Protecting Migratory Birds

The government will be taking steps to help protect migratory birds. Five
billion birds migrate from North America to the tropics every year. Land
development is threatening the birds’ stopover habitats. Kyle Norris has this
story:

Transcript

The government will be taking steps to help protect migratory birds. Five
billion birds migrate from North America to the tropics every year. Land
development is threatening the birds’ stopover habitats. Kyle Norris has this
story:


The new policy announced by President George Bush will include habitat
improvements for migratory birds. The improvements will happen on national wildlife refuges and in some
urban areas. The US government will collaborate with Mexican officials to
create habitat programs in Mexico.


Greg Butcher is the Director of Bird Conservation for National Audubon
Society. He says birds are an excellent indicator of the environment:


“Birds have many of the very same needs that people have. So they need
clean air, they need clean water. They need good healthy habitats that are
productive. And so when good things happen to birds, good things are happening
for humans at the same time.”


The government will also offer financial incentives to private landowners in
the US. Who either make their property more habitable to migrating birds, or
who agree to not build on their land.


For the Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

Related Links

Migration Season Brings Bird Flu Worries

  • Julie Craves stands in the area where she sets up mist nets during migration to catch land birds. (Photo by Christina Shockley)

Researchers have been monitoring the spread of a potentially deadly strain of avian influenza overseas. Health officials worry the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form that could infect humans. Some researchers say the virus could make its way to the United States as early as this fall… by way of wild migratory birds. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:

Transcript

Researchers have been monitoring the spread of a potentially deadly
strain of avian influenza overseas. Health officials worry the H5N1
strain could mutate into a form that could infect humans. Some
researchers say the virus could make its way to the United States as early
as this fall… by way of wild migratory birds. The GLRC’s Christina
Shockley reports:


Wild birds carry all sorts of influenza viruses. Most are of no threat to
people, but the H5N1 strain is different. When it gets into people… it’s
often fatal. Overseas the strain has killed whole farms of poultry such as
chicken and ducks… it’s also infected other types of animals, including
cats.


The H5N1 strain has not been found in the United States, but most
experts say it’s just a matter of time before it is. Some say infected
domestic poultry or smuggled pet birds will likely bring the virus to the
U.S. Others say the virus could come here by way of migrating birds…
that are on the move now.


Steve Schmitt is the lead veterinarian for Michigan’s Department of
Natural Resources. He says birds from Asia… that are possibly infected
with the H5N1 strain are on their way to Alaska right now. There, they
could mingle with birds that will later fly back to the United States.
Schmitt says there are four major flyways over the U.S.… the Pacific,
central, Mississippi, and Atlantic.


“There are birds that will winter in Asia and then come back and nest in
Alaska. If they bring the virus back with them, then they could transmit
that to birds that are in Alaska that come down any of these four major
flyways, and that of course is a big concern, moving it all over the
country.”


Schmitt says most birds that nest in Alaska use the Pacific flyway along
the Pacific coast… to migrate south to the U.S. and Mexico. He says
that means, if the virus were to come to the United States via migratory
birds, the pacific coast would probably be its first stop in the lower 48.
Schmitt says then, birds that use the other flyways could become
infected.


“Most of the migration is north-south, but you do have a few that will
move – jump over to another flyway, and when that happens, the
potential to move the virus to that new flyway happens. Once it’s in a
new flyway, that north-south movement would take over.”


Programs are underway an Alaska and throughout the United States to
test wild birds for various strains of avian influenza, including H5N1.
Experts say waterfowl and shore birds are the most likely carriers of the
dangerous strain, but some say land birds – such as migrating songbirds –
should be tested, too.


(Sound of birds)


Julie Craves studies land birds at the Rouge River Bird Observatory on
the University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus. She catches and bands
thousands of wild birds each year during their spring and fall migrations.


This year, Craves will participate in a study that hopes to eventually test
hundreds of thousands of birds across the U.S. and Latin America for
avian flu strains.


“It’s just a great opportunity with people handling birds already, we may
find out some very interesting things about which subtypes are present in
land birds, and if indeed this disease does come to North America, we
will have a head start on seeing what types of migratory pathways are
being used by birds.”


Craves says very little is known about how avian flu moves among land
birds, and experts say each time the virus is transmitted to a different
species it mutates, and each time it mutates, the chances are greater that
it will change into a form that’s easily passed among humans. That’s a
big concern, because such a mutation could lead to a quick spread of
human cases across the globe.


But some say that might never occur… they say the strain might be
unable to mutate into one that’s dangerous to humans.


Arnold Monto is a professor of epidemiology at the University of
Michigan. He says there will be a problem if the strain mutates, but it’s
unlikely people will get the virus from migrating birds.


“I doubt very much whether we’re even gong to see even a handful of
cases in the United States, should avian influenza arrive, and it probably
will, with the migratory birds coming down from Alaska, perhaps next
fall.”


Monto says most of the human transmissions overseas have been from
poultry being raised in the back yard, and not from wild birds. That
means visiting the ducks and geese in the park… and feeding songbirds
in the back yard… are not high-risk activities. Monto says people should
take basic precautions, such as washing hands, to avoid contracting any
sort of flu virus.


Many experts say, on the list of things to worry about, catching a deadly
form of avian influenza is no where near the top of the list of dangers.


For the GLRC, I’m Christina Shockley.

Related Links

MIGRATION SEASON BRINGS BIRD FLU WORRIES (Short Version)

  • Julie Craves stands in the area where she sets up mist nets during migration to catch land birds. (Photo by Christina Shockley)

Researchers are tracking a potentially dangerous strain of avian flu in Asia, Europe, and Africa. They say the H5N1 virus could mutate and cause a human pandemic. Experts say domestic poultry or smuggled pet birds could bring the virus into the U.S. Others say it will arrive this fall by way of migratory birds. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:

Transcript

Researchers are tracking a potentially dangerous strain of avian flu in
Asia, Europe, and Africa. They say the H5N1 virus could mutate and
cause a human pandemic. Experts say domestic poultry or smuggled pet
birds could bring the virus into the U.S. Others say it will arrive this fall
by way of migratory birds. The GLRC’s Christina Shockley reports:


Millions of birds will migrate across the globe along major flyways in
the coming weeks. Some birds from Asia will fly to Alaska to reach
summer nesting sites. If those birds carry the H5N1 strain of avian flu
with them, they could transmit the virus to birds that will later stop in the
United States.


Steve Schmitt is the lead veterinarian for Michigan’s Department of
Natural Resources.


“The pacific flyway far and away has the majority of birds that nest in
Alaska and then move south through the fall into Mexico.”


That means if the virus arrives in the lower 48 states via migratory birds,
it would likely arrive first in a state along the Pacific coast.


For the GLRC, I’m Christina Shockley.

Related Links

A Look at the Western Whooping Crane Flock

  • The Eastern flock of whooping cranes train for migration by following an ultralight. Photo courtesy of Operation Migration, Inc.

Some of the three dozen whooping cranes that winter in Florida have begun their spring migration to the Great Lakes region. More cranes are expected to fly north within the next few weeks. Wildlife officials put together that experimental migrating flock for the Eastern U.S., in case something happens to the only other migrating flock of whoopers, which winters in Texas and spends summers in western Canada. Scientists say there are several potential threats to the western birds. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports from the Texas Gulf Coast:

Transcript

Some of the three dozen whooping cranes that winter in Florida have begun their spring
migration to the Great Lakes region. More cranes are expected to fly north within the next few
weeks. Wildlife officials put together that experimental migrating flock for the Eastern U.S. in
case something happens to the only other migrating flock of whoopers, which winters in Texas
and spends summers in western Canada. Scientists say there are several potential threats to the
western birds. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports from the Texas
Gulf Coast:

The sight of a five foot tall adult whooping crane is awe-inspiring to many people. A Minnesota
man named Gary, who lives in Texas during the winter, says he loves to see the brilliantly white
whoopers and their amazing wing span.

“They’re pretty – huge and beautiful, pretty bird. Something we don’t have in Minnesota.”

The birds winter here at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a fifteen mile long by seven
mile wide peninsula north of the city of Corpus Christi. Aransas was the wintertime home for the
whoopers when the population of the endangered cranes dwindled to just 15 birds in the 1940s.
Today there are 194 whooping cranes in the Western flock.

“There’s a family out there.”

Crane Researcher Colleen Satyshur crouches down in a remote area of the refuge. she points at
three cranes.

“They’re just on the other side of the waterway that runs on the far side of the levy there. Two
parents on the outside and one baby in the middle”

The birds come to within about 100 yards.

It seems like a perfect place for the cranes. But because there is such a small number of birds, the
flock is at risk.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service whooping crane Coordinator Tom Stehn says 194 whoopers in one
site is just not that many.

“That’s just not much genetics in the population and there’s big threats to the population whenever
there’s concentrated in such low numbers.”

And a small gene pool is just the beginning of problems for the western flock of whoopers.

A few miles south of the Aransas refuge an earth mover loads dirt and rock into dump trucks.
Development along the Gulf of Mexico is taking up land. The human population here is expected
to double within forty years. Tom Stehn says that’ll increase demand for freshwater. He says
Texas is looking at diverting river water that currently flows into the Aransas refuge, where it
sustains crabs, a major food source for the whooping cranes.

“The crabs need the fresh water coming down the rivers, so if we dam up those rivers, prevent those inflows, the cranes
are gonna suffer.”

The refuge managers also worry about maritime accidents.

(sound of boat)

Boats like this one that travel the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway on the border of the Aransas refuge
sometimes carry toxic chemicals that could wipe out the birds with one spill.

Stehn says the list of potential risks to cranes is extensive – it includes things such as flying into
power lines along the cranes 2,400 mile migration route. He says there are new concerns, such as
global warming and West Nile virus.

Barring any disasters from those threats, Stehn says he’s pretty confident that generations of
whooping cranes will continue to winter in Texas for another 50 to 100 years. But Stehn says
even the crane’s longevity is in some ways a weakness.

“It’s a long lived bird with slow reproductive potential, so it’s gonna struggle to adjust if change
happens too rapidly.”

Stehn says the wildlife agencies can’t protect the birds from everything. But researchers can learn
more about the whooping cranes’ habits and hopefully that will help figure out the best ways
to aid the birds.

(sound of whooping cranes)

Help may come by tracking the cranes. This winter, Colleen
Satyshur recorded some of the birds’ calls. Some scientists believe
every crane has its own unique voiceprint that can be measured
through soundwaves run through a computer. Satyshur says they
think they might be able to use the voiceprinting as a way to
see which cranes are doing what.

“Which pairs are bringing down chicks, how many years, might tell us something new we can use to help us conserve the birds.”

Many people see the whoopers comeback as an inspiring symbol of wildlife preservation.
Keeping an eye on the birds is not just about the safety of the whooping cranes. Even with the
eastern flock becoming established and flying between Florida and the Great Lakes. Losing the
western flock of whooping cranes for any reason would be a blow to the entire wildlife
preservation movement.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chuck Quirmbach in Southeast Texas.

Related Links

Enviros Call on Fcc to Enforce Tower Regs

Communication towers throughout the country, such as cell phone and radio towers, are to blame for millions of migratory bird deaths each year. Now, an environmental group has filed a complaint against the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to cut down on bird deaths. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ashley McGovern reports:

Transcript

Communication towers throughout the country, such as cell phone and radio
towers, are to blame for millions of migratory bird deaths each year. Now,
an environmental group has filed a complaint against the Federal
Communications Commission in an attempt to cut down on bird deaths. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ashley McGovern reports:


The Federal Communications Commission requires lights on communication
towers two-hundred feet and taller.


Environmental groups say these towers pose a threat to migratory birds.


They say in bad weather birds mistake lights on towers for stars they use to
navigate when flying.


The FCC requires an environmental impact study to be conducted whenever
towers like these are built.


But environmental groups say the FCC rarely follows this regulation.


The National Wildlife Federation filed a complaint against the FCC after the
Michigan State Police built a one-hundred-eighty-one-tower communication
system.


Michelle Halley is an attorney for the NWF.


“The Michigan State Police applied to register their towers and to build their towers, and they were
allowed by the FCC to do that, without conducting the proper environmental review.”


Halley says these reviews can help position towers outside of migratory bird
flyways.


She also says lowering some towers would eliminate the required lighting.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Ashley McGovern.

Related Links

Whooping Cranes Safely Complete Migration

Sixteen endangered whooping cranes that left the Midwest this fall have safely made it to a wildlife refuge in Florida. The birds are part of a reintroduction experiment. And this is the first time that all the cranes made the trip safely. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

Sixteen endangered whooping cranes that left the Midwest this fall have
safely made it to a wildlife refuge in Florida. The birds are part of a
re-introduction experiment. And this is the first time that all the cranes
made the trip safely. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach
reports:


For three years, the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership has been using
ultralight aircraft to lead young whoopers from Wisconsin to Florida. A bird
died during each of the previous migrations. This year no bird had to be
euthanized , although one injured crane made the first part of the trip in a
van.


Heather Ray is with Operation Migration, one of several groups working
together to create the only migrating flock of whooping cranes in the
eastern U.S. Ray is very happy about the latest developments.


“I mean, we’re ecstatic that every bird made the flight. You know, every bird
is priceless, as far as we’re concerned, and we’re always saddened when we
lose one.”


Almost all the cranes that completed the two previous years of migrations
have joined the newest group at the Florida refuge. There are now
thirty-six cranes on site. The recovery project’s goal is a flock of 125
migrating birds by the year 2020, including 25 nesting pairs.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

Related Links

Whooping Cranes Suit Up for Fall Flight

Fifteen more endangered whooping cranes are are following ultralight aircraft through the Midwest, on the way to Florida. It’s part of an experiment to create a migrating flock of the birds in the Eastern U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

Fifteen more endangered whooping cranes are about to follow ultralight aircraft
through the
Midwest, on the way to Florida. It’s part of an experiment to create a migrating
flock of the birds
in the Eastern U.S. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:


This is the third year that pilots wearing cranelike costumes are leading a flock of
young
whooping cranes on the birds first southerly migration from Wisconsin. About twenty
cranes
now migrate on their own. A public-private partnership is trying to create a flock
of 125
whoopers, including two dozen breeding pairs.


Larry Wargowsky is the manager at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, which is the
starting
point of the birds flight. He says it’s important to keep building the numbers of
young cranes
because it takes 4 to 7 years for them to mature.


“If it takes that long, there’s a chance of birds having fatalities. They hit power
lines, always
disease, parasites, injuries of some sort. So you need more birds.”


The only other migrating flock of whooping cranes travels between Canada and Texas.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chuck Quirmbach.

Related Links

Unraveling Mystery of Birds’ Night Calls

  • Ornithologist Bill Evans has been tracking down avian night flight calls for 17 years.

Many North American birds are in serious decline. But scientists aren’t sure what’s wrong because birds are hard to count. The problem is partly that birds often migrate long distances between wintering sites and summer breeding grounds. Usually, they fly unobserved at night, and in many cases scientists don’t know what route they take. However, a new technique promises to solve this problem. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Daniel Grossman has our story:

Transcript

Many North American birds are in serious decline. But scientists aren’t sure what’s wrong because birds are hard to count. The problem is partly that birds often migrate long distances between wintering sites and summer breeding grounds. Usually, they fly unobserved at night, and in many cases scientists don’t know what route they take. However, a new technique promises to solve this problem. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Daniel Grossman has our story:

(Sound on dock, with Evan’s whispering out bird names fades up under intro.
Continues under Grossman track, then heard in clear.)

It’s a warm spring evening on the south Texas coast. Ornithologist Bill Evans sits on a dock, listening for birds.

“Grey-cheek thrush.”

Grossman: “That high one?”

“Yeah. (makes sound). Moor hen calling behind us on the ground. Oh sorry, that’s a black-necked stilt.”

Evans has been listening to and studying these night calls since he had an epiphany at a Minnesota campground in 1985. Then a recent college dropout and avid birder, Evans was adrift, unsure what to do with his life.

“I was getting back to a campsite about two in the morning and heard an incredible flight.”

Hundreds of birds were passing overhead in nocturnal migration, including what appeared to be about 100 black-billed cuckoos.

“If you go out and look for black-billed cuckoos during the day you may see two or three. And I’m thinking, ‘wow if I had a tape recorder and could somehow document this on audiotape, I might have a pretty powerful conservation document.'”

Bill Evans got a recorder and soon was making tapes of flight calls. But his recordings were of limited use because no one knew which birds made which sounds. The melodious tunes birds perform during the day are well known. But, according to Cornell Professor Charles Walcott, the calls they make during night flights are another matter.

“If you out on an evening and listen to these birds migrating overhead you’ll hear all these twitters, most of which don’t sound anything like what a normal bird sounds like at all.”

Walcott is the former director of the Cornell Ornithology Laboratory. He says night calls may help birds keep from colliding with each other. For decades, researchers hearing these calls were frustrated knowing there were birds in flight, but unable to determine which ones.

“And to be able to recognize individual species by their calls was a dream that many people have had. And Bill is the first one that’s been able to do it on any substantial scale.”

Evans spent the next 17 years prowling migration routes to match birds with their calls. Often his only chance came in the wee morning hours, when sometimes night migrants make a single night call before settling down to eat and rest. Gradually he cracked the code.

“The herons. Amazing squawks. Black-crowned-night heron is a sort of (makes sound). Green heron is a (makes sound). Barn owl. It’s a [makes sound]. Except it’s about ten times louder than that. The dickcissel is actually a sparrow and it’s got sort of a buzzy note (makes sound).

(Sound of truck door closing and truck starting up)

The small, colorful dickcissel is why Bill Evans is here, just north of Brownsville, Texas. He’s set up a network of 15 computerized monitoring stations that listen for dickcissels in flight. It’s the first large-scale effort to track birds using night calls. The network is stretched out along a line he believes these birds cross on their way between Venezuela and the U.S. plains.

Each station has a roof-mounted microphone, connected to a computer. Most of them are at high schools – their large, flat roofs and spacious grounds reduce traffic noise – and they’re generally in a science class. And while Evans does stay up late to listen for pleasure, it’s these computers that are actually doing the work. Each day he collects the past night’s results, in a marathon drive, station by station.

(Sound of high school PA System making announcement cross fades with truck under previous track. Also mixed in sound of crowded high school corridor with students changing classes. Cross-fades with sound of classroom.)

Evans: “Come on over guys. My name is Bill, this is Dan.”

Peter: “Bill and Dan?”

Evans: “What’s your name?”

Tate: “Tate.”

Peter: “Peter.”

Bill: “Nice to meet you guys.”

Some curious students pay Evans a visit at La Ferria High School.

(Evans fades up underneath Grossman. Then heard in clear.)

Evans (to students): “…So anyway the sound comes down this audio cable into this computer. We’re just checking the data from last night…”

(Computer keyboard sounds in actuality fades under track.)

The computer has a program that distinguishes the call of the dickcissel from other birdcalls and extraneous noise. The machine records the call, and saves a picture – or spectrogram – of it. Evans trouble shoots his stations and collects data daily. First he winnows out false positives, sounds that tricked the computer, by inspecting the spectrograms.

Evans (to students): “I’m going to set up one folder to put in the dickcissels’ calls and the other I’m going to put in the noise, the false detections. So now I’ve just classified the detections from last night. We had 28 here that we classified as dickcissels…”

After checking the computer and collecting its data the researcher says he has to run. Each of the 15 stations in his network needs a checkup because this weekend might be the climax of the dickcissel migration, bringing a huge flight of birds.

Evans (to students): “…And this weekend we think there are thousands of them just in Northeast Mexico. They’re going to take off. ‘Cause last year in one night, we had over 3,000 detected at McAllen High School…”

In the end, the big flock didn’t appear until the following week. Though the arrival was delayed for several days compared to the previous year, Evans now has proof that by monitoring night calls he can predict the timing and migration route of an individual bird species.

(Sound of truck door closing and truck starting up.)

Walcott: “It’s really an extraordinary accomplishment.”

Cornell professor Charles Walcott says the migration information Evans is discovering can’t be collected any other way. It’s all the more extraordinary because Bill Evans, who once worked for Walcott, has neither a college nor any other degree.

Walcott: “With Bill’s scheme you can now say, well, this was an evening when we had a huge migration of warblers and they were of the following species. And this is very useful and very interesting information. And it gives you a sense of where the migratory paths for each species of birds might be.”

It’s detailed information like this that conservation specialists need to design plans to protect the most threatened species. In the future Evans hopes several large-scale computer networks of the sort he’s testing in Texas will monitor many species throughout the United States. He hopes the listening posts could help solve the mystery of why so many North American species are in decline. This spring, in an important first step, Evans and collaborator Michael O’Brien released a compact disc with night flight calls of most eastern land birds. Now anyone can learn the secrets Bill Evans has unlocked.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Daniel Grossman.

Related Links

Whoopers Go It Alone on Spring Flight

A high-profile flock of whooping cranes may be winging its way back through the Midwest in the next few days or weeks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

To find out more about the migrating cranes you can go to: www.bringbackthecranes.org and www.operationmigration.org.

Transcript

A high-profile flock of whooping cranes may be winging its way back through the Midwest in the next few days or weeks. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

The cranes would be the first migrating flock of whoopers in the eastern U.S. The birds have left their winter home in Florida, and wildlife biologists hope the cranes are on their way to a summer nesting site in Wisconsin. The whoopers are flying on their own this spring, after having followed ultra light aircraft on their southerly migration last fall. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson Charles Underwood says one of the biggest dangers on the northbound journey is from predators.

“Both bobcats and coyotes and as they get further north the possibility of wolves taking one of the birds is always of concern to us.”

Underwood is also urging people not to get to try to get too close to the whooping cranes. He says wildlife officials are trying to keep the huge birds as wild as possible. Two web sites will track the cranes’ progress.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Chuck Quirmbach reporting.

Small Wetlands Drowning in Development

  • Small wetlands such as the one pictured above often dry up during the summer. These 'ephemeral wetlands' are home to all kinds of frogs, salamanders, reptiles and aquatic life that depend on this specific kind of habitat for their survival. Photo by Lester Graham.

Biologists are becoming concerned about the disappearance of a habitat for wildlife that can be found in rural areas, in sprawling suburbs, and even in big cities. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to get city planners, farmers, and developers to stop draining small marshy areas that biologists call ephemeral wetlands. The EPA says in the rush to save big areas of wetlands these small temporary wet spots have been overlooked at the expense of some unique wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:

Transcript

Biologists are becoming concerned about the disappearance of a habitat for wildlife that can be found in rural areas, in sprawling suburbs, and even in big cities. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to get city planners, farmers, and developers to stop draining small marshy areas that biologists call ephemeral wetlands. The EPA says in the rush to save big areas of wetlands these small temporary wet spots have been overlooked at the expense of some unique wildlife. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham has more:

(Frogs sound)

There’s still just a bit of ice along the edges of this little pool, but it’s a warm day, the ice will soon melt, and the frogs sound as if they’re rejoicing. In the coming weeks, this shallow little pond will become a chorus of different kinds of frogs and host a dance of mating salamanders. Many kinds of amphibians and reptiles are drawn to wet spots like this one to mate and reproduce. And. there’s a bit of a rush to their reproductive activities. More than likely by middle or late summer, this little pool will be all dried up. Actually, that’s good because it means fish can’t survive here, fish that would eat the young of many of these species. So a lot of these frogs and salamanders and other creepy-crawly things do really well here while its wet.

Ed Hammer is a biologist with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says these temporary, or ephemeral, wetlands are usually pretty small… most under two acres in size…some so small you could jump across them. But they’re really important to aquatic life such as fairy shrimp and clam shrimp, which can survive, and even need dry periods. And certain species of frogs and other amphibians who use the wetlands for breeding.

(Frogs fade out)

“They’re extremely productive. We have some of these smaller wetlands in our area in the Chicago region that in a quarter acre of size can produce hundreds and hundreds of salamanders and leopard frogs in a good year when the water holds out. They really depend on those habitats being there every few years at the very least.”

And Hammer says the productivity of the ephemeral wetlands helps other species.

“Salamanders and frogs are fed upon by a multitude of other organisms like turtles and snakes and on up the food chain and then, you know, owls will feed on them. Raccoons and skunks and fox and all up the food chain they’ll be fed on. So they’re an extremely important food source.”

The temporary wetlands are also important to many migrating birds such as pintail ducks and little green herons. Paul Zedler is a professor of environmental studies and scientist at the University of Wisconsin arboretum.

“Imagine you’re a bird, a shore bird, looking for habitat in which to forage. Then ephemeral wetlands, while they’re there, can be an excellent place for resting and feeding.”

Zedler says the ephemeral wetlands are amazing to him because of the wet then dry cycle to which so many animals have adapted.

“It’s like instant ecosystem. Like, add water and you get an ecosystem. People who, once it’s pointed out to them, invariably think it’s pretty darn neat.”

But a lot of times, the people who own the ephemeral wetlands don’t realize that area that gets swampy in wet years is a thriving habitat. Ephemeral wetlands are often drained to plant crops, or bulldozed deeper to build storm water retention basins for housing developments, or the surrounding woodlands are cut down eliminating the habitat where many of the frogs and salamanders live the rest of the year.

They’ve disappeared so quickly that some species that depend on ephemeral wetlands are in danger of disappearing too. Gary Casper is with the Milwaukee Public Museum. He’s been studying a certain turtle called Blanding’s turtle to see why its numbers have dwindled so much.

“Blandings turtles look kind of like those old German helmets from World War II and they have a really bright yellow chin and throat with a real long neck. They’re a threatened species in Wisconsin and threatened or endangered in several other states.”

Casper has been watching Blanding’s turtles to see what makes them tick, where they like to live and eat.

“And after looking at the data from seven years of radio tracking, it’s quite clear that they strongly prefer these seasonal, isolated wetlands probably because they provide much more food for them.”

And so they join a host of other critters such as gray tree frogs, marbled salamanders, fishing spiders, wood ducks and others who heavily depend on the ephemeral wetlands.

The EPA is publishing pamphlets and holding seminars to teach state and local officials and those folks interested in preserving wildlife habitat…hoping they’ll spread the word about the value of the seasonal ponds, or mud puddles so that private landowners will keep them around.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

  • Download a brochure on ephemeral wetlands by the Conservation Foundation. Acrobat Reader required to open file.