For more information, contact Carl Frentress, Regional Waterfowl Biologist - East Texas, Texas Parks and Wildlife, P.O. Box 30, Athens, Texas 75751, (903) 675-4177, cfrentress@aol.com, or Bill Bartush, Regional Biologist, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., 11942 FM 848, Tyler, Texas 75707-9657, (903) 570-9626, bbartush@ducks.org, or Don Wilhelm, Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services Field Office, 711 Stadium
Drive, Suite 252, Arlington, Texas 76011, (817) 277-1100, don_wilhelm@fws.gov.

Gulf of Mexico Habitats: Last Chance for Refueling
by Ian Hartzler, Gulf Coast Bird Observatory

Positioned between the Americas, the Gulf of Mexico is a natural obstacle faced by millions of migratory birds each spring and fall as they journey between breeding and wintering grounds in the central and eastern flyways. It is a matter of crossing the gulf or going around it. Either way, the gulf's habitats are crucial to surviving the migration.

More than 800 bird species make use of these habitats. Of those, about 300 species are nearctic-neotropical migrants that depend on the gulf's stopover habitat to rest and refuel. Arguably, it is the most important stopover habitat in the Western Hemisphere for these birds, and it is threatened by urbanization and agricultural and commercial development.

Politically, the gulf region is shared among three countries—the United States, Mexico, and Cuba—and eleven U.S. and Mexican states. Working cooperatively amongst these entities is imperative for successfully protecting habitat. This is the primary goal of the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory's Gulf Crossings Project—to facilitate international cooperation to conserve the gulf's habitats.

In 1997, the observatory initiated the Site Partner Network to bring together conservation partners to protect important habitat sites. The network began with eight sites in the United States and one in Mexico. Today, there are 34 sites with private and public landowner partners managing over 5.7 million acres of coastal habitat.

The Gulf Crossings Project was designed to assist these partnerships in conservation efforts and to encourage cooperation among them. Accomplishments thus far include the restoration of a coastal prairie in Texas, habitat conservation on private lands in Yucatan, and compilation of site data. Currently, the project is involved in the acquisition of two stopover habitats in coastal Texas and education and ecotourism-management activities on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Gulf Crossings recently implemented the Sister-site Partnership Program within the network. Sister-sites are matched according to what they may have in common: birds shared, threats faced, or management practices used. Each sister-site benefits from the other's experiences and resources, which translates into greater efficiency and results.

Gulf Crossings has facilitated two sister-site linkages. The relationship between the Houston Audubon Society's (Society) High Island Sanctuary and the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, in Quintana Roo, Mexico, has already met with success. The Society has provided much needed funds to Sian Ka'an to support avian education and outreach within the reserve's communities and for the construction of a visitors center. Plans are underway for a staff exchange between the two sites in 2002.

The linkage between Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Texas and the Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve in Yucatan, Mexico, is still in the planning stages, but the future looks promising because of the similarities in habitat and management strategies used at these reserves.

The Sister-site Partnership Program enables participants to exchange ideas with partners at another gulf conservation site who are contending with many of the same concerns. They find new ways to deal with shared challenges, ultimately accelerating the rate at which the gulf's precious habitats are conserved.

For more information, contact Ian Hartzler, Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, Gulf Crossings Project Manager, Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, 103 West Highway 332, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566, (979) 480-0999, ihartzler@gcbo.org, www.gcbo.org.