A Snowy Owl Update, from Mass Audubon

Snowy Owl Update

Reblogged from the Neponset River Watershed Association blog, first posted from a Mass Audubon blog

Currently New England is hosting a major incursion of snowy owls, many of which will likely spend the winter in our area.

Photo © Dave Larson

Typically these Arctic visitors tend to appear most frequently near the coast, but the first report this year was inland at Mount Wachusett in Princeton on November 17. Since then, snowy owls have been showing up all over Massachusetts. See a map of recent sightings on eBird.

Why So Many Snowy Owls?

The snowy owl is considered an “irruptive” species—one that responds to changes in the conditions on its home territory by moving elsewhere in search of food.  Some of the factors that may trigger these irruptions include variations in food supply in the Arctic, severe snow and ice cover in their usual wintering areas, or a superabundance of owls resulting from an exceptional nesting season prior to a southward irruption.

For many years it was assumed that snowy owl irruptions only occurred in years when the lemmings that comprise the snowy owls’ primary food in the Arctic were in short supply, thus forcing the starving owls to move south in search of food.

However, Norman Smith, sanctuary director of Blue Hills Trailside Museum and lead of Mass Audubon’s Snowy Owl Project says “We actually see the most snowy owls in New England after an Arctic lemming population boom, not bust.” High lemming populations improve breeding success, and irruptions typically consist mostly of hatch-year birds (ones born this year).

Where to See Snowy Owls

Snowy owls arriving in Massachusetts tend to seek local habitats that mimic the Arctic tundra where they spend most of their lives, such as large salt marshes, extensive agricultural fields, and even airports. Popular sightings include Westport, New Bedford, Nantucket, Orleans, Duxbury Beach, and of course, Plum Island.

Accordingly, if you are passing a large open field this winter, that white spot in the distance might only be an errant piece of plastic, but it could also be a snowy owl!

Reposted from a Mass Audubon blog, posted December 7, 2013 by Hillary. Text by Marj Rine, Photo © Dave Larson

This post is from the Neponset River Watershed Association’s Neponset Nature Blog. The original post can be found at: http://www.neponset.org/happenings/neponset-nature-blog/snowy-owl-update/. 

Did You Know? Clean, Plentiful and Free Flowing Water in 2013 Thanks to Watershed Associations

by Dorie Stolley, Watershed Action Alliance Coordinator and Outreach Manager

With Thanksgiving recently passed and the New Year on its way, it’s a good time to look back over the year and the accomplishments of watershed associations in southeastern Massachusetts, which work for clean, plentiful and free flowing water for both wildlife and people.

Clean Water. This year scores of watershed volunteers across the region participated in cleanup efforts, removing debris that can strangle streams, plastic that can poison fish and people, and old traps and other items that can mutilate or kill wildlife. For example, one hundred shopping carts, 12 bicycles, toilets and tires were hauled out of the choked Neponset River during one day in August. Plastic drink bottles by the hundreds, several lobster traps and innumerable pieces of Styrofoam were gleaned from the mouth of the Eel River in November.  The Butt Brigade was launched in Narragansett Bay to gather data about discarded cigarette butts, which will be used to target solutions for this insidious littering problem.

Volunteers haul a shopping cart out of the Neponset River in August.

Other things that foul our water are less visible. Common pollutants include pesticides, bacteria, and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, which, in excess, can over fertilize water causing rampant algae and plant growth. The algae can clog waterways, choke out useful plants and even lower oxygen levels causing fish kills.  The biggest nutrient problems come from wastewater treatment plants, leaky sewage systems, and untreated polluted runoff from roads and yards during storms, which also can provide a lot of bacteria. To combat these evils, in 2013 watershed associations worked on a host of projects including installing rain gardens, pushing for better regulations for wastewater treatment plants and proposing less costly alternative to updating septic systems.

Rain gardens not only remove nutrients from runoff, they filter out other pollutants and sediment, which makes them cost effective in the fight to prevent tainted water from entering our streams. A rain garden is strategically placed in a depression near a runoff source, like a road that channels water or the edge of a parking lot. It is planted with deep-rooted native plants, which also beautify the landscape, and must be maintained periodically for best performance.

Westport, MA is enjoying numerous new rain gardens and avoiding the costs of more expensive rainwater runoff treatment techniques because of a partnership between the Westport River Watershed Alliance, the Town of Westport and the Buzzard’s Bay National Estuaries Program. Volunteers contribute to this work, too: for instance, they planted over 500 plants in the rain gardens at the Westport Middle School.

Other ways that watershed associations in southeastern Massachusetts worked to achieve cleaner water included identifying areas where nonpoint source pollution was worst and working with towns to install structural filters, recommending practices for protecting groundwater and Cape Cod Bay for the Plymouth Nuclear Power Plant, and educating residents on how to keep pollutants out of the water, for instance, by cleaning up pet waste and using minimal amount of fertilizer (or none) on lawns.

New sign in Scituate reminding watershed
residents to conserve  water.

Plentiful Water. Not only did watershed associations work to keep water clean, they worked to keep it plentiful. Plentiful water in streams and rivers is necessary for river herring to travel upstream to spawn in the spring. In the summer and fall, the outmigration of young herring from their hatching grounds in freshwater to the ocean where they spend much of each year is dependent on adequate water as well. To this end, in 2013, summer residential water restrictions on alternate days put in place by North and South Rivers Watershed Association once again saved 30,000 gallons per day on First Herring Brook in Scituate. A new sign reminding residents to conserve water during summer months and thanking them for their efforts during times of adequate streamflow was installed along a major travel route.

2013 saw a giant step forward in the decades-long effort to restore adequate streamflow to the Jones River in Kingston. Silver Lake is the headwaters of the Jones, however, the City of Brockton withdraws so much water from it that the stream has not flowed normally for decades to the great detriment of wildlife, particularly aquatic species such as river herring. This year, as part of the Sustainable Water Management Initiative, a grant allowed for a report on water use operations of Silver Lake and the nearby Monponsett Ponds. Its conclusions were that the present use is not sustainable and is detrimentally impacting the ecological health of the river, meaning that more water is needed to flow in the Jones. The completion of this report is an important step in returning enough water to the Jones for fish to flourish and the ecosystem as a whole to thrive.

 

Plantings on the restored stream bank by the former
Whittenton dam in the Taunton watershed.

Free Flowing Water. This year saw much headway on projects to remove outdated dams that block the flow of water, form obstructions to river herring and other migratory fish and trap stagnant water. For instance, in the Taunton watershed, after 170 years in place, the Whittenton dam came down and its waters were released back into the original channel. Within weeks, a crew rebuilt its stream banks and replanted the wetlands. It is the second of three dams along the Mill River to be removed. Once the third is gone, an unprecedented 30 miles of habitat will be opened up to migratory fish like river herring and American Eel. Other benefits of this project are the elimination of the risk of catastrophic flooding from a breach of the dam and new recreational opportunities for residents.

This is just a smattering of all of the work done by watershed associations in 2013. The member organizations of Watershed Action Alliance work for you to protect water resources and the wildlife that depends upon them and to provide opportunities for water recreation. Join your association to support their work. To find your watershed association, visit http://watershedaction.org.

Looking Back: My Time with WAA

Today’s Blogger is Shalen!

Me kayaking down the North River

Wow, I marvel at how this year raced by: I can’t believe it’s December! December for me means frantically preparing for the semester’s finals, and it’s also a time for reflection on my accomplishments and experiences of the year. These past six months with WAA have been amazing, life changing ones, during which I learned an incredible amount about climate change, watershed recreation, dam restoration, marsh restoration, rain gardens, and much more. Most importantly, I met many of the incredible individuals who dedicate themselves to their organizations. I’ve visited seven watersheds (Neponset River, Jones River, North and South Rivers, Herring Ponds, Westport River, Back River, and Narragansett Bay) and their acompanying associations. Before beginning my time with WAA, I honestly did not know much about southeastern Massachusetts, other than about the famed Plimoth Plantation and Plymouth Rock.

Dorie and me at the Pawtuxet River, Narragansett Bay watershed

            I’m from Woburn on the North Shore of Massachusetts, and spend most of my time north of Boston, apart from my semesters at Stonehill College. To have the opportunity to spend so much time learning about and traveling to the southeastern Massachusetts watersheds has been an enriching and unique experience, to say the least. I’ve had completely new and fun experiences that I never otherwise would have had: I kayaked for the first time in the 2013 Wampanoag Paddle with the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, cruised down the Back River for a boating event organized by State Representative Murphy, and canoed part of the Jones River in Kingston. Working with Dorie, the WAA coordinator and outreach manager, and all of WAA’s amazing allies and members has only strengthened and reaffirmed my commitment to the environment, to sustinable living, and to fighting to make this world a safe and healthy one in which future generations of all beings can flourish. To learn more about each of these watershed associations, please visit WAA’s website here: http://watershedaction.org/.

Some of my most memorable trips were ones in which I saw children engaged and excited in learning about their local environments. Children are curious and inquisitive, and instilling in them a respect and love for the environment at an early age is crucial. The Westport River Watershed Alliance and Save the Bay—Narragansett Bay are two of the organizations that have classrooms in their headquarters. However, outreach and  education are very important to all of WAA’s member organizations, and many take their programs into the schools or out on the rivers!

Me at the 2013 Wampanoag Paddle, thanks to NSRWA

As a senior English major, I’m badgered about my plans after college, and many of my family members assume that since I’m an English major, I must want to teach. Until now, I thought teaching was out of the question (I’m not cut out for a career in a traditional education system), however, now I could see myself teaching in a different way. Would I be willing to share my experiences to encourage and educate others to get involved in saving our local ecosystems as well as the biosphere as a whole? Absolutely.Visiting Save the Bay at Narragansett Bay, and seeing their interactive labs, classrooms, and education vessels invigorated me in a way I was not expecting in this regard.

            I never imagined I would be able to help WAA and its member associations as much as I have in the past six months. I’m proud of my accomplishments and even more so that my work is improving WAA’s mission of outreach and education. While I already know the virtues and benefits of utilizing social media in 

Me in the Neponset River watershed

this digital age, I discovered the virtue of personal networking and face-to-face communication. Fostering personal relationships is the most important thing you can do in any field, but especially among environmental organizations. I had a taste of this networking in visiting both the Back River and Herring Ponds watersheds, especially.

One of the watershed issues that I’ve learned most about over the past year is how many obstacles river herring face in trying to spawn in local waterways. Many of WAA’s member watershed associations commit themselves to removing dams, installing fish ladders where needed, and restoring habitat so the herring have a clear path upstream. The largest fish ladder by far that I’ve seen in person is the Weymouth Herring Run in Jackson Square (in the Back River watershed), consisting of five fish ladders. The Jones River Watershed Association’s efforts contributed to the removal of the Wapping Road Dam in Kingston on the Jones River.

I am most proud of my contribution to WAA’s blog, which I effectively ran during the summer months of my internship.  I loved having the opportunity to visit our member associations, meet all these spectacular people, and write blog posts about my visits and experiences. Delving into a particular watershed, learning about its people, topography, issues, and successes was refreshing and made me realize how unique each watershed is. I enjoyed every moment of writing for WAA, and the Did You Know? articles were no exception. My favorite DYK article was actually my first one, concerning the controversy surrounding Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, MA, and the detriment caused by its open-cycled cooling system, which sucks in water from Cape Cod Bay and impinges thousands of fish in its system. I wrote about the need for closed-cycle cooling, because closed-cycle cooling would not emit warm, polluted water back into the bay. Instead of being discharged, the water used in CCC is recycled through the reactor. My interest in the subject did not stop when I published my article, but rather Pilgrim continues to be on my radar at every moment. My in-depth research on this article motivates me to continually stay informed.

I'm at the Weymouth Herring Run

Needless to say, my work with WAA has left me with a strong sense of purpose, a passion, and a reaffirmation that working in the environmental field is something I want to do after graduation. People have said that I would discover what I love in college, and thanks to WAA, I definitely have! 

Are you curious about my current work in social media with WAA? Click here to see our Facebook page and Twitter feed to see what I’ve been working on!