REGIONAL NEWS AND RECOVERY UPDATES

Region 1

Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) About 200 of these threatened shorebirds nest on beaches at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and about the same number winter in the same areas. The beaches also support a variety of recreational activities, such as surfing, fishing, swimming, picnicking, horseback riding, jogging, beach combing, sunbathing, and bird-watching. Base officials and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have developed a management plan that:

• protects western snowy plover nesting habitat on all of Vandenberg Air Force Base beaches,
• establishes corridors that allow beach users access to lower beach areas without disturbing nesting plovers in the upper dunes,
• provides educational signs and public contact, and
• restricts off-road vehicle use on the beach to Air Force security patrols associated with rocket launches.

Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) The FWS and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake at Ridgecrest, California, have developed a program that expedites the Navy's environmental review process and conserves habitat for the threatened Mohave population of the desert tortoise. Under this program, the Navy will limit projects in areas that support higher numbers of desert tortoises to disturbance of less than 2.5 acres (1 hectare) per project. The program also established a general set of desert tortoise avoidance and protection measures for projects throughout the facility. A review of activities conducted under this program will be completed at the end of each year.

Pacific Species The FWS Pacific Islands Office has had a long history of working cooperatively with various Department of Defense agencies to promote the conservation of listed species. In one example, the FWS has entered into agreements with the Army to transfer $1.5 million in funding for projects over 5 years to protect listed species on Army lands, including the palila (Loxiodes bailleui), an endangered bird; the endangered O`ahu tree snails (Achatinella ssp.), and many endangered and threatened plants. These projects are located on O`ahu at the Makua Military Reservation, Schofield Barracks Military Reservation, Kawailoa Training Area, and Kahuku Training Area, as well as on the Big Island at the Pohakuloa Training Area. In addition, the FWS is assisting with development of the Army's Ecosystem Management Program on these installations. The development of fire management plans, alien weed control, ungulate control, and fencing have provided important opportunities to protect Hawaii's unique resources on these large Department of Defense lands.

Navy involvement with the FWS has provided considerable funding for status surveys and for the monitoring of sea turtles and listed birds on remote islands in the Pacific (including Tinian, Rota, and Saipan) where military training is prevalent. The Air Force also worked with the FWS on the development of Integrated Natural Resources Management Plans on Air Force lands, including Anderson Air Force Base on Guam. Additionally, the Marine Corps is working with the FWS to recover Hawaii's endangered waterbirds on its installation at Kane`ohe at the Nu`upia Ponds.

The FWS is working cooperatively with other Department of Defense installations on base closures in the Pacific, including clean-up activities on the remote islands of Howland, Baker, Jarvis, and Palmyra; the Kaho`olawe clean-up and restoration program; and the Solomon Islands mustard gas removal. The Navy recently received a special award for its outstanding record on the protection of wildlife and historic resources on Midway Atoll and its exceptional cooperation in the transfer of the island to the FWS as a national wildlife refuge.

Salmon The 6th Annual Wenatchee River Salmon Festival was held September 19-22 at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery Complex, located near the Bavarian-theme town of Leavenworth, Washington. Nearly 9,000 visitors attended the event, which is co-hosted by the U.S. Forest Service (Wenatchee National Forest) and the FWS. The festival has received numerous awards for educational excellence, service, and creativity. One of this year's new attractions was the Hatchery Society's Spawn Shop, which offered unique gifts relating to natural resources. Visitors who wanted to see wild salmon and learn about healthy habitat could take a guided bus tour to the waterfront.

A huge success this year was the Intertribal (American Indian) Encampment, filled with cultural displays for all ages. The Salmon Tent storytelling with Cascade High School Drama students narrating Coyote legends was enchanting. Young people had a wild time with the environmental education game, Macroinvertebrate Mayhem. The Web of Life costume game is another event popular with the kids. At a Chalk Art demonstration held on the sidewalk, community artists drew wildlife images with vibrant pastel chalks. Each square represented one of the Salmon Festival "spawnsors." The multi-agency exhibits also were excellent this year. The Icicle Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited hosted a popular booth where visitors could try catching a large salmon through computer simulation.

If you missed the Salmon Festival this year, be sure to put it on your list of good things to do in 1997 (September 18-21). Contact Corky Broaddus at 509/548-7641 for more information.

Region 2

Crane Reintroduction "Teaching Cranes to Migrate," an article in Bulletin Vol. XXI No. 5, described the experimental use of ultra-light aircraft in teaching migration routes to captive-bred cranes after their release into the wild. The testing of this technique continued recently when eight individuals of a non-endangered subspecies, the greater sandhill crane (Grus canadensis tabida), were led about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) from southeastern Idaho to central New Mexico. The migration took almost 16 days, with the aircraft grounded for 6 days due to winter storms in the mountains. Although the flock had four encounters with golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), no cranes were injured. The cranes are expected to spend the winter at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

Two of the sandhill cranes led in southward migration by ultralights in the fall of 1995 migrated back to Idaho in the spring of 1996. The cranes were last seen in southern Colorado, apparently en route back to Bosque del Apache NWR, where they spent last winter. If the results of the research continue to be favorable, the FWS and Kent Clegg, who is conducting the project under contract, plan to test the technique on whooping cranes (Grus canadensis) in 1997. Ultimately, the technique may be used to establish a whooping crane flock that would nest in Canada's southern prairie and winter in the eastern United States.

Region 3

Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) Wolf recovery continues to progress in the upper Midwest. From 1960 to 1975, Wisconsin apparently had no breeding population of gray wolves. But shortly after Federal protection was extended to the eastern timber wolf in Minnesota in 1974, wolves began reestablishing themselves in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, with assistance from the FWS, began a monitoring program in 1979, a time when the State had about 25 wolves in 5 packs. Wisconsin's wolf population has increased steadily since the 1985-87 winter surveys; the 1995-96 winter surveys confirmed 28 packs and about 100 wolves in Wisconsin.

In Michigan, the 1996 winter wolf survey confirmed the presence of 116 wolves in at least 16 packs across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a substantial increase from the recorded 80 wolves in 12 packs in 1995. An additional 22 wolves were counted on Isle Royale. There are no wolves in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The wolf increase in the Upper Peninsula from near extinction in the 1970's is due to both natural immigration and the production of pups.

Region 5

Flat-spired Three-tooth Land Snail (Triodopsis platysayoides) Construction was completed recently on a "snail fence" at Cooper's Rock State Forest in Monongalia County, West Virginia. The purpose of the fence is not to keep snails in, but to reroute human foot traffic in the area containing the largest known population of this threatened species. Foot traffic not only crushes the snails but also destroys the leaf litter in which they live. This project was funded by the FWS through the Ohio River Valley Ecosystem program and the West Virginia Nongame Wildlife Fund.

Virginia Big-eared Bat (Plecotus townsendii virginianus) In June 1996, biologists with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources took a census of the 11 known summer colonies of this endangered bat in West Virginia. The population appears to be stable in comparison to the 1995 level. One new summer colony was discovered in Grant County. It is a bachelor colony during the summer, but the cave may also be important as a breeding site. The number of bats using the cave more than doubled by early September, when the sex ratio of the bats was found to be nearly 1:1.

Spring Creek Bladderpod (Lesquerella perforata) On December 23, 1996 the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Spring Creek bladderpod, a winter annual in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), as an endangered species. This rare plant, which is restricted to a limited area within Tennessee's Central Basin, is vulnerable to extinction by the conversion of its habitat to other uses and by encroaching vegetation.

The Spring Creek bladderpod germinates in the fall, overwinters as a small rosette of leaves, and produces white to lavender floweres in the spring. Soon after the floweres wither, the fruits mature and the plant dies. Its seeds lie dormant until fall, when the cycle begins again.

The plant typically grows on flood plains. Historically, floods probably provided the periodic habitat distrubance needed to remove the perennial grasses and woody vegetation that quickly invade flood plains. The conversion of habitat to cropland may be compatible with the species' survival, depending on the farming techniques and timing used. In fact, annual crop production apparently is now the primary means by which essential bladderpod habitat is now maintained. However, conversion of sites to pastures or other uses that maintain a perrennial cover crop are a significant threat.

Only four populations of the the Spring Creek bladderpod are known to survive, all in Wilson County. Three former sites no longer support the species. Under the Endangered Species Act, recovery of this species will likely center on cooperative land management agreements with landowners in the area.