 |
|
 |
| ||
|
Bucks for Birds and Boxes
While many local scientists, resource managers and activists have caught the CALFED and CVPIA gold fever in recent years, others continue to rely on less well-endowed but equally well-intentioned sources of support. U.S. Fish & Wildlife's Rick Morat believes small, steady and strategic investments—his Coastal Program currently distributes about $200,000 per year—also play an important role in protecting the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Since its inception 11 years ago, the program has helped fund 172 projects, ranging from a few sheets of plywood for wood duck nest boxes to the removal of invasive cordgrass in Bay wetlands, the development of scientific consensus on how to create a healthier ecoystem (Habitat Goals Project) and the creation of the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture (a multi-agency/organization regional coordinating group for wetlands acquisition and protection).
Among more recent projects receiving Fish & Wildlife Coastal Program funding is a radio-tracking study done this past spring aimed at helping scientists learn more about where migrating birds come from that stop over in the Estuary. Biologists from Point Reyes Bird Observatory, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Prince William Sound Science Center teamed up with biologists in Sinaloa, Mexico, to radio-tag 90 birds: 60 tiny Western sandpipers—the so-called "peeps"—and 30 dowitchers—chunkier, long-legged shorebirds with long bills also in the sandpiper family. The birds were tagged and tracked—by planes and on-the-ground volunteers—as they moved between Mexico and their breeding grounds in western and northern Alaska.
Preliminary results found that of the 28 birds (27 western sandpipers and one dowitcher) recovered, 10 used the Estuary as a stopover point. Those birds remained in the Estuary for four to eight days—longer than they stayed at other spots along the Flyway, according to the Observatory's Sarah Warnock. The biologists suspect that the Estuary may have even been the first stop along the Flyway for some of those birds after leaving Mexico, since few were found in any of the other major estuaries south of San Francisco Bay.
"These results underscore how important it is for us to maintain clean and food-productive mudflats and foraging areas for these migrants," says Morat. "They're on a clock and need to load up fast and get some good rest before heading on."
So where were the other birds?
"We think they were either using the Central Flyway (on the other side of the Rockies), or coming up through the Central Valley, and cutting over to the coast when they reached Coos Bay, Oregon, or at points even farther north," says Warnock. Of course many other shorebirds, including dowitchers, winter in the Bay and/or come from southern or Baja California, says Warnock. But those birds were not part of this particular study.
The results of the study (and many others) will be posted on the shorebird study web site (http://sssp.fws.gov), where hundreds of elementary and high school students report birds they see in the field throughout the year as part of the Shorebird Sister School program, another among the 15-25 projects receiving Morat's support this year.
Morat invites others with good ideas for estuarine restoration and protection projects to contact him. In contrast to the complex application processes and proposals required by many funders, he tries to keep things simple, but true to his program's mission. "It's strategic to remain opportunistic and flexible, while I keep my eyes on the prize," explains Morat. "I look at what the project can accomplish in the short term and what it will lead to in the long term."
Contact: Rick Morat (916)414-6571 or Sarah Warnock (415)868-0371x306 LOV
[ ABAG HOME | SFEP HOME ]
Copyright © 2002, San Francisco Estuary Project