Southeast Coast Network News April 2016

Terrestrial Monitoring

• Joe Jarquin, the GIS Specialist from Chattahochee River National Recreation Area, came down for a week to assist Briana Smrekar with deploying automated recording devices (ARDs) at Cumberland Island National Seashore. His help was greatly appreciated! Thanks to Deanna Greco at Chattahoochee River NRA for supporting this assistance. Brian Robinson also assisted for a day in Horseshoe Bend National Military Park.
• Emily Milbauer, our new terrestrial intern, is coming on board this month! Emily is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her Master of Science degree in Environmental Science. Emily was hired through Conservation Legacy, a national organization that supports local and regional conservation programs in the U.S. Emily completed a floristic inventory for her graduate thesis project, and will primarily assist Sarah with the vegetation monitoring this summer. She’ll also be helping Briana with ARD deployment during April.

Coastal Monitoring

Lisa attended the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network's Coastal Geomorphology Technical Steering Committee Meeting March 21-24th, 2016.

Aquatic Monitoring

• Pete is working hard on his Master’s project, which examines the application of UV-C LEDs to control biofouling on the EXO sondes that collect water-quality data. Succes with this project could potentially mean longer successful deployments and more accurate data.
• Jake presented at the Water Resources Research Institute Annual Conference, Raleigh, N.C. on March, 17. Videographic Monitoring and Channel Morphology of Non-Wadeable Streams in Southeast Coast Network Parks is available on our SharePoint.

Brian Robinson, from Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, checks an automated recording device unit that has been deployed.

NPS photo

What does THAT do?

This month’s “what does that do?” comes from Briana Smrekar, our wildlife biologist. Here, Brian Robinson, from Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, checks an automated recording device unit that has been deployed. The ARDs collect audio recordings that are analyzed to determine the presence of land bird and vocal anuran species. Once locations and frequency of occurrence are determined, species composition, richness, and distribution can be calculated for each park.

Field Work

Field Work Completed in March

• Automated recording devices were deployed at Cumberland Island National Seashore (31), Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (30), Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park (30), and Fort Sumter National Monument (4). The ARDs collect recordings for landbird and vocal anuran monitoring protocols.
• Maintenance was started at the Fort Frederica National Monument salt marsh site and will be completed later in the summer.
• Conducted shoreline surveys at Canaveral National Seashore, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, and Cumberland Island National Seashore.

Upcoming Field Work

• Briana and Emily will be deploying 30 ARDs at Cape Lookout National Seashore.
• Variable circular plot point counts will be conducted at Cumberland Island National Seashore, Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park , Fort Sumter National Monument, and Cape Lookout National Seashore.
• Pete will be collecting water-quality data in Georgia and Florida parks April 4–6.
• For more detailed information on I&M field schedules, see the field operations calendar on our SharePoint site (steering committee and superintendents only).

Citizen science: Wild ponies supervise shoreline mapping at Cumberland Island National Seashore. Photo courtesy of our Coastal Ecology team.

NPS photo

Communications

Printed Reports

Landbird community monitoring reports are on the move!
Kurimo-Beechuk, E. A., and M.W. Byrne. 2016. Landbird community monitoring at Fort Sumter National Monument: 2012 data summary. IRMA Record
Kurimo-Beechuk, E. A., and M.W. Byrne. 2016. Landbird community monitoring at Cumberland Island National Seashore: 2012 data summary. IRMA Record
Kurimo-Beechuk, E. A., and M.W. Byrne. 2016. Landbird community monitoring at Cape Lookout National Seashore: 2012 data summary. IRMA Record
Kurimo-Beechuk, E. A., and M.W. Byrne. 2016. Landbird community monitoring at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park: 2012 data summary.IRMA Record
Byrne, M. W., and E. A. Kurimo-Beechuk. 2016. Landbird community monitoring at Ocmulgee National Monument: 2014 data summary. IRMA Record
Look for the last of the land bird reports (CHAT, HOBE, KEMO and OCMU for 2011) in April, along with the first of the 2014 vegetation monitoring reports.

Website

The first round of updates on the Southeast Coast Network website have been complete. There will be another set of edits in April to update photos in the slide shows. If you’ve sent in pictures over the past year, look for them on our website.

Brian Gregory, SECN Program Manager

From the Program Manager

The dogwoods and azaleas are in full bloom at the SECN Headquarters in Athens, which means fish are biting in the Oconee River, and our team is in full swing with the ARD deployments, as well as gearing up for vegetation, coastal and river monitoring later this summer. We were lucky to get assistance this spring from several park employees who helped with the deployments. This assistance is a great help to us, and hopefully benefits those who pitch in. After we leave your parks and return home, these ARD units continue to work tirelessly for the next several weeks, recording and documenting every sound in their vicinity. If we were in your park this spring, you’ll see us again when we pick up the units and collect vegetation data. I mention this because while you often see us working in your park, then packing up and going home, our work is not ending but just starting. All of our field efforts require quite a bit of work and analysis by interns, students, and others on our full-time staff before the data we collect can be turned into useful information for your parks, and much of this involves hours of sitting in front of a computer screen and checking numbers and species names. One of my challenges is to make sure both the field operations and office work we do are in sync, so we are turning around the data that we collect as quickly, accurately, and efficiently as possible. See you in your park soon.

Southern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon serratus) at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

NPS photo

For More Information

https://www.nps.gov/im/secn/index.htm