Lost Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank Site

After nearly 10 years of planning, the ecological benefits surrounding the Lost Creek Wetland Mitigation Bank Site located in Portage County, Wisconsin are being realized.  Construction of the 350-acre wetland and stream restoration site was completed in fall 2009.  With completion, wildlife has returned to the restored wetland and brook trout are utilizing the nearly two miles of restored stream habitat.  Local media coverage captured the return of tundra swans to the site during spring migration to Canada.  The restored wetland provides one of the largest stopover sites for swans in the county. 

To assist in restoring the site, NRC has organized two successful volunteer days to revegetate the site with native shrub cover.  This event provides an opportunity for the public and local university students from the UW-Stevens Point campus to become involved with harvesting and planting live stakes along the restored stream channel.  In 2009, over 500 live states were harvested and installed, and in 2010, another 300 live stakes were added.  The willow and dogwood live stakes will provide shrub habitat within the restored trout stream, as well as provide shade to cool water temperatures during the summer.   In 2009, the site experienced an estimated 90% live stake survival rate. 

NRC staff completed this project in conjunction with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).  NRC will continue to assist WisDOT with implementing its 10 year monitoring and maintenance plan for the site as well as assisting with many other wetland and prairie restorations across the State.  

Learn more about NRC's Wetland Restoration Services!

Students Contribute to Bald Eagle Survey Effort

NRC’s scientists perform a wide range of biological studies in very different parts of the country.  Our survey efforts could entail looking for rare plants in Michigan, bats in Iowa, owls in California, flying squirrels in West Virginia and almost anything else (and everywhere else) in between.  Working with such varied taxa in so many places is one of the best parts of our jobs (we’re geeks, what can I say?), but it can also be one of the most challenging.

Recently we were planning an aerial survey for nesting Bald Eagles in the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough of Alaska, scheduled to take place this spring.  Some things to consider when selecting the right time for this kind of survey are weather, visibility, and nest phenology (timing of nesting behaviors).  In this case, we wanted to time our surveys as late as possible without running into the spring leaf-out.  The problem we ran into was figuring out just when exactly leaves appear on trees in this part of Alaska.  We spoke with locals who had a general idea of when that happens, but inter-annual variability and the realization that few of us actually know the exact date when the leaves return (do you know when leaves come back on the trees where you live?) didn’t leave us with a very precise timeframe to work with.

A couple hours on Google later and we had stumbled across the GLOBE program – a federally supported environmental education program aimed at getting school-kids involved in tracking global phenology patterns.  Through this program primary and secondary school classrooms track the date of budburst and subsequent leaf growth through the spring each year.  There are thousands of participating schools in 111 countries (most in the US).  Scientists who’ve been participating in the program have been using the data these schools have generated since the mid-1990’s to track the effects of global climate change on the timing of spring leaf-out.

We were able to use these data to find out exactly when leaf-out begins in the spring and how quickly the leaves grow to full size.  Using data from the Mat-Su Career & Technical High School and Wasilla High School, both located in the Mat-Su Borough, we were able to schedule our survey for the week before the typical leaf-out date.

Environmental education is something that’s important to all of us here at NRC.  Without programs like GLOBE, many of us may not have ended up in the careers we love.  Moreover, the results produced by the GLOBE program are providing professional scientists with real data that are contributing to our understanding of global phenological patterns.  Through this whole process we were able to get in touch with a GLOBE Program Coordinator and researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as well as a teacher in one of the classrooms whose data we used.  We’re excited about the opportunity to get more involved with GLOBE, and we’re currently planning a visit to those schools in Alaska that provided us with the data we needed.

Check back later in the spring (just before leaf-out in Alaska) for an update on this project.

Find out more:

• NRC’s Mat-Su Bald Eagle Surveys
• GLOBE Program Website

NRC Spring Newsletter

NRC’s Spring Newsletter is out! Find out about our new hires, new projects and new equipment. Click here to view the newsletter.

Update from the Denver AWEA Wind Power Project Siting Workshop

It’s been a busy day here in downtown Denver as the AWEA Wind Power Project Siting Workshop kicked off, and it shows no signs of letting up.  Some of the biggest names in the business are in attendance and giving presentations, and a few have stopped by the NRC booth.  Topics that have been discussed include siting projects on federal and state lands, working with landowners, and the up-and-coming U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Guidance on minimizing impacts to birds and bats.

The conversations we’ve had with folks have been stimulating and engaging – it’s always great to have the opportunity to swap ideas with other folks working in the industry.  Our discussions have ranged from the technical aspects of assessing risk to birds and bats, to gaining a better understanding of wind resource assessment technology.  There are a lot of very smart folks here doing a lot of very impressive work.  If you’re at the workshop or in town please stop by our booth – we’d love to hear about the work you are doing in the wind industry.

NRC Wildlife Biologists Publish Paper in The Passenger Pigeon: Journal of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology

NRC Wildlife Biologists Brian Bub and James Engelhardt recently coauthored a paper on Osprey responses to disturbance.  The abstract for this article is below - also be sure to check out the full version of the article.

The Response of Nesting Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) to Maintenance Activities along Transmission Lines in Central Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) population has increased in recent decades, in part due to their adaptation to using artificial nest supports (e.g., power line structures and communications towers), as well as the provision of artificial nesting platforms.  The response of nesting Ospreys to human disturbance varies in context with timing and the type of activity.  Between the 2006 and 2008 breeding seasons, we evaluated the behavioral response of four pairs of nesting Ospreys to electric transmission line maintenance activities at three nests in Adams and Wood Counties and one nest in Marquette County, Wisconsin.  All observations were conducted during unscheduled emergency maintenance at electrical transmission line H-frame structures.  One Osprey nest occurred on the actual H-frame structure being maintained, and the other three nests were on adjacent structures to those being maintained (<300 m away).  In each case, Ospreys showed temporary distress during maintenance activities, but resumed normal activities upon completion of work.  Our observations suggest that in some cases, Ospreys are tolerant of temporary disturbance during the nesting period.

-Learn more about NRC's Avian Services

Update: Scott's Presentation from the AOU Conference

As promised, here's the powerpoint that accompanied Scott's presentation at the American Ornithologists' Union conference in San Diego:

NRC to Attend AWEA Wind Power Project Siting Workshop in Denver February 17-18, 2010

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) will be hosting a workshop in Denver, Colorado in mid-February focusing on the siting of wind energy facilities.  NRC will be staffing a booth at the event and several of our wind energy experts will be in attendance.  This event promises to be of great interest to those involved in the wind industry.  Topics will include:

• Visual impacts and stakeholder relations
• Regional permitting structure for wind projects
• Regional transmission initiatives
• Sage Grouse and Prairie Chicken concern/issues
• Site construction

If you will be attending this event please stop by the NRC booth and talk with some of our experts.

To find out more about this event, visit the AWEA conference website