Wetland Restoration and Habitat Enhancement involving hunter volunteers 2010-2011
Goals and Objectives
The primary goal of this project is to increase wetland habitat through restoration, and increasing cavities for dependant waterfowl species. This will increase waterfowl breeding potential for both ground and hole nesting waterfowl species.
Specifically Our goals are to:
1. Restore 5 small wetlands of roughly 1-2 acres in size while strengthening landowner stewardship
2. Construct and install 100 more nest boxes to increase local cavity nesting productivity
3. Update location of existing nest boxes and maintain them to improve existing suitability and allow for success monitoring.
4. Positively influence waterfowl breeding potential to encourage population growth.
Goals identified above will contribute to targets for wetland restoration and enhancement outlined in the NB EHJV Implementation Plan. These activities will have a long term effect impacting breeding potential for many years to come.
Activities
All work is to be carried out between April and November of 2010.
Wetland Restoration
Potential restoration opportunities are identified through our Environmental Farm Plan program. DUC identifies best management practices that benefit biodiversity on the farm and encourage delivery through landowner stewardship. The plans also identify any wetland restoration possibilities that we can facilitate. For each site deemed suitable through an onsite inspection, a 15 year stewardship agreement will be signed with the landowner prior to the restoration. Each project completed will be evaluated in subsequent years and maintained by DUC for the full length of the agreement term. This ensures that new restoration efforts continue to add suitable habitat to the landscape for many years and follow up presence allows for stewardship reinforcement.
Nest Box Program
1.Fabrication
One hundred nest boxes will be constructed using the Wood Duck Nest Boxes plan.
2.Placement/Location/Maintenance
Placement of nest boxes will be focused on both farmland surrounding floodplains and the floodplains where habitat has been altered to the extent that it is limiting nest success and where potential for nest structure occupancy is greatest. Nest sites will be located and nest boxes erected. The location of each nest box will be recorded using GPS. Time will also be spent updating the location of existing boxes. Former nest box supporters will be contacted to determine key search areas. Existing box location will be recorded and necessary maintenance conducted. All existing boxes will be cleaned of old nest material. Boxes in disrepair will be replaced with new boxes. We will sign a conservation agreement where boxes are located on private lands.
3.Public Awareness
A stewardship component will be developed to encourage nest box use and proper maintenance. Public nest box giveaways will allow for education opportunities. All who leave with nest boxes will be responsible for signing an agreement that clearly illustrates proper installation, maintenance, and monitoring for each box. Included with the agreement will be a summary table to be sent to DUC annually with such information as: location, clean date, nest initiation, nest use, fledge date, species use, and suggestions. This information will be used in monitoring program/nest box success. Locations of greatest use, species incidence, breeding chronology and much more may be learned using such a data set. This information can also help direct focus areas and various timing. Public involvement with applied importance will promote responsibility. Many of the volunteers relied on to deliver the nest box program are hunters who value their responsibility to maintain their targeted interest.
4.Monitoring
All nest boxes will be visit annually to clean and maintain them. The presence of a nest will indicate use and the fate of the nest will be recorded by checking for egg membranes from hatched eggs. This data combined with that received from volunteers will allow for quantification of nest box efficacy. DUC has access to a nest box monitoring data system in Ontario to compile all data. The combination of nest box surveys with aerial CWS breeding population waterfowl surveys will hopefully be able to link trends of annually increased suitable nest sites to an increased target species population.
Specific Habitat Products/Results to be Supported by WHC’s Contributions
Contribution support will result in the restoration of between 5 and 10 acres of wetland habitat and potentially 10 broods as a result. The 100 nest boxes will likely result in a 70 brood increase (based on 70% occupancy) or an equivalently 200 acres of enhanced cavity nesting habitat. Nest box monitoring data will be compiled as a database for future evaluation.
Benefits to Waterfowl, Wetlands-Associated Species, and/or Other Wildlife
Restoration of small wetlands increases the capacity of the landscape to support breeding pairs. This proposal targets restoration and enhancement of critical habitats that directly benefit priority EHJV species including: black duck, mallard, ring-necked duck, and green-winged teal, wood duck, and goldeneye. Actions will also benefit provincially many other wetland associated species, including shorebirds, osprey, northern harrier, sora, red-winged blackbird, and tree swallows.
This proposal has the potential to increase the number of broods in NB by nearly 75 for at least a ten year period. Assuming an average brood size of 6 the result would be a recruitment of 750 young.
Relevance to Habitat Planning, Decision Making and/or Management
These activities work to achieve our 5 NB EHJV implementation plan targets and goal for both habitat needs and enhancement efforts. The ability for the nest box program to generate species specific monitoring data could be integral in future management decisions. Determining nest box use, species prevalence, and species presence could be invaluable in refining population management. These data will allow for more precise population estimates, integral in all management decision making. Government agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources and the Canadian Wildlife Service could use this information in combination with aerial surveys and banding records to more precisely evaluate these species. Reproductive and spatial data could be used in prioritizing securement areas, evaluating population trends and guide management decisions to best address these species (decline of goldeneye).
Project Location
Wetland Restoration efforts will focus on EHJV priority ecodistricts. The nest box program will focus on the St. John River floodplain where hole nesting species are present and cavities identified as a key population limitation.
Please click here to view the project location map (pdf file).
Project Contact
For more information on this project, please contact Adam Campbell, NB Conservation Program Specialist, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Fredericton, NB.