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| Spring 2004 Newsletter | Edited by Steve Windels | ||||||||
In This Issue:
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR by Steve Windels The Restoration Working Group has been a chartered working group of the Wildlife Society since 1998. In that time we've sponsored two symposia at annual TWS meetings (Buffalo 1998 and Nashville 2000), organized field trips to local restoration projects at the last three annual TWS meetings (Reno 2001, Bismarck 2002, and Burlington 2003), and held annual business meetings. Apart from the two symposia, none of the events we hosted/organized have been well attended. The low turnout for the field trips have been especially disappointing, given the amount of effort required to pull them off. It leaves me and some of the other active members wondering whether the Restoration Working Group can, or should, continue to persist as a functioning organization. RWG has also published a semi-annual newsletter since its inception, first in paper form, then via email, and finally as online content on the RWG website. It's difficult to gage how many RWG members read the newsletters, especially now that it's posted on the website. The page counter tells me that the Spring 2003 newsletter has been visited 577 times. Considering that there are only 130 or so paid working group members, this suggests that lots of other folks outside of the RWG are reading the newsletters. If this is indeed true, this is a great thing and is part of the reason the RWG was formed in the first place. However, it still begs the question how many RWG members read the newsletter. I've been a fairly active member of the working group since 1998 and I've seen the same pattern year after year. There is a very small group (i.e. usually less than 10) of RWG members who participate on an annual basis in any working group activities. This includes serving as an officer or board member, attending annual business meetings or field trips, or submitting items to the newsletter. So, what's my point, you ask? This small group of active participants is not enough to keep the Restoration Working Group functioning, i.e., we don't have a critical mass of folks involved such that RWG can be self-sustaining. WE NEED EACH AND EVERY RWG MEMBER TO GET INVOLVED!!!!! A successful organization needs strong leadership to function, no doubt about it. But perhaps even more it needs its members to truly be members. The $5 you send us every year is nice, but what good is it if no one participates in working group activities or worse yet, there is no one to lead?? Make a pledge to become involved in some aspect of the RWG this year. Ideally this would mean participating in the working group as an elected official or submitting a short summary of a restoration project to the newsletter. Better yet, volunteer to help organize a symposium or field trip at a section meeting or for the 2005 annual meeting. Your pledge can also be as simple as reading the newsletters or attending the annual business meetings. Regardless, if you read this message, pledge to do something in the next 12 months to become involved. The RWG will cease to function without you. Sincerely, Steve Windels Chair, Restoration Working Group 218-283-9107, ext 6147 steve_windels@nps.gov FEATURE ARTICLE: Wildlife Restoration in Badlands National Park -by Doug Albertson, Wildlife Biologist, Badlands National Park Located within the mixed prairie ecosystem of south western South Dakota, Badlands National Park is renowned for, and established because of, its paleontological resources. The park is also a showcase of North America's endemic grasslands wildlife. Although many of these native wildlife species existed at the time of the park's designation as a part of the National Park Service, several species exist today only due to the restoration efforts of park resource managers. Restoration of extirpated ungulates in Badlands National Park includes the reintroduction of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in 1967 and the bison (Bison bison) in 1963 and 1983. The current population of bighorn sheep in Badlands National Park originates from 14 individuals that were caught in the wild from Colorado and translocated into the park. The free ranging bison herd within the Badlands Wilderness Area originates from 48 individuals captured from wild herds in North Dakota and Colorado and translocated into the park. Although these populations have seen their ups and downs over the last 35+ years, healthy populations of bighorn sheep and bison now range within the park and contribute to the overall diversity of wildlife species. In the last decade, resource managers at Badlands National Park have undertaken new efforts to restore extirpated grasslands mesocarnivore species such as the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) and the swift fox (Vulpes velox). The black-footed ferret has been federally listed as endangered since 1967. Large-scale eradication programs of prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.), associated with agricultural conversion of the Great Plains, have reduced prairie dogs to only 2% of their original range (Miller et al., 1994). Because black-footed ferrets (ferrets) are obligate predators of prairie dogs, their decline was inevitable. In 1974, the last known ferret population, located in South Dakota, went extinct. Seven years later a population was found in Meeteetse, Wyoming. After three years of study (Forrest et al.1988) this population was decimated by canine distemper in 1985 (Williams et al. 1988). Eighteen disease-free survivors were taken into captivity and utilized as founders for a black-footed ferret captive-breeding program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Understanding the reproductive physiology of ferrets and steady improvements in the management techniques of the breeding facilities reduced the fear of imminent ferret extinction (Clark, 1994). Success in captive propagation allowed for the release of individuals back to the wild in Wyoming in 1991, followed in subsequent years by Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Mexico. The designation of "non-essential experimental" population areas at these sites has enabled resource managers to develop adaptive management techniques to maximize the survivorship of released ferrets.
The Conata Basin/Badlands Black-footed Ferret Experimental Population Area in southwestern South Dakota is composed of U.S. Forest Service Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and Badlands National Park. This site has used a combination of on-site pre-conditioning of release candidates to prairie dog burrows and live prairie dogs, predator management at release sites, and the release of juvenile ferrets to produce the highest short-term survivorship (79%) of any reintroduction site. Since 1994 a total of 403 captive born ferrets have been released into Conata Basin / Badlands with subsequent wild-born production of 212 litters and 598 kits (National Park Service 2001). Population viability estimates calculated that in order for a population to persist for 100 years with a 95% probability, it would need a minimum of 120 breeding adults (Harris et al., 1989). As of January 2004, the minimum population of black-footed ferrets at Conata Basin / Badlands was 270 ferrets, making it the only site in the country to reach the projected level of sustainability. This site has been so successful that it has now become a donor site for the capture and translocation of ferrets to new reintroduction sites. As the number of free-ranging populations increase, resource managers must develop unique practices to support viable populations and ultimately promote their long-term recovery throughout the country (Arnold, 1995). Continued monitoring of the ferret population around Badlands National Park will be a priority for the recovery of the species in the wild. Coming off of this success, Badlands National Park personnel started planning for the restoration of swift fox into the park in 2000. The swift fox is a key species of the short grass and mixed grass prairies of the Great Plains of North America. Historically, this very small ('5 lbs) fox occurred in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas, and the southern prairie region of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan (Hall 1981, Hall and Kelson 1959, Samuel and Nelson 1982, Scott-Brown et al. 1987, Sovada and Scheick 1999). Swift foxes were once abundant throughout much of their range until the late 1800s to the early 1900s.
With European settlement of the plains, swift fox populations declined dramatically by the late 1800s (Zumbaugh and Choate 1985). The decline can be attributed to conversion of native prairie to agriculture and the associated declines in prey species (Egoscue 1979), unregulated hunting and trapping, rodent control programs, and predator control programs aimed at larger carnivores (Carbyn et al. 1994, FaunaWest 1991, Kilgore 1969, Samuel and Nelson 1982). Swift foxes readily accepted poisoned baits and died by the thousands (Bailey 1926, Young 1944). The greatest decline occurred in their northern range as they were extirpated from Canada and North Dakota (Soper 1964, Sovada and Scheick 1999). The fox remained only in scattered, remnant populations, through portions of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana. The present contiguous range of the swift fox extends from Wyoming south through eastern Colorado, western Kansas, eastern New Mexico, the Oklahoma panhandle and extreme northern Texas. South Dakota's only population of swift fox occurs in the extreme southwestern corner of the state (Kruse et al. 1995; Dateo et al. 1996). It is at high risk due to prairie dog poisoning, land uses (agriculture), and geographic barriers. This population has been unable to expand north and east to reach the protected areas of Badlands National Park and the surrounding Buffalo Gap National Grassland, even though there is extensive suitable habitat and compatible management on these federal lands. In 2003, Badlands National Park joined cooperative forces with the Turner Endangered Species Fund, the United States Geological Survey-Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, the United States Forest Service-Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, and South Dakota State University completed the first stage of a multi-year swift fox restoration and research program. A total of 30 swift fox were captured in Colorado and translocated into Badlands National Park in the fall of 2003. All of the individuals were radio collared and tagged for identification. Initial post-release mortalities were about 30% and attributed to coyote predation and vehicle road kill. Telemetric monitoring through the winter has followed the survivorship of the remaining swift fox in their new home. During the spring eight individuals were confirmed to pair up for breeding and denning. Confirmation of wild born production in the first year of release is waiting on pup emergence from the den in mid- to late-May. The swift fox restoration project is slated to extend into the fall of 2005 with the hopes of establishing a self-sustaining population in the mixed grass prairie of South Dakota through the release of translocated wild fox. Restoration of wildlife species into Badlands National Park has been a challenging experience that requires resource personnel to have the ability to adaptively manage each project on a continual basis. Unexpected occurrences of disease, predation, and low recruitment in the reintroduced populations have at times placed the restoration projects in precarious situations. With continued diligence, hopefully these efforts will allow future generations of wildlife enthusiasts the opportunities to observe and appreciate these grassland species that went missing for many years. Literature cited Arnold, S. 1995. Monitoring quantitative genetic variation and evolution in captive populations. Pp. 295-317. In: Population management for survival and recovery. J. Ballou, M. Gilpin, T. Foose, eds. Columbia University Press, NY. Bailey, V. 1926. A biological survey of North Dakota. North American Fauna 49:1-226.Bunker, C.D. 1940. The kit fox. Science 92:35-36. Carbyn, L., H.J. Armbuster, and C. Mamo. 1994. The swift fox reintroduction program in Canada from 1983 to 1992. In M.L. Bowles and C.J. Whelan. Restoration of endangered species: conceptual issues, planning and implementation. Cambridge University Press. Clark, T. 1994. Restoration of the endangered Black-footed Ferret: a 20-year overview. Pp. 272-297. In: Restoration of endangered species: Conceptual issues, planning and implementation. M.L. Bowles and C.J. Whelan, eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Dateo, D.M., J.A. Jenks, E. Dowd-Stukel, and C.S. DePerno. 1996. Survey of swift fox on Pine Ridge Ogalala Sioux Indian Reservation, Shannon County, South Dakota. Pages 69-75 in B. Luce and F. Lindzey, editors. Annual Report of the swift fox conservation team. Egoscue, H. J. 1979. Vulpes velox. Mammalian Species 122:1-5. FaunaWest Wildlife Consultants. 1991. An ecological and taxonomic review of the swift fox with special reference to Montana. Boulder, MT. 49 pp. Forrest, S., D. Biggins, L. Richardson, T. Clark, T. Campbell III, K. Fagerstone, and T. Thorne. 1988. Population attributes for the Black-footed Ferret (Mustela nigripes) at Meeteetse, Wyoming. 1981-1985. J Mammology. 69:261-273. Hall, E.R. 1981. The mammals of North America. Volume 2, pages 601-1181-90. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New York, New York, USA. Hall, E.R. and K.R. Kelson. 1959. The mammals of North America. Vol. 2, pages 547-1083. Ronald Press Co., NY. Harris, R.B., T.W. Clark, and M.L. Shaffer. 1989. Extinction probabilities for isolated Black-footed Ferret populations. Pp. 69-82. In: Conservation Biology and the Black-footed Ferret. U. Seal, T. Thorne, M. Bogan, and S. Anderson, eds. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. Kilgore, D.L. 1969. An ecological study of the swift fox in the Oklahoma panhandle. American Midland Naturalist 81: 512-534. Kitchen, A. M., E. M. Gese, and E. R. Schauster. 1999. Resource partitioning between coyotes and swift foxes: space, time, and diet. Canadian Journal of Zoology 77:1645-1656. Kruse, K.W., J.A. Jenks, and E. Dowd-Stukel. 1995. Presence of swift fox in southwestern South Dakota. Pages 91-99 in S.H. Allen, J.W. Hoagland, and E. Dowd-Stukel, editors. Annual Report of the swift fox conservation team. North Dakota Game and Fish Department, Bismark, ND. 166 pp. Miller, B., G. Ceballos, and R. Reading. 1994. Prairie dogs, poisoning, and biotic diversity. Conservation Biology. 8:677-681. National Park Service. 2001. Report to the USFWS National Coordinator of 2001 activities for black-footed ferret recovery at Badlands National Park, Experimental Population Area conducted under Subpermit SP94-30.00. Badlands National Park. Interior, SD, 57750. 16 pp. Samuel, D.E., and B.B. Nelson. 1982. Foxes. Pages 475-490 in J.A. Chapman and G.A. Feldhammer, eds. Wild mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Economics. John Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 1147 pp. Scott-Brown, J.M., S Herrero, and J. Reynolds. 1987. Swift fox. Pages 432-441 in M. Novak, J.A. Baker, M.E. Obbard, and B. Malloch, eds. Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America. Ontario Trappers Assoc., North Bay. Ontario, Canada. Soper, J.D. 1964. The mammals of Alberta. The Hamley Press Ltd. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Sovada, M. A., and B. K. Scheick. 1999. Preliminary report to the swift fox conservation team: historic and recent distribution of swift foxes in North America. Pages 80-147 + appendix in C. G. Schmitt, editor. 1999 Annual report of the Swift Fox Conservation Team. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Swift Fox Conservation Team Annual Report. 2000. C.G. Schmitt and B. Oakleaf editors. 2001. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Williams, E. S., E. T. Thorne, M. J. G. Appel, and D. W. Belitsky. 1988. Canine distemper in black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) from Wyoming. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 25:385-398. Young, S.P. 1944. Their history, life habits, economic status, and control. Part 1. Pages 1-386 in The wolves of North America. The American Wildlife Institute, Washington, DC. Zumbaugh, D. M., and J. R. Choate. 1985. Historical biogeography of foxes in Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 88:1-13. Doug Albertson Wildife Biologist Badlands National Park Interior, SD 57750 Doug_albertson@nps.gov OTHER ARTICLES From the Bayou - Joy Merino, NOAA (PDF Format) The Hamilton Harbour Fish and Wildlife Restoration Project (from Fisheries and Oceans Canada website) Scientists with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Service, McMaster and Brock Universities and the Royal Botanical Gardens are co-ordinating monitoring and research to advance fish and wildlife habitat restoration throughout the Great Lakes. The Fish and Wildlife Habitat Restoration Project in Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise proposes to create 372 ha of fish habitat, 299 ha of wildlife habitat, 16 km of shore habitat for fish and wildlife and 9 km of trails. Substantial progress has already been made: - Shoreline rehabilitation and a new trail at Chedoke Creek - Development of a carp barrier/fishway, aquatic plant nursery and breeding and nursery ponds for amphibians and reptiles in the Cootes Paradise marsh - Pike spawning habitat, rehabilitated flood plain habitat and a new boardwalk at Grindstone Creek - Restoration of the lower Grindstone Creek, employing recycled Christmas tree - Shoreline naturalization and development of underwater reefs at Bayfront Park - Shoreline naturalization, beach restoration, development of reefs and a new trail at LaSalle Park - Shoreline naturalization, and the development of colonial nesting bird islands, underwater reefs, trail and lookout at the Northeastern Shoreline - Sand dune rehabilitation and a new trail at Burlington Beach In 1997, the operation of a carp barrier/fishway began at the Cootes Paradise marsh, blocking the passage of carp into the marsh during spawning season but allowing the migration of all other spawning fish. As a result, aquatic vegetation has made a dramatic recovery throughout Cootes Paradise and the harbour. Fisheries monitoring has indicated a positive change in the composition of the fish community, including an increase in numbers of top predators and in species diversity. Recently, over 200 spawning pike were counted at the Cootes Paradise fishway. Prior to restoration, only 19 pike were recorded at the fishway. Similarly, waterfowl numbers in Cootes Paradise have increased dramatically due to the increased distribution and abundance of aquatic plants. Birds have been staying longer in the marsh and gaining strength for their migratory flight south. The Grindstone Creek pike spawning marsh has been a 20-year restoration effort. The Grindstone Trail, connecting Cherry Hill Gate to Sunfish Pond is open to the public and provides educational interpretation and protects the flood plain by directing the large number of visitors to the boardwalk. Tours are open to groups and can be arranged by contacting Royal Botanical Gardens. To date, habitat restoration efforts and improvements to public access have laid a strong foundation for continuing enhancement. Research and monitoring provide essential feedback for the design and construction of the next phases of habitat and public access projects. For more information on the Fish and Wildlife Restoration Project in Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise, please visit the Royal Botanical Gardens web site - http://www.rbg.ca/. WORKING GROUP NEWS - Steve Windels RWG NEEDS A NEW WEBMASTER AND NEWSLETTER EDITOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our webmaster for hire since 2001, Bill Standley, is now working full-time for the Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife and can no longer offer his services as webmaster. If you or anyone you know has the skills required to be the webmaster for the RWG website, please contact me, Steve Windels (steve_windels@nps.gov). Bill worked about 10-15 hours for us annually. Also, I am looking for someone else to take over duties as newsletter editor. I have been creating/soliciting content for the newsletters since 1999 but feel that this position could use some new energy. Newsletters are scheduled to be published twice a year, with each newsletter taking about 20 hours of time. About half of this time involves soliciting material from officers/board members with the other half spent on actual editing. Please contact me (steve_windels@nps.gov) if you are interested. FIELD TRIP AT TWS MEETING IN BURLINGTON, VT The Restoration Working Group sponsored a full-day field trip to The Nature Conservancy's Hubbardton River and Lower Poultney River Restoration Initiative in southern Vermont. TNC representatives discussed restoration planning and implementation along the Hubbardton and Poultney Rivers in Vermont and New York in relation to mitigating impacts of agricultural practices on water quality (including rare mussels and darters) and restoration of floodplain and clayplain forest. There was also a tour of the on-site native plant nursery and a hike through a former farm to the banks of the Poultney River.
FIELD TRIP PLANNING FOR TWS MEETING IN CALGARY The Wildlife Society's annual meeting is scheduled for September 18-22, 2004 in Calgary, Alberta. We have requested that our annual business meeting be scheduled for Monday, September 20 from noon-1pm. We are also planning a half-day field trip to an area. Potential sites include: 1) the Three Sisters developments (housing, golf course, designated wildlife corridors) near Canmore, AB which is largely developed on the old Canmore Coleries mines. 2) Ducks Unlimited project at Frank Lake. DU has made Frank Lake into premier waterfowl habitat while also using the lake to process some limited runoff from a meat packing plant. Should be lots of waterfowl around this time of year, too. Stay tuned for updates. Additionally, RWG members have been invited to join the annual field tour of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association (CLRA) to Rocky Mountain House (200km northwest of Calgary) for September 23&24, i.e. immediately following the meeting. The specifics of the tour have not been decided to date but likely will include some wildlife-related issues in area reclamation/restoration projects. Visit the CLRA website for updates. http://www.clra.ca/index.html NOMINEES NEEDED FOR RWG OFFICER POSITIONS Nominations are sought for upcoming elections in August 2004 for secretary-treasurer (1-year), and chair-elect (2-years). Contact Derek Hall (HallDB@nv.doe.gov) with nomination information or questions. The restoration working group is an organization formed to facilitate communication amongst its members. Therefore, it is only as valuable as its members are willing to make it! Please consider submitting an article, project update, book review, links to restoration related websites, newspaper articles, etc. To future issues of the newsletter. Send submissions (or questions) to Steve Windels, newsletter editor, steve_windels@nps.gov, 218-283-9107, ext 6147. RESTORATION IN THE NEWS Quest Begins to Restore 'Champion' Trees By John Flesher, AP Writer April 30, 2004 Eight years ago, David and Jared Milarch began a quest to clone the nation's "champion" trees - the biggest of their species, and often the oldest - and use their hardy genetic material to restore declining urban forests. Journeying to every corner of the nation, the father-and-son arborists from Copemish, Mich., have snipped buds and stems from about 90 of the 867 registered champions and sent them to nurseries and laboratories for cloning. As the nation observes Arbor Day on Friday, a genetic duplicate of a 200-year-old champion sycamore will be planted on the bowling green at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate south of Washington, D.C. It's a fitting symbol of what the Milarches and the organization they founded, Champion Tree International, regard as the next big step: large-scale plantings of cloned trees in an urban setting. "With 98 percent of our old-growth forests gone, isn't it time someone put a team together to rebuild them?" David Milarch said. "The century of preservation is going to close, and the century of restoration is beginning." Champion Tree International contends that trees hundreds of years old probably have superior genes and should be reproduced. They believe it's one solution to the decline of the world's forests brought on by excessive logging, disease and pollution. While plans aren't final, the group has found what it considers an ideal location for a first attempt at planting thousands of champion clones: the Rouge River watershed, which covers 438 square miles in southeastern Michigan. The Rouge system originates in rural Oakland County but meanders through heavily developed industrial and residential areas before connecting with the Detroit River. A project aimed at cleaning up the polluted waterway has been under way for a dozen years. While it continues, Champion Tree International is proposing a simultaneous push to bolster the urban forest - a timely goal, coming as the emerald ash borer has devastated 6 million of the region's trees. One reason the area seems well suited for the endeavor: about 60 national champions are located in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties. "It's all those old industrial barons' estates, where the trees were not cut down," Milarch said. "We've already got clones from six of those champions, and we'd like to get about 40 more and utilize them in the reforestation of the Rouge watershed basin." Champion clones wouldn't be the only trees planted, said Terry Mock, the group's executive director. They probably could make up only about 10 percent of the hundreds of thousands needed to effectively restore the forest. "It's a long-term process," Mock said. "We won't live to see the end of it, let's put it that way." The group is seeking a couple of "anchor sites" to get the project going. Farmington Hills, a city of 83,000 in Oakland County, is showing interest. Some champion trees will be planted later this year along a boulevard under construction, City Manager Steve Brock said. Officials are studying other possible locations. Meanwhile, area schoolchildren will take part in a "great tree hunt" aimed at finding national champions in the area. "If we do find trees with a significant pedigree, we want to put them back in the environment so they can help replenish what we've lost," said Hank Murawski, president of a local neighborhood association. Another potential partner: Ford Motor Co.'s newly refurbished River Rouge manufacturing complex, widely hailed for its environmentally sensitive design. William McDonough, a nationally known architect who oversaw the project, is sold on including champion trees in the plant's landscaping and the broader watershed restoration. They're a natural fit, said McDonough, co-author of "Cradle to Cradle," a book that advocates industrial and product designs based on natural systems. Aside from promoting biological diversity, champions are symbols of what is lost when old-growth trees are indiscriminately logged, he said. "These trees were cut down first and we lost that genetic strength," McDonough said. "It's what happens when people start getting greedy and create monocultures. Bringing back the champions is really critical." On the Net: Champion Tree Project: http://www.champtree.org (PROFILE (COUNTRY:United States; ISOCOUNTRY3:USA; UNTOP:021; APGROUP:NorthAmerica;) Monitors of Salton Sea Endorse $730M Plan By TIM MOLLOY The Associated Press Friday, April 23, 2004; 12:50 AM DESERT SHORES, Calif. - The agency that oversees California's largest lake endorsed a $730 million plan Thursday to create a smaller but healthier body of water by shrinking it to less than half its current size. Scientists have warned for more than 40 years that receding waters and increasing salinity would eventually doom the Salton Sea, a vital fishery teeming with hundreds of bird species that was once a southeastern California tourist destination. The Salton Sea Authority called for building a causeway across the inland sea by 2010 that would cut off most of the water flowing to its southern section. That would shrink the sea from about 360 square miles to about 140 square miles. The authority cannot independently implement the plan but hopes its endorsement will prompt state and federal officials to act. "We hope it will serve as a catalyst to get the state and federal government involved to get the restoration done," said authority President Andy Horne. Several plans have been proposed to save the Salton Sea, but the effort took on renewed urgency last year with the approval of an agreement to curb California's overuse of Colorado River water. Under the deal, water that would have run off from farmland into the sea will instead be diverted to San Diego. The California Resources Agency must choose a restoration plan for the sea and submit it to the Legislature by 2006. On Thursday, Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said of the authority's plan: "There appears to be a lot of work that went into it, and we will likely consider it, along with other plans." The plan would not only shrink the sea's area but also reduce its maximum depth, from about 50 feet to about 42 feet. That prospect alarmed some residents with property on the water. "Oh well, I'll sell my boat," said Barbara Taylor, a Salton City property owner. "I can't get my boat in and out of my boat slip now. Six or seven feet and it will be bone dry." The plan would also widen the Alamo and New rivers, which feed into the sea. The expansion would create 30 square miles of new wetlands that would help filter water flowing into the sea, improving its quality. Tom Kirk, executive director of the authority, said funding could come from several sources, including $300 million in restoration money from the state plan to divert Colorado River water from the sea. Formed in 1905 when a levee break caused flows from the Colorado River to enter for 18 months, the Salton Sea has become a crucial stop for migratory birds that have lost habitat elsewhere. The sea, not quite a fifth the size of the Great Salt Lake, is 25 percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean. Without a rescue plan, the sea's salinity will quadruple in the next 50 years, killing fish and making the sea useless to the more than 400 species of birds that visit it, Kirk said. "They call the Dead Sea the Dead Sea for a reason," Kirk said. "It's so salty it's virtually dead to all forms of life." The Salton Sea Authority is a state-chartered agency comprised of governments and water agencies in Imperial and Riverside counties. On the Net: Salton Sea Authority: www.saltonsea.ca.gov © 2004 The Associated Press UPCOMING MEETINGS 2004 June 21-24 British Columbia's Technical & Research Committee on Reclamation 28th Annual Mine Reclamation Symposium, Cranbrook, B.C. Theme: "The 4 "R's - Reclamation, Revegetation, Research and Risk" http://www.trcr.bc.ca/symposium-detail.html August 24-26 SER 16th Annual Conference in Victoria, British Columbia, 2004 http://www.serbc.info/public/ser_seminar September 18-22 The Wildlife Society's 11th Annual Conference in Calgary, Alberta. 2005 SER 17th Annual Conference in Zaragoza, Spain, 2005 RESTORATION RESOURCES Join Society for Ecological Restoration's Restoration Network SER has begun sending out messages of interest to the restoration community regarding upcoming events, opportunities, SER news, etc. If you would like to join this listserv, send a message from the email you wish to subscribe to Majordomo@ser.org with the following command in the body of your email message: subscribe restoration-network The Wildlife Society's Restoration Working Group Newsletter is edited by Steve Windels. Send submissions, corrections, or comments to: steve_windels@nps.gov; 218-283-9107, ext 6147. | |||||||||
