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Southeast Coast Network News February 2021

headshots of Rachel and Claire
New SECN staff members, Rachel Layko, left, and Claire Schmidt.

Photos courtesy of Claire Schmidt and Rachel Layko.

Network Staff Comings and Goings...

Claire Schmidt on board as the SECN Coastal Technician

Claire Schmidt began work as the Coastal Technician for the Southeast Coast Network in December. She will assist with shoreline data collection and processing for annual reports, benchmark installations and surveying. For the coastal wetlands project, Claire will handle data collection and processing, and assist with all aspects of new SET site installations. She will also manage field equipment and vehicles for the coastal program. Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Claire earned a B.S. degree in Biology with a minor in Earth Science from Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois). She worked as a Geoscientist-in-the-Park at the Alaska Regional Office of the National Park Service for a year and a half, helping to develop their Structure-from-Motion remote sensing program. Claire's professional interests include ecology and remote sensing. During her free time, she enjoys hiking, cooking new foods, and traveling (when we’re not in a pandemic). And, as a result of her recent move to Florida, she confesses she is becoming a beach bum.

Rachel Layko Joins SECN as a Geoscientists-in-the-Parks (GIP) Intern

Rachel Layko started a 20-week internship last month, part of the NPS Geoscientists-in-the-Parks program. Currently working remotely in North Carolina, Rachel will eventually relocate to Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. Her initial project is to review and validate the 2014-2017 and 2017-2020 GTMNERR SET data. Additional project works will include a LiDAR project for the SECN coastal program which involves an inventory of what LiDAR is available for the network's coastal parks, identifying storm event vs. non storm event datasets, and performing a pilot project of change analysis for one of our coastal park beaches using the LiDAR datasets. Rachel is originally from Apex, North Carolina. She received a B.S. in Biology with a minor in Marine Science from William & Mary. She has worked with the Nature Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, and William & Mary’s Center for Geospatial Analysis. In these roles, she applied her background in GIS to support conservation and natural resource management. She currently serves on URISA’s (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) Vanguard Cabinet where she co-chairs the mentoring subcommittee. Beyond work, Rachel enjoys hiking, running, and reading.

Lisa Cowart Baron leaving for Rocky Mountain National Park

Coastal ecologist Lisa Cowart Baron is leaving the Southeast Coast Network at the end of February to be a research coordinator for the Continental Divide Research Center at Rocky Mountain National Park. The SECN coastal program has grown in the six-plus years under Lisa's leadership. She counts relocating the program to Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve to better serve the coastal parks among her many accomplishments. While at the Southeast Coast Network, Lisa developed strong relationships with park staff, NPS colleagues, and various partners including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR). Lisa also worked tirelessly to improve the coastal wetland monitoring effort and update the protocol, which should provide benefits for park management in the future.

And since our last newsletter...Wendy Wright is the new Data Manager

Wendy Wright was hired as the Southeast Coast Network's Data Manager last September. During her eight plus years with the Southeast Coast Network, Wendy has held positions as a graduate research assistant, working with our water-quality data and reporting, data management contractor, IT coordinator, and for the last five-plus years, managing editor for five Southeast Region I&M networks. In addition to her experience with regional programs, Wendy has a solid science and resource management background, with a B.S. in Natural Resource Economics and Management, a certificate in Water Resource Management, and an M.S. in Hydrology and Environmental Systems from the University of Georgia.

Woman ties a ribbon around a tree, a woman with a clipboard and a woman with a tripod
Vegetation monitoring field work was conducted at Cumberland Island NS in 2020 using an approved safety mitigation plan and PPE. FOFR Intern Sydne Tursky, far left, and CUIS Intern Isabel Marzullo, far right, assisted SECN Biological Technician Elizabeth Rico, center, and SECN Botanist Forbes Boyle.

NPS photos / Forbes Boyle

Field Work Updates

While many of the travel restrictions remain in place, field work is tentatively planned for this spring and summer. Below is an optimistic update on each protocol's monitoring plans.

Vegetation Communities

Vegetation monitoring in 2021 is scheduled at Congaree National Park and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Two parks, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park were missed in 2020 due to COVID-19. They are scheduled for monitoring in 2021 as well. Field work was completed at Cumberland Island National Seashore and Fort Frederica National Monument in 2020 due to the two parks' close proximity to the team's duty station. A new vegetation database came online last year as well. New versions of data reports will include information about new occurrences and rare plants, species richness and abundance, tree health and disturbance data, and soil, landform/geomorphology and fuel.

Water Quality

Coastal assessments at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Cape Lookout National Seashore are scheduled for this summer. Fixed station time-series data collection continues for all stations that were operational prior to March 2020. Nutrient data collection is still on hold at Fort Pulaski National Monument and Cumberland Island National Seashore until travel can resume for Athens-based staff. The new water-quality database is in a production state and is being used to hold previously-collected and new data. New programming code is being developed to assist with the transition to the new Aquarius time-series database, which will streamline fixed-station data reporting. Quality assurance and quality control of 2017-2020 fixed-station data continues and data summary reports for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, Cumberland Island National Seashore and Fort Pulaski National Monument will be published soon. The remaining 2017-2019 monitoring reports will be completed in 2021.

Landbird and Anuran Communities

Automated recording devices (ARDs) will be deployed at Cape Lookout National Seashore, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Fort Sumter National Monument, Horseshoe Bend National Military Park and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in 2021. The wildlife monitoring team continues to process 2017 landbird data for Canaveral National Seashore, Congaree National Park, Fort Frederica National Monument, Moores Creek National Battlefield, and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. Reports will be published later this year. Work continues on a new database to house vocal anuran and landbird data. In 2020, field sampling of landbirds and anurans was completed at 94 locations across five parks including Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Fort Pulaski National Monument , Fort Matanzas National Monument and Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.

Wadeable and Non-Wadeable Streams

Field work at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area is scheduled for May and June of this year, monitoring that was rescheduled from 2020. A baseline report for Congaree National Park will be published later this year and change reports for Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park were recently published. Preliminary development of a wadeable stream database is also in the works for 2021. Additionally, although not a wadeable stream project, the Southeast Coast Network recently completed a review of a methodological report on how to survey habitat conditions on non-wadeable streams (that was completed by a private contractor) for Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area and Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. This report will be published this year.

Shoreline Monitoring

Spring data collection is scheduled for all parks in 2021. Benchmark installations are planned at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore and Canaveral National Seashore. Reports from data collected in 2020 and currently being processed will be published later this year. In 2020, spring shoreline data collection was completed at Cape Lookout National Seashore, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Cumberland Island National Seashore and Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve; and canceled at Canaveral National Seashore and Cape Hatteras National Seashore .Fall data collection was canceled except for Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Cape Lookout National Seashore, where data collection is conducted by trained park staff. A shoreline report summarizing the effects of Hurricane Dorian on Cape Hatteras National Seashore was published in late 2020.

Coastal Wetlands

A new coastal wetland monitoring protocol was drafted last summer and is currently under review. An IA agreement with the USGS was funded to install the new SET sites and the permitting process continues. New SET sites were installed at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in December. Site installations at Canaveral National Seashore, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Fort Pulaski National Monument and Fort Frederica National Monument are planned for this summer.

Woman using jackhammer on a platform with two other people standing by in a marsh.
Claire Schmidt (SECN Coastal Technician) uses a demolition hammer to drive stainless steel rods into the ground as part of the RSET installation at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve last December.  Ches Vervaeke (USGS; far right) and Gordon Anderson (USGS) assisted with the RSET installations. 

NPS photo / Lisa Cowart Baron

Publications

The Southeast Coast Network published the following reports since August 2020:

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Last updated: May 19, 2023