The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently partnered with Maine Coast Heritage Trust to acquire the five-acre Spectacle Island in Eastport, Maine. The parcel is a priority seabird island with a diverse assemblage of seabirds that breed there, including double-crested cormorants, herring gulls and black-backed gulls. A census in 2008 found that the island supports the fourth largest cormorant and the sixth largest great black-backed gull nesting colony in the state.
“Maine Coast Heritage Trust is a great partner. We could not protect the colonial nesting seabirds without their help. Over the last several years, they have helped us acquire almost all of our new islands, which are all important for the birds,” says Beth Goettel, the manager at the refuge. “These birds only nest on islands where they are isolated from human disturbance and predators like rats, foxes and raccoons."
This acquisition will help further the refuge’s mission of re-establishing colonial nesting seabirds and is one of 87 islands in the 15-year conservation management plan. Maine Coast Heritage Trust submitted a successful application for a grant to protect a number of properties, including Spectacle Island, under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, with the intention of acquiring the island and donating it to the Service.
Ciona Ulbrich of Maine Coast Heritage Trust notes, “Spectacle Island and its sensitive nesting bird habitat were a priority for conservation. This project is another milestone in a long-standing partnership around building this refuge. We are grateful to the many island owners who choose to work with us on conservation, including having the patience required to obtain grant funding. Those landowners make this work possible.”
The island is comprised of gravelly beaches and an area of rock ledge. Grass is the predominant vegetation, which is important to a number of species.
The Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge is comprised of five individual refuges, and contains more than 55 offshore islands and four coastal parcels, totaling more than 8,200 acres. The refuge supports an incredible diversity of habitats including coastal islands, coastal salt marshes, forested headlands, estuaries and freshwater wetlands, and focuses on restoring and managing colonies of nesting seabirds. Refuge islands provide habitats for birds including common, Arctic, and endangered roseate terns, Atlantic puffins, razorbills, black guillemots, double-crested and great cormorants and common eiders. Over the last 25 years, the Service has worked to reverse the decline in these birds' populations. As a result, many species have returned to islands where they nested historically.
Maine Coast Heritage Trust is a statewide land conservation organization committed to protecting the character of Maine. Since 1970, Maine Coast Heritage Trust has helped conserve more than 141,000 acres in Maine, from the Isles of Shoals to Cobscook Bay, including more than 300 entire coastal islands. For more information, visit www.mcht.org.
