Marsh Monitoring Under Way

MARSH MONITORING UNDER WAY

Wednesday, May 02, 2007 (Napanee Beaver)

Friday, May 04, 2007 (Picton Gazette)

Sometimes it takes a few years before any worthwhile program really catches on and takes off. Since 2002, I have been pleased to be associated with the Marsh Monitoring Program, a volunteer endeavour designed to get outdoor enthusiasts interested in monitoring amphibians and birds in our local wetlands. The Marsh Monitoring Program is administered by Bird Studies Canada, and is offered locally by the Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan (BQRAP) in partnership with Quinte Conservation. While workshops have been held each spring to interest and train volunteers, it was only this spring that the program inexplicably drew a record crowd of 47 people to the workshop, and on a Friday night, of all things!

The program’s success could be attributed to a significant awareness about the health of our wetlands in more recent years. Wildlife, in particular, frogs and toads, have been identified as indicators of the health of our wetlands, as they respond readily to environmental changes. Frogs croaking away in collective happiness, is a sign of a healthy marsh. A silent spring signals problems.

In 1986 the Bay of Quinte was determined by the International Joint Commission to be a severely degraded eco-system, with a loss of fish and other wildlife populations and habitats. The problems were attributed to human settlement destroying and isolating habitats, and pollution. Since 1992 the BQRAP Restoration Council has been implementing a number of actions with local partners, including Quinte Conservation, to restore the bay and its drainage area. And this is where the volunteers come in.

The Marsh Monitoring Program (MMP) was initiated in 1994 by Bird Studies Canada (formerly the Long Point Bird Observatory) and Environment Canada in response to a recognized need for information on the status and trends of marsh breeding amphibian and bird populations. Targeted were some highly impacted Great Lakes coastal wetlands, identified as areas of concern. The MMP is an international, volunteer-based program focused on surveying birds and calling frogs and toads in coastal and inland marsh habitats in the entire Great Lakes basin. Within the Bay of Quinte watershed, several significant wetlands have been identified as locations that should be monitored for wildlife.

Marsh monitoring routes can involve anywhere from one to eight monitoring stations, all spaced at least 250 metres apart (500 metres apart for amphibians). Each station surveyed for marsh birds is visited twice each year between May 20 and July 5, no less than 10 days apart, in the early evening, with surveys ending at or before sunset. Each station is surveyed for 10 minutes, with the five-minute broadcast tape played during the first half of the survey. All birds observed or heard within a 100 metre radius semi-circular sample area are counted, and birds detected flying over or outside the station area are tallied separately. Frog monitoring at these same sites got under way late last month, once the snow and wintry weather of April finally departed, and things began to warm up a bit to stimulate frogs into calling. They are monitored an additional two times, once in May, and again in June.

Volunteers who registered for new sites this year, are excited about the project, and while I am available to assist in setting up their stations and becoming familiar with the protocols, the majority of this year’s over 20 new volunteers are comfortable with the program and its expectations. This year, volunteers have taken on new routes in marshes in the Hay Bay and Napanee areas, along with one in the northern tip of the Sawguin Marsh at Rossmore, just off Massassauga Road. An ambitious route along the Demorestville area’s South Big Island Road that has been monitored for 10 years, is once again being monitored in 2007, by a new volunteer. As well, a small identified marsh at the northwest corner of Big Island has been adopted by the owner of the land adjacent to the wetland there.

Other volunteers have chosen wetlands that are more near and dear to them, but not necessarily identified as target wetlands. A cattail marsh at West Lake’s Sheba’s Island is being covered this year, as well as two small wetlands in the Pleasant Bay area, and another along the Moira River near Plainfield. One person in Picton has even taken on a route involving two stations in the town’s Glenwood Cemetery, with another station in Marsh Creek in Delhi Park. These areas are in addition to those already being covered at the Sawguin Creek mouth closer to Massassauga Point, Beaver Meadow Wildlife Management Area, and at the H.R. Frink Centre at Plainfield.

We are still seeking volunteers to monitor other significant locations such as Forrester’s Island at Deseronto, Makatewis Island across from Trenton, the wetlands known as pannes at Sandbanks Provincial Park and numerous little wetland areas along the shoreline west and east of Belleville and into Deseronto. There is still time to get involved this year, even though the first frog monitoring period in April has passed us by. There are two more frog monitoring periods left, and the bird monitoring doesn’t begin for another two weeks.

This week’s column was prepared on behalf of Quinte Conservation