Contacts
Vanessa Kauffman
703-358-2138
Martha Nudel
703-358-1858
The National Wildlife Refuge System, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is the world’s premier system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America’s fish, wildlife and plants.
In Alaska, Native Instincts
A long-dormant effort to document hundreds of native Alaskan place names and their derivation on the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge in central Alaska sprang back to life recently with the publication of a 54-page color atlas, “Middle Koyukuk River of Alaska - An Atlas of Fishing Places and Traditional Place Names.” The book draws on interviews with native elders that were recorded in the mid-1980s by refuge information technician and Allakaket elder Johnson Moses and linguist and elder Eliza Jones.
In the interviews, elders recounted the stories behind traditional Native place names near the villages of Hughes, Allakaket, Alatna, Bettles and Evansville in the Koyukuk River drainage. University of Alaska researcher Wendy Arundale recorded the information in an unpublished report, where it lay largely forgotten for 20 years.
The report may have remained unnoticed had Kanuti Refuge staff not decided to include traditional place names in their revised Comprehensive Conservation Plan. Kanuti Refuge planner Deborah Webb painstakingly entered the details into a computerized system to ensure accurate depiction of lettering unique to the Koyukon language and correct pronunciation. Then, the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association (YRDFA) added the information to its comprehensive atlas of place names.
“We had a keen interest in resurrecting the project,” says refuge manager Mike Spindler. “We’re really working now with the last generation of people able to speak the Koyukon language fluently and who know the stories behind the names. I felt it was important to fully document the cultural history behind place names on the refuge. This is our last opportunity to record the place names with the people, who are in their 80s and 90s.”
According to the atlas, the refuge’s Kanuti River takes its name from the Koyukon Athabascan name “Kk’oonootne,” meaning “well-traveled river by both man and animals.” Another possible meaning is “fish roe river.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided $12,000 of the $34,000 project cost; additional support came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the Lannan Foundation, which supports artists, writers and activists in rural indigenous communities. Copies of the atlas are available from YRDFA by calling 1-877-99-YUKON (98566).
Caution: Elk Playing Jackstraw
Can a variation on a kids’ game keep rapacious elk from devouring bird and fish habitat? Conservationists at National Elk Refuge, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, have embarked on a three-year experiment to find out. On a recent June weekend, representatives from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department, Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife, Wyoming Wetlands Society and Trout Unlimited converged on the banks of Flat Creek to launch an experiment, while restoring willow on the refuge.
Excess grazing by ungulates, which are hooved mammals, such as elk, moose, mule deer and pronghorns, has decimated willows and other woody plants in the refuge that provide nesting habitat for songbirds and cover for fish.
The conservationists planted approximately 150 willow stems along a quarter-mile stretch of Flat Creek. Next, the crew hauled in logs from a dismantled hay stackyard and placed them haphazardly among the willows to create unstable footing and deter elk. The technique, called “jackstraw,” takes its name from the children’s game in which a set of straws is dropped in a heap, with each player in turn trying to remove one at a time without disturbing the rest. The jackstraw technique has been previously used in northern areas of the National Elk Refuge to promote regeneration of aspen.
The logs were also laid overhanging Flat Creek to provide cover for trout. An increase in willows may also eventually benefit songbirds, though the small scale of the test area is not expected to improve much of the bird habitat.
The three-year trial includes three small sample areas:
- One featuring willows underplanted with the jackstraw technique;
- A second in which willows were planted without jackstraw (the control group); and
- The third location with jackstraw in an existing browsed area to measure future use of the site and regeneration.
Biologists from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department and National Elk Refuge plan to take measurements again in September to compare with data recorded in June.
“Ding” Days Photo Contest Clicks
Shutterbugs have until September 30, 2009, to enter the annual Amateur Nature Photography Contest at J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island off the Gulf coast of Florida. The contest honors the memory of Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling, a Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist and leading American conservationist.
For an entry form and other contest information, visit http://www.dingdarlingsociety.org and click on “Photo Contest” or call 239-472-1100, ext. 233. Winners will be announced and awarded prizes at Conservation through Art Day on Saturday, October 24, 2009, part of special “Ding” Darling Days.
Entries may be delivered in person to J.N. “Ding” Darling Refuge or by mail to “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society, One Wildlife Dr., Sanibel, FL 33957. Entrants will be judged on technical excellence (sharpness, lighting, composition, exposure); originality; creativity; and interest.
Slither This Way
It may not be your idea of a dream assignment, but it suits Kile R. Kucher. The 25-year-old graduate student at Central Michigan University is deep into his second year of field work at nearby Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge following a snake species the state lists as threatened, and one which the refuge hopes to better integrate into its habitat management program. In other words, says Kucher, “I’m tromping around in marsh water that’s sometimes up to my waist or higher tracking Eastern fox snakes.”
The boldly colored snakes can grow to five and a half feet or longer and are sometimes mistaken for timber rattlers or copperheads, but, unlike those species, Kucher says, fox snakes “are extremely docile; they rarely strike or attempt to bite me when I pick them up.”
Why would he want to do that? To tag and release them. Or bag some for sending to a Lansing veterinarian who surgically implants them with radio transmitters that help Kucher track their movements.
Refuge manager Steve Kahl first dangled the idea before Kucher. “We manage the refuge habitat primarily for waterfowl,” says Kahl, “but we knew we had fox snakes here, and they were protected by the state. Other than that, we knew very little about what habitats are important to them, where they overwinter, where they nest, if the population is going up or down or if they’re reproducing. We wanted to do some more investigating to contribute to the snake conservation.”
Already, the project has produced some surprises:
- On density: “I was pleasantly surprised to find so many of them,” says Kucher. “I caught 50 the first year, and only two of them re-captures. I’ve probably found 20 this year on the refuge.”
- On over-wintering: says Kahl, “One of the most surprising things was that of the 14 snakes with transmitters, most overwintered in the same location; two big shale piles from the coal mining era. Most had to swim a quarter mile across the Shiawassee River to get to the shale piles.”
- On hardiness: “We had some severe flooding over the winter,” says Kahl. “Some snakes were under water for weeks at a time. But there was no mortality.”
Fox snakes eat rodents, birds, bird eggs and are threatened primarily by habitat loss. People can also pose a threat. “Some people think the only good snake is a dead snake,” says Kucher.
# # #
The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.
|
