SECN Highlights June 2016

Shoal bass sampling at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Emily Milbauer holds a shoal bass in the upper right corner.

NPS photo / Brian Mitchell

Newsworthy Stuff

• Brian, Briana and Lisa braved less than optimal weather at Congaree National Park to assist with the 2016 Wings Across South Carolina Bioblitz. Superintendent Tracey Stakely stated “We were able to expose over 280 school children to ‘all things birding’ including the associated science, technical skills, and cultural connections,” making the bioblitz a huge success.
• Paula was one of five NPS employees selected by the NPS Innovative Leadership Network to attend the three-day Network Leadership Training Academy (NLTA) hosted by the University of Colorado-Denver’s Center for Collaborative Governance, which took place 16–18 May 2016 and included over 80 participants (InsideNPS). This opportunity was made possible by funding from the NPS Office of Relevancy, Diversity, and Inclusion.
• Brian Mitchell, NPS Southeast Region I&M chief, and Southeast Coast Network intern Emily headed over to Chattahoochee River National River and Recreation Area to assist Oklahoma State researchers in a multi-agency effort to study a remnant population of shoal bass in the Big Creek tributary. Sampling of the genetically isolated population of this endemic species has been ongoing since 2013.

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Lisa Cowart Baron, SECN coastal ecologist, collects salt marsh elevation data and shows the new ladder plank assembled to access the rod surface elevation table location.

NPS photo

What does THAT do?

Lisa Cowart Baron, SECN coastal ecologist, collects salt marsh elevation data and shows the new ladder plank assembled to access the rod surface elevation table location. The rod surface elevation table tracks sea level rise and marsh accretion.

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Field Work

Completed in May

• Vegetation community monitoring was completed at Cumberland Island National Seashore.

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Communications

The Athens editing squad is excited to announce the addition of three new graduate assistants. Ava Edmondson will be coming to us from the University of Georgia's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and Sandra McGill will be coming from the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Ava and Sandra will be coming on board in June. In August, we will be joined by Talia Levine, who hails from UGA’s Odum School of Ecology. Talia will be replacing Shannon as she moves on at the end of the summer. Ava, Sandra, and Talia will be helping out with editing duties while they expand their science communication and natural resource experience. We are really excited about this addition of resources, and the diverse skill sets these three students bring to the network, and we look forward to working more closely with the parks in the near future with some new and exciting projects. On the reports front, we continue to plug away at natural resource condition assessment reports, vegetation mapping reports, and data summaries.

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Citizen Science: A baby opossum takes notes on relative cover in a vegetation community monitoring plot at Cumberland Island National Seashore.

NPS photo / Emily Milbauer

Brian Gregory, SECN Program Manager

From the Program Manager

June is now upon us, and what that means —besides hot weather— is that the calendar year is halfway over and the fiscal year is quickly slipping away. Projects and efforts that we have planned to get done this year are, hopefully, well underway. If not, June’s arrival should be an alarm clock sounding a call to quick action. Close-out deadlines for contracting and agreements begin soon, and reports and protocols that are due by year’s end need to be in the finishing stages or very close to completion. Of course, we are all busy this time of year, too. As I was looking over our Sharepoint field operations planning calendar (Sharepoint Calendar) last week, I noted several days where almost every full-time staff member was either involved in work at one of our parks or in training somewhere. That is not uncommon, especially during summer field season.

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For More About the SECN: https://www.nps.gov/im/secn/index.htm