Carbon offsets pay for habitat restoration
Brett Wehrle, project leader for the Central Louisiana Refuges, made a new friend recently at the Grand Cote National Wildlife Refuge near Marksville, LA. The Travelocity Roaming Gnome is next to a newly planted tree. Credit: Stacy Shelton, USFWS
Thanks to The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero program, more than 800 acres at the Grand Cote and Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuges will return to bottomland hardwood forest.
The large-scale tree planting, completed Jan. 26, brought back water oak, willow oak, bitter pecan, sweet gum and sycamore trees to land that had been farmed for decades before the refuges were established in the late 1980s. Go Zero invested about $350,000 to buy and plant the trees, and will spend approximately $150,000 more to audit the carbon offsets and other related work, said Go Zero Director Jena Meredith.
The Conservation Fund’s corporate sponsors include Travelocity, U-Haul, Gaiam and Dell.
For more information, go to:
- http://www.fws.gov/southeast/carbon
- http://www.conservationfund.org/gozero
- http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20100122/NEWS01/1220323
Western North Carolina Dam Removal Clears the Way for Imperiled Species
Dillsboro Dam. Credit: USFWS
As a handful of people watched, heavy machinery obliterated the powerhouse for North Carolina’s Dillsboro Dam, the most visible sign yet of the impending removal of the 12-foot high dam itself, scheduled to begin in early February.
Dillsboro Dam, built in 1913, is one of a series of Duke Energy hydropower facilities on western North Carolina’s Tuckasegee River. Federal law requires operators of private hydropower dams to address impacts to fish and wildlife. Duke Energy’s decision to remove dam is seen as a major part of that effort on the Tuckasegee River and will aid the recovery of a pair of imperiled species – the federally endangered Appalachian elktoe mussel and the sicklefin redhorse fish.
“It’s not very often you get to see a dam demolished, especially a FERC-licensed hydroelectric project. But this is in the best interest of the American people” said Mark Cantrell, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist involved with the project. “We have a rare opportunity to see the return of a stretch of river that’s been impaired for nearly 100 years. This means a lot for the fish and wildlife in that river, especially the rare Appalachian elktoe and the sicklefin redhorse.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awards $1 million to protect Southeast coasts
Piping plovers. Credit: USFWS
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week awarded more than $1 million to protect Southeast coastal areas.
In Florida, the Service will provide $831,990 to acquire and protect 11 acres encompassing the outlet of Money Bayou tidal creek between Port St. Joe and Apalachicola. Florida Forever, the state's conservation and recreation lands acquisition program, will pitch in another $371,853.
The site, which contains the tidal creek channel, adjacent estuarine and intertidal wetlands, and pine and beach dune uplands, provides high value habitat for many federally and state protected species, including the piping plover, green and loggerhead sea turtles, and Gulf sturgeon. Protecting the site will prevent the further loss and degradation of coastal wetlands, which are on decline nationally.
In North Carolina, a coastal protection grant of $168,090 will help add 15.97 acres to the Kitty Hawk Woods Maritime Forest, which is part of the North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve System. North Carolina's Natural Heritage Trust Fund is providing the remaining half of the cost, or $168,090.
Two Harris' Hawks Seized in North Carolina Returning Home to Texas
Harris' hawks being released into the wild. Credit: Chase A. Fountain, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – A pair of Harris’ hawks, unlawfully captured in Texas and brought to North Carolina, are being treated to a plane ride back to their south Texas home today, the culmination of nearly two months of effort that included law enforcement officers, raptor biologists, and Delta Air Lines.
In October, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department received a tip about the birds through their Operation Game Thief wildlife crime stoppers program. State game wardens began investigating the case, and by mid-November the tip led U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement Special Agents to a North Carolina suspect in possession of the hawks.
The birds, both juveniles, were taken to the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville, N.C., for treatment, rehabilitation and evaluation for release. The hawks are in good condition and readily retreat from humans, demonstrating that their ordeal has not habituated them.
