The Metro Santa Cruz newspaper is reporting that paint chips from an old Navy base on the Midway Islands is causing the deaths of thousands of threatened Laysan albatross chicks, who are dying of lead poisoning. UC–Santa Cruz assistant researcher Myra Finkelstein did a study that provided evidence that paint chips from an abandoned U.S. Navy base there was causing droopwing among the albatross population — droopwing is a neurological disease where the bird’s wings are paralyzed. Because the birds are unable to hold up their wings, they drag on the ground and become vulnerable to open sores and fractures.

“Myra’s research showed that up to 10,000 chicks are dying on Midway every year,” says Shaye Wolf, staff biologist with the CBD (Center for Biological Diversity), adding that the group also plans to sue the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources. “That’s not acceptable. We’re filing suit to start an immediate cleanup of the contamination on Midway so that thousands more birds don’t die from lead poisoning. USFWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) has stood by while there is an immediate solution to the problem: clean up the paint.”

With the closure of the base, the U.S. Navy turned over control of Midway to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, part of FWS—effectively passing the buck on cleaning up the toxic mess left behind.

“We only receive so much funding to clean up the buildings. And it’s very expensive work,” says John Klavitter, co-author of Finkelstein’s latest paper and a deputy refuge manager currently stationed at Midway. “The good news is that in 2004 [after Finkelstein's initial research] we started to receive funding to remove paint from the buildings. We haven’t cleaned up the contaminated soil yet, though.”

Time is of the essence. “Right now the eggs are just starting to hatch,” he says. “As the chicks grow they will start to pick up the lead paint and we’ll start seeing the first signs of droopwing in April. They’ll be dead by June or July.”

Information from CBD about the lawsuit can be found on their website.

Delaware’s Cape Gazette reports that the extended hunting season for snow geese and rabbits has been cancelled at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.

There are administrative concerns, said Michael Stroeh, project leader for the Coastal Delaware Refuge Complex. “At the 11th hour, we realized we hadn’t done a study, and we decided to play it safe,” he said. “We have to get our ducks in a row.”

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife conservation order, issued in November 2008, allows the use of special hunting methods to increase the harvest of snow geese by extending the season. The extended season will still be in effect outside of Prime Hook and Bombay Hook refuges.

Stroeh said the effects of extending the hunting season throughout the refuge had not been properly analyzed. Stroeh said there is no doubt the snow goose population is stable, but refuge staff is concerned extending the hunting season would harm other wildlife in late February and early March. The extended season was to have ended March 13.

“We are more worried about other birds,” he said.

The time period is key to migratory birds as they eat and prepare to leave the refuge to return to their breeding grounds, he said.

The action brought immediate praise from The Humane Society of the United States.

“Midwinter hunting on such a refuge simply cannot be justified, and we commend the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Fish and Wildlife Service for calling a halt to its expanded hunting schedule,” said John Grady, senior vice president of wildlife and habitat protection for the humane society.

Matt DiBona, a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control biologist, said the conservation order is meant to reduce the snow goose population by 50 percent by 2015, due to a concern that there are too many birds and the food resources cannot support them.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Prime Hook NWR, Delaware

• Land swap almost complete for Teague Parkway expansion
• 50% of Sandy Point to be shut April-Sept. to protect shorebirds
• CHINCOTEAGUE: Motorists, beware of those scampering squirrels
• Conservation plans approved for wildlife refuges in Southern Nevada
• Concern expressed over federal funding of St. Lucie Inlet dredging

The National Wildlife Refuge Association just released details of President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget, and it contains some disappointment for the Refuge System.

The National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA) expressed disappointment over President Obamas proposed $499.5 million operations and maintenance budget for the National Wildlife Refuge System for next year, Fiscal Year 2011. Because refuges need at least $15 million annually to cover fixed costs, the proposed $3.3 million reduction represents an $18.3 million cut.

“In addition to conserving Americas wildlife and wild lands and waters, refuges are economic engines, returning $4 for every $1 in federal investment,” said Evan Hirsche, President of the NWRA. If enacted, this budget will mean a loss of jobs and economic opportunity in communities across the country. The Refuge System’s exceptional track record in spending stimulus dollars is evidence that dollars are well spent supporting this natural treasure.”

The NWRA however praised the Treasured Landscapes Initiative which boosts investments in landscape level, ecosystem restoration and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which would receive $106 million for refuge land acquisition - a $20 million increase. The Treasured Landscapes initiative affirms the importance of NWRA Beyond the Boundaries focal areas and the need for landscape level conservation.

“NWRA’s Beyond the Boundaries program works to ensure wildlife corridors and protected areas, while creating sustainable communities,” said Hirsche. “The ecosystem approach embraced by the President moves our nation’s conservation programs in a direction that will better address the adaptation needs of wildlife in response to climate change.”

The President’s Refuge System budget contains further contradictions, with an additional $8 million going to climate change programs and $2 million for youth programs, while cutting the construction account by $13.7 million and reducing Visitor Services by almost $4 million. These decreases will further undermine job creation through reduced construction contracts, while hindering quality recreation and educational opportunities for families.

The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement, a diverse coalition of conservation and sporting organizations chaired by NWRA, is asking Congress to fund the Refuge System at $578 million in Fiscal Year 2011, putting the NWRS on the path towards the recommended $900 million annually that is needed to best meet the conservation goals of the System. NWRA, it’s conservation partners and more than 250 local “Refuge Friends” groups will work with Congress to ensure the Refuge System receives $578 million in Fiscal Year 2011.

The task now falls to Refuge System supporters to get out the message that Obama’s budget is not enough for a Refuge System that faces many hard challenges in the years to come.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Barack Obama, FY 2011 budget

The National Wildlife Refuge Association has laid out their 2010 priorities in advocating for the National Wildlife Refuge System:

Funding: With a renewed emphasis on reducing the federal deficit, as outlined in the President’s State of the Union, federal programs such as the National Wildlife Refuge System are likely to see reduced or frozen discretionary spending across the board. NWRA is asking Congress to fund the Refuge System at $578 million in Fiscal Year 2011, a step toward the recommended $900 million annually that is needed to best meet the conservation goals of the System. Since refuges provide an economic return to communities through job creation, wildlife related recreation, and ecosystem services such as clean and clean water, investing in wildlife refuges benefits both wildlife and people.

Land and Water Conservation Fund: NWRA is also advocating for dollars under the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to complete refuges and create new ones in connection with our Beyond the Boundaries landscape conservation priorities. Created to ensure our nation’s most treasured resources and habitats are protected, the LWCF has used receipts from oil and gas leases to protect approximately 1.5 million acres of land that is now part of the NWRS. The LWCF has the potential to be one of our most powerful land conservation tools, yet it lacks adequate funding to achieve its stated mission — the LWCF has only been funded at the authorized level of $900 million once in its 40 year history. Read more about the LWCF.

Climate Change: NWRA will back funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with other federal agencies, to develop Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs). Acknowledging the need for more collaboration between land management agencies, scientific institutions, and local communities, LCCs bring a fresh landscape driven approach to federal wildlife conservation efforts and will streamline efforts to inventory and monitor the vast natural resources in the Refuge System. Visit the FWS LCC website for more information.

While the creation of LCCs, and increased LWCF funding will help begin to address the effects of climate change on wildlife, more will need to be done to successfully respond to even the most conservative scientific predictions. Consequently, NWRA will continue to urge Congress to pass comprehensive climate change legislation that both reduces harmful greenhouse gas pollution and provides funding to help wildlife adapt to a changing climate. NWRA strongly supports a measure that would require that at least 5% of revenue collected from a climate change bill be designated for wildlife adaptation programs, including funding to inventory, monitor and adaptively manage wildlife refuges in a changing climate.

Wilderness Designation for the Coastal Plain at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Finally, 50th anniversaries in 2010 of Arctic and Izembek NWRs in Alaska present an opportunity for the NWRA to generate visibility and attention to two iconic refuges that remain among the most threatened in the Refuge System.

At nearly 20 million acres, the vast Arctic NWR embodies the American ideal of Wilderness; it is a truly rare landscape-level wilderness refuge at a scale impossible to achieve anywhere in the lower forty-eight. For fifty years the magnificent refuge has protected wildlife across the Alaskan arctic landscape, from the coastal plain to the towering Brooks mountain range. NWRA believes now is the time to finally accord Wilderness status to the refuge’s fragile coastal plain to once and for all eliminate the possibility of oil drilling in what amounts to the last 10% of the Alaska’s north slope off limits to fossil fuel exploration.

While we will fight for Congressionally-designated Wilderness in the Arctic, we will, ironically, fight to keep a Wilderness designation intact at Izembek NWR on the Aleutian Peninsula, where an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) mandated by Congress is underway to evaluate construction of an unnecessary and expensive road through the heart of the refuge. NWRA and its partners succeeded last Congress in forcing this comprehensive study on the proposed “Road to Nowhere,” and we’ll work this year to ensure Congress understands that the estimated $50 million in tax-payer dollars required to build this road would be far better spent reducing the deficit. Read more about the Road to Nowhere.

Tags:

National Wildlife Refuge System, National Wildlife Refuge Association

Volkswagen is working with CarbonFund.org to plant a forest that will offset CO₂ emissions released by cars. The VW forest will be located in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley in northeast Louisiana, and will be planted on a 1,100-acre piece of land, which will eventually expand the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge.

Volkswagen says the VW Forest will “result in carbon absorption rates that are among the highest of any region in the United States: 450 tons of CO₂ per acre, compared to 130 tons per acre in comparable projects worldwide.”

“In addition to neutralizing greenhouse gases, the forest will also serve as home to the nearly extinct Louisiana black bear…In partnership with the Trust for Public Land the forest will be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where it will be preserved — never to be developed or sold.”

Visit the VW Carbon Neutral website to see a beautiful interactive introduction to the VW Forest. Click on “The VW Forest” in the lower right corner once the web page loads.

Tags:

National Wildlife Refuge System, Tensas River NWR, Louisiana, Volkswagen, VW Forest

The Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges have been awarded the “2010 Friends Group of the Year” award.

From the National Wildlife Refuge Association announcement:

The Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges will receive the Friends Group of the Year Award. Alaska is home to some of the largest and wildest refuges in the country. Some refuges, such as the magnificent Arctic National Wildlife, are larger than several states in the lower forty-eight combined. Tasked with the colossal task of advocating and promoting the conservation of Alaska’s wildlife refuges, it is no surprise that the Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges are a truly remarkable organization.

The Friends have undertaken an impressive variety of projects throughout Alaska. They have volunteered at remote science camps hosted by the Fish and Wildlife Service and hosted booths at festivals such as the Ocean Festival held this past June in Anchorage. The Friends are effective in everything from educating both local communities and national decision-makers on the importance of Alaska’s wildlife refuges and to joining the fight against invasive species.

The Friends have removed invasive plants along remote stretches of the Dalton highway, promoted the eradication and prevention of infestations by rats and other invasive species, and taken action to reduce invasive species populations such as the feral horses living on the island of Unalaska in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. In the decade since their introduction, the small herd of horses on the island had doubled and was seriously damaging and degrading the sensitive riparian habitat on the island. With an invasive species grant from the Fish and Wildlife Service, several volunteers flew to Unalaska- about 800 miles west of Anchorage- to traverse the rugged Aleutian terrain and neuter or “geld” five of the wild stallions to help slow down the growing horse population.

In addition to many programs in and around Alaska refuges, the Refuge Friends have also traveled to Washington, DC to testify on behalf of the National Wildlife Refuge System before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies during the 2007 and 2009 public witness days. The Alaska Friends have played a critical role in continuing to fight against the proposed land exchange and road through the designated wilderness at Izembek NWR by providing testimony against the project before the House Natural Resources Committee in 2007. and by partnering with the NWRA in creating and publishing the “Road to Nowhere” report that outlines the Izembek issue.

The Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges is a stellar organization that continues to grow and reach out to new communities.

The annual Refuge System Awards are sponsored by NWRA, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement. An awards reception will be held in the Cannon Building Caucus Room in Washington, DC on the evening of Tuesday, March 9th.

Congratulations to all the 2010 winners!

Tags:

National Wildlife Refuge System, Chesapeake Marshlands NWR Complex, Maryland, Volunteer of the Year

• NC’s Alligator River Refuge to get visitor center
• USFWS Approves 4,000-Acre Panther Passage Conservation Bank in Florida
• Manatees Rush to Keep Warm
• Pelicans suffer as they stick around coast
• Trumpeter swan returns to Turnbull Wildlife Refuge
• Duck River has time in ‘National Geographic’ spotlight

Zeeger de Wilde of the Chesapeake Marshlands NWR Complex in Maryland has been awarded the 2010 “Volunteer of the Year” award.

From the National Wildlife Refuge Association announcement:

Zeeger de Wilde will receive the Volunteer of the Year Award for his unwavering support and commitment to the volunteering on wildlife refuges and at the Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. While Zeeger has visited over 200 national wildlife refuges across the country, and volunteered at many, he has made the biggest commitment to Chesapeake Marshlands NWRC. The extent and frequency of his travels shows his devotion to helping out on refuges - his home in Delaware is a drive of two hours or more each way from the Chesapeake Refuges.

Zeeger has dedicated over 12,000 hours to volunteer at refuges over the course of the past 20 years, doing things as varied as helping trap and monitor endangered Delmarva fox squirrels, to assisting with planting trees and restoring habitat. Drawing extensively on his background in horticulture and arboriculture, Zeeger is leaving a lasting mark by helping to create butterfly gardens that showcase native plants. He has exercised his craft with projects large and small, from simple landscaping to habitat restoration at Blackwater NWR, Barren Island and Eastern Neck NWR.

In addition to demonstrating an abiding dedication to conservation and habitat restoration, Zeeger also exhibits a true passion for teaching others about nature. An accomplished birder, he leads popular bird walks, or “eagle prowls,” giving many visitors to the refuges a truly wild wildlife experience. He is fluent in four languages, (Dutch, German, French and English for anyone counting) and has the rare talent to engage with visitors hailing from halfway across the world. He is an impressive advocate as well as a true ambassador for our national wildlife refuges everywhere.

The annual Refuge System Awards are sponsored by NWRA, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement. An awards reception will be held in the Cannon Building Caucus Room in Washington, DC on the evening of Tuesday, March 9th.

We’ll look at the other winners in upcoming posts.

Tags:

National Wildlife Refuge System, Chesapeake Marshlands NWR Complex, Maryland, Volunteer of the Year

The Houston Chronicle reports that wildlife officials are worried that a lack of blue crabs may cause another die-off of endangered whooping cranes:

The world’s last remaining natural flock of endangered whooping cranes, which suffered a record number of deaths last year, will probably see another die-off because of scarce food supplies at its Texas nesting grounds this winter, wildlife managers said.

The flock lost 23 birds in the 2008-2009 winter season, in part because its main source of sustenance, the blue crab, all but vanished from drought-parched southern Texas. The rains eventually came, but they were too late to produce healthy amounts of blue crabs for this winter.

“We’re looking at a pretty slender year, prey-wise, and it’s going to make the cranes work harder to get food,” said Allan Strand, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in South Texas. “I feel that we’re probably going to have a die-off. It’s conceivable that we could have a significant die-off.”

The cranes face other challenges. They are losing habitat to housing developments that draw even more water out of their nesting grounds along the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers.

Last month, a conservation group filed paperwork to sue state regulators, alleging they allowed too much water to be taken from the rivers during the crane wintering season. That overuse increased the salinity of inland waters, hurting the birds’ water and food supplies, the group said.

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge has asked for permission to put out calorie-rich “crane chow” for the cranes, but there is no guarantee the cranes will make use of the food.

Tags:
Aransas NWR, Texasa, whooping crane

Vernon Byrd, of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has won the 2010 Refuge System “Employee of the Year” award.

From the National Wildlife Refuge Association announcement:

Vernon Byrd, a biologist at Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, has been selected to receive the Refuge System Employee of the Year Award for demonstrating dedication and vision protecting marine species of coastal Alaska such as auklets, puffins, storm-petrels and other seabirds.

A career biologist and recognized world authority on seabird and subarctic bird populations, he recently helped coordinate an intriguing project to monitor the ecological recovery of Kasatochi, a volcanic island in the central Aluetians which erupted violently in 2008. Since the island was previously part of a long-term monitoring project on the refuge, the eruption gave scientists the truly rare experience of being able to compare data from before and after the volcano erupted - and a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore a uniquely natural laboratory. Vernon’s innovative inventory, monitoring and research programs have resulted in data that is now used to influence everything from commercial fishing to climate change models.

Vernon has been a leader in efforts to recover native species threatened by invasive species on the fragile Aleutian Islands. For instance, his focus on eradicating mammalian predators such as arctic fox, rats and European rabbits, rather than simply reducing or stabilizing their populations, has given birds such as the Aleutian cackling goose a fighting chance. The goose was removed from the endangered species list in 2005 as a direct consequence of efforts to remove the invasive arctic fox.

As a scientist and advocate for marine conservation, Vernon has strived to collaborate and partner with all stakeholders, from other federal and state agencies to universities, NGOs and academic institutions. Thanks to his dedication and hard work at Alaska Maritime NWR, Vernon is a model refuge employee, an invaluable advocate for Arctic coastal conservation, and a mentor for the many biologists and fieldworkers that have worked beside him.

The annual Refuge System Awards are sponsored by NWRA, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement. An awards reception will be held in the Cannon Building Caucus Room in Washington, DC on the evening of Tuesday, March 9th.

We’ll look at the other winners in upcoming posts.

Tags:

National Wildlife Refuge System, Alaska Maritime NWR, Alaska, Employee of the Year

• Refuge gives preliminary OK for relay tower
• Group says deal pending in refuge drilling suit
• Off-limits wildlife refuge along St. Johns to consider public access
• Broomfield pleased that Jefferson Parkway gets key approval
• Bringing Back A Rabbit
• Refuge restoration: Project to plant 250,000 trees in Avoyelles
• Stimulus fund pay for wildlife refuge levee repair on Tennessee River
• Skaggs Island naval base buildings to be razed for wildlife