Posted By Admin on January 6, 2010

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 By Windy Mason

The thousands of snow geese and other waterfowl that each year take the Atlantic Flyway to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge where they feed and rest in the pools of fresh and brackish water, delighting the visitors who show up to see them each Thanksgiving, this year found their feeding grounds covered with deep salt water, forcing them to relocate to places further north on the refuge.

In the pounding that the refuge and the Eastern Shore took for three days, November 17, 18 and 19, when it seemed like the wind and rain would never let up, the Atlantic Ocean roared ashore, sending water overtop roads, and filling the carefully managed feeding impoundments with salt water, that was too deep to allow the ducks and geese to reach the plants and bugs they eat. The unrelenting storm also dumped three feet or more of sand over the beach parking lots.

Joelle Buffa, senior biologist at the refuge, came back to work the Sunday after the storm. “There was water in a lot of places that didn’t normally have water,” she said. “A lot of the Wildlife Loop was under water so I was unable to drive on it,” said Buffa. “In the pools where there are normally dabbling ducks, mallards and shovelers which like water between six and 12 inches, instead there were diving ducks, like ruddy ducks, which normally only like the deeper water,” Buffa said. “There were shorebirds feeding on the water covered roads,” she said. “The immediate reason that the birds left the ponds was because the water was too deep.” These ponds are starting to have ducks in them again, because the water is low again, she said.

Amanda Daisey, the refuge wildlife biologist, said the habitat alteration and structure damage, from the November storm was very similar to changes caused by hurricane Isabel in 2003 and tropical storm Ernesto in 2006. Daisey has been at the Chincoteague refuge since 2002. Daisey said when she was sitting in the briefing given the Monday morning after the storm by Lou Hinds, refuge manager, she thought, “Here we go again.”

On Wednesday after the storm Daisey and others surveyed Assateague Island by helicopter. “Viewing the refuge and all of its islands from the air gave me a better understanding and appreciation of how Virginia’s barrier island chain functions in a natural ecosystem,” she said.

There was apparently little impact on the smaller wildlife on the island, or the wild ponies.

Hinds said they had found a few dead frogs. The turtles, and other amphibians, are believed to have moved out of elevated salinity ponds, said Daisey.

There are 14 fresh and brackish water impoundments covering over 2,623 acres. Going all the way to the Maryland line, they were constructed on the refuge 40 years ago to provide wetland vegetation as forage for waterfowl and habitat for other water birds and wildlife.

Impoundments are pools of water formed by dams or pits, to supply water for wildlife, protect their habitats and to control erosion. Fresh water impoundments are rich in soil nutrients needed for plant food growth for the wildlife. Impoundment water levels are controlled to encourage the growth of these plants and improve overall impoundment vegetation for winter feeding, nesting and other wildlife uses.

“My biggest concern was the integrity of the water control structures,” said Buffa. “Riding up Beach Road, I could see the waves coming up and over into Swan Pond Pool. There was the concern that some of the infrastructure that keeps these ponds fresh water ponds was not in good shape to begin with and it was getting worse.”

“One of the reasons we didn’t open the service road for Thanksgiving was because of damage to the road, as well as the fact that we couldn’t get people to the road because the Wildlife Loop was covered with water, Buffa said. “The service road was also closed to staff, because too much pressure could collapse it,” Buffa said.

“When we realize that there is a storm coming, there’s certain actions we take with our impoundments,” said Buffa. “As far as opening up the water control structures so that the water can flow out into the ocean, prior to the storm arriving here, we had done everything that we could to lessen the impact of the storm,” she said.

Despite opening up the water control structures prior to the storm, these pools were invaded by salt water pounding in waves up Beach Road into the impoundments, creating lingering problems with elevated salinity levels in the fresh and brackish pools. The impoundments are inhabited by plants with limited salt tolerance including linear-leaved loosestrife, swamp rose-mallow, rushes, umbrella-grass and Virginia button weed. These elevated saline levels are a danger to the composition of the plants and insects necessary to sustain the coming growing season beginning in March.

“Almost three weeks after the storm, the water levels are returning to normal. The salinity, however, is still elevated,” Buffa said. “This takes a longer time to go down than the levels; because the salt water is sitting on the bottom, meaning that the impoundments are getting rid of fresh water faster than the salt water,” she explained. “They cannot just be flushed out really fast,” she said, “This is a lingering effect of the storm.”

“Right now it has less of an effect because it is not growing season,” said Buffa.

Eva Savage, Biology Technician is the primary person in charge of water level management on the refuge. She has the heavy workload of removing or replacing the boards on the water control gates that allows water to flow in and out.

The refuge, which attracts about 1.5 million visitors a year, supports wintering snow geese, canada geese, black ducks, mallards, green-winged teal, northern pintail, ruddy duck, tundra swan and many other species.

Assateague Channel and Tom’s Cove provide critical winter feeding habitat for brant, who use refuge impoundments for fresh water and resting. The snow geese also loaf and rest in the protected impoundments. Mute swans nest in the impoundments. The geese rely on vegetation found in the impoundments and grain in mainland fields for nourishment. The ducks eat bugs that live on the plants and in the mud, as well as seeds from flowering plants. The diving ducks eat fish and dive for clams.

“The biggest effect was on the snow geese,” said Buffa. “We had like 3,000 and then they went down to zero,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that they left the refuge; they just weren’t in the places that they usually were.” They kind of adapted,” she said. “Snow geese normally like fresh or brackish water, she said, “Snow geese reach their peak in November when some of the migrants are here and also some of the wintering birds.” “The migrants just rest here and then move on,” she said, “We have a fairly high wintering population here.” Joelle explained, “We didn’t see the November peak this year; because of the storm.”

Management of refuge impoundments also enhances this habitat for wading ducks, egrets, heron and ibis which frequent the borrow ditches. Glossy ibis, black-crowned night heron, green-backed heron, tricolor and blue heron, several rail species, and great, snowy and cattle egrets all feed in the refuge marshes.

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