Project Profiles - United States

Phragmites Control: A Tough Job Worth Doing
by Joe McCauley, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

As many land managers and biologists will attest, Phragmites australis is a problem. Personally, I have been wrestling with this invasive plant—more commonly called “common reed” or simply “phragmites”—for my entire 20-year career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), as a refuge manager, land acquisition biologist, and joint venture coordinator. If you are working to conserve migratory bird habitat in wetlands along the Atlantic Coast, phragmites is hard to ignore.

When I arrived as the new manager of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge in 2000, I was pleased to find that phragmites had only recently begun invading the Rappahannock’s marshes and that there was already a diverse and extensive partnership in place devoted to deal with the invasion.

Adding to my delight was the discovery that the partnership was organized and led not by a government agency but by a private landowner, Alice Wellford. Alice was completely unfamiliar with phragmites when she first discovered several patches in her beautiful, diverse, freshwater tidal marsh in Essex County, Virginia. Having identified and researched her new discovery, and its invasive potential, she immediately went to work, treating the patches in her marsh and educating neighbors, local elected officials, and government agencies on the dangers that unchecked invasions of phragmites could wreak on the Rappahannock. Through her initiative and persistence, the Rappahannock Phragmites Action Committee (RPAC) was born. Her work has not gone unnoticed: she received a 2002 National Wetlands Award from the Service for her leadership on the RPAC.

When refuge staff joined the partnership, we identified funding opportunities for two major RPAC strategies: educate landowners and initiate phragmites control on public and private lands. Grants from the U.S. National Ramsar Committee, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s “Pulling Together” initiative, and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act grants program provided the impetus to get the ball rolling on both fronts. To date, we have treated some 250 acres, involving more than 100 landowners, along 75 miles of the Rappahannock River. We also have distributed our entire first printing of 2,000 outreach brochures and dozens of posters, made numerous presentations to civic and other organizations, and staffed exhibits at several public events.

In 2002, our control efforts were compounded when it was confirmed that the native strain of phragmites also exists in the watershed. We were already conducting precontrol surveys for the federally threatened sensitive joint vetch, so we added native phragmites to the list of plants to be protected and monitored as part of our control program. We also continue to support research into a potential biological control program for invasive phragmites that is coordinated through Cornell University’s Ecology and Management of Invasive Plants Program. This could provide an important new tool in the control arsenal, and results to date are promising.

Phragmites control is laborious, time-consuming, and expensive. Repeated applications of glyphosate herbicide are necessary to achieve control. At times it seems like there is no end in sight and the situation is hopeless. But if we care about maintaining a diverse, natural tidal marsh ecosystem in the mid-Atlantic, we must fight on. Failure to act and to succeed is not an option.

For more information, contact Joe McCauley, Refuge Manager, Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 336 Wilna Road, Warsaw, Virginia 22572, (804) 333-1470, joseph_mccauley@fws.gov, www.invasiveplants.net.

Persistence, Patience, and Passion
by Winnie Burkett, Houston Audubon Society

Something has to be done! Cars shouldn’t be driving through the flocks of birds like that and running over nests.

These sentiments were oft expressed by birders when visiting Bolivar Flats, an extraordinary complex of salt marsh, mud flats, and beach near the Texas community of Port Bolivar at the mouth of Galveston Bay. The tens of thousands of birds feeding, roosting, and nesting at the “Flats” did not deter thrill seekers intent on leaving their tracks in the mud and a wake behind their careening cars’ wheels.

Something did have to be done, so members of the Houston Audubon Society (Society) decided to take on the long-term challenge of protecting the Flats. They began with a campaign in 1983 that would eventually lead to Galveston County closing the beach and building a vehicular barrier. Least tern nests and large numbers of roosting shorebirds at last were spared the aftermath of joyriders. The Society followed this success by working 8 years with the Texas General Land Office to establish Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, the first of its kind on the Texas Gulf Coast. In 1993, the sanctuary was declared a Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network site of international importance. More than 140,000 shorebirds, representing 37 species, can be found here.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity, when a “FOR SALE” sign showed up on a large parcel adjacent to the sanctuary in 1997, protection efforts escalated. The Society purchased the tract’s 178 acres of beach, salt marsh, and wet coastal prairie. At the same time, Louis Tyra added to the wildlife haven’s expansion by donating 353 acres more. But it didn’t stop there; further protection was in the offing.

In 1999, the Society learned that a bankruptcy was forcing the sale of a large amount of land in Port Bolivar. At stake were 615 acres of salt marsh, coastal prairie, and beach adjacent to the Flats and 650 acres adjacent to another wetland system called Horseshoe Marsh. Only a mile from the Flats, Horseshoe Marsh consists of a 328-acre shallow tidal lagoon surrounded by high-quality salt marsh and 650 acres of wet coastal prairie. The lagoon is owned by the State. When exposed at low tide, the mud flats and oyster reefs that form the lagoon bottom provide feeding habitat for many of the same shorebirds, ibises, and waders that use the Flats. The Society’s membership knew that if they were able to purchase both parcels, they could protect two productive ecosystems. The Port Bolivar Wetlands Protection Project was born, and the Society launched the largest fundraising campaign in its history.

With contributions of $875,535 from project partners, including more than 1,000 birders from 39 states, and a $450,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant, the Society, acting on behalf of the partners, completed the complex acquisition of both bankruptcy tracts in 2003. So now, 1,796 acres of critical coastal habitat are protected forever, and all it took was a little persistence, a little patience, and a lot of passion.

For more information, contact Winnie Burkett, Sanctuary Manager, Houston Audubon Society, 440 Wilchester Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77079, (713) 932-7924, wburkett@houstonaudubon.org, www.houstonaudubon.org.

Port Bolivar Wetlands Protection Project Partners

Houston Endowment
The Brown Foundation
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
ConocoPhillips
Shell Oil
Reliant Energy
American Birding Association
Ann and Arthur Jones
Lucie Wray Todd
Jeff and Connie Woodman
Mary Sue Rose
Peterson Charitable Lead Trust
Roxie and Kim Rochat
The Williams Companies
The Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation
Houston Audubon Society and friends

Where Water Converts to Fat
by Tom Landwehr

Once, the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), with its expansive prairies interspersed with many small, shallow wetlands, was referred to as the “duck factory.” Landscape conditions have changed, but the moniker hasn’t. This region is the primary breeding grounds for about 50 percent of North America’s ducks.

A large portion of the U.S. PPR covers the western half of Minnesota. Unfortunately for waterfowl, this area has lost about 90 percent of its wetlands to development. And worse, the quality of many remaining wetlands, as well as rivers and streams, have been seriously degraded due to ditching, sediment transport, invasive fish, and high water levels.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (Department) recently completed an action plan to address the quality decline of wetlands. One element of the plan calls for the enhancement of shallow lakes, especially those specifically designated for wildlife management, by better managing water levels to encourage plant growth. One such body of water is Augusta Lake in southwestern Minnesota. For many years, this shallow, 500-acre lake has suffered from the ill effects of high water levels, turbid water, lack of vegetation, and invasive fish.

A concurrent concern in the State is the long-term decline of lesser scaup populations. Recent studies by Louisiana State University and Ducks Unlimited, Inc., suggest that the population decline may be exacerbated by poor conditions on spring-migration habitat in Minnesota and adjacent states. “Poor condition” is defined as limited availability of aquatic invertebrates, a scaup staple and a fish favorite. The drainage of Minnesota farm fields into shallow lakes has dramatically increased the presence of fish and their ability to survive.

According to the research, hens arrive late on northern boreal Canada breeding grounds and are not in optimal body condition, most likely due to poor spring-migration habitat. The apparent results: delayed nest initiation, reduced nest success, and possibly lower hen survival.

Ducks Unlimited biologists have identified certain shallow lakes that can be improved for migrating scaup through more intensive water management and fish exclusion. Augusta Lake is one of these. Ducks Unlimited and the Department began working together in 2002 to replace an outlet structure that would exclude fish and allow for scheduled drawdowns on the lake. In the summer of 2003, a new structure was in place.

A persistent summer drought did not allow water levels to reach full pool by the fall, but approximately 80 percent of the lake bed had water on it by October. The water depth in most areas was less than 2 feet, and the waterbirds loved it. All fall, until ice covered the lake in late October, the basin was covered with migrating waterfowl and other wetland birds. The shallow water provided the food and security sought by these birds. Once the planned water level is achieved in 2004, and desirable plants have had a chance to grow, the lake will provide outstanding migration and breeding habitat. Wildlife managers are anxiously awaiting the spring migration—lesser scaup should be able to get fat here!

For more information, contact Jon Schneider, Acting Manager-Minnesota Conservation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., 311 East Lake Geneva Road, Alexandria, Minnesota 56308, (320) 762-9916, jschneider@ducks.org, or Randy Markl, Area Wildlife Manager, Division of Wildlife, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 175 County Road 26, Windom, Minnesota 56101, (507) 831-2900, randy.markl@dnr.state.mn.us.

Saving Southern Swamps
by Keith Gauldin, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

According to Dr. Sidney Gauthreaux, Jr., of South Carolina’s Clemson University, there are two distinct kinds of bird movements during spring migration along the Gulf of Mexico's coastal areas. The first is the arrival of trans-gulf migrants from South America during daylight hours. Migrants generally bypass barrier islands, if weather permits, and fly directly to the mainland to refuel. The second is the nocturnal exodus from the mainland to the wintering grounds. Records show high concentrations of migrants emerging from forested bottomlands of river deltas all along the northern tier of the gulf, including Alabama’s Mobile-Tensaw Delta. These habitats are crucial for both passerine stopovers and breeding populations.

Intent on ensuring that habitat will always be available for these long-distance flyers, the Mobile-Tensaw Phase II Project partners used a $1 million North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant to acquire three bottomland parcels totaling 1,945 acres. These tracts will become part of the Alabama Forever Wild Program’s Recreation Area and Nature Preserve System and the Upper Delta Wildlife Management Area. Partners laid out another $3.2 million to acquire an additional 8,000 acres. These acquisitions plus the adjacent state lands add up to more than 100,000 acres of public land, protecting one of the largest state-owned deltaic systems in the Southeast.

The acquired lands are typical of the delta’s many interior islands, characterized by naturally occurring river levees and dominated by water, laurel, swamp chestnut, and overcup oak, which gradually transition into interior basins of tupelo/cypress forests, known locally as backswamps. Freshwater marshes are scattered throughout the acquisitions.

The biological significance of the project area is impressive: 32 plant and 17 animal species are recognized as Rare by the State, and 10 animal species have State Protected status. The land also is important to three federally listed endangered species, Alabama red-bellied turtle, Alabama sturgeon, and wood stork; one threatened species, gulf sturgeon; and one candidate subspecies, Florida black bear.

Substantial numbers of migrating waterfowl have been observed using the forest openings created from past tupelo/cypress harvest operations that occurred prior to purchase. The opening of the forest canopy has stimulated the growth of many species of aquatic vegetation, including pondweed, duck potato, and smartweed, creating an abundance of preferred food items for waterfowl.

The deltaic vegetative composition acts as a sediment trap for the ever-increasing nutrient load from upstream sources in the Mobile Basin, protecting the water quality of fish nursery areas. These nurseries are crucial to Alabama’s $130 million commercial and recreational fisheries economies. Other recreational opportunities afforded to both local residents and visitors to this area include hunting, conservation education, primitive camping, birding, canoeing, and boating.

Through this project, the partners are fulfilling their commitment to keep the delta’s habitats forever wild, benefitting not only the wildlife that need these lands for their survival but also the people who enjoy the lifestyle that the landscape has to offer.

For more information, contact Keith Gauldin, Land Stewardship Officer, State Lands Division, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, 23210 U.S. Highway 98, Suite B1, Fairhope, Alabama 36532, (251) 929-0900, kgauldin@dcnr.state.al.us.

Mobile-Tensaw Project, Phase II Partners

Alabama Forever Wild Program
Alabama State Lands Division
The Nature Conservancy of Alabama
The Alabama Wildlife Federation
Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
Alabama Bar Association-Environmental Section