Big Night!

Well that must have done it. One more warm rainy night. Of course.....I missed it. But reports from Pine and Dan Wells are that the slamanders are out. Pine saw several yellow-spots in here secret Vernal Pool (I'm sure she'll divulge if you ask her). And Dan said he caught many in his study traps near the river. No blue-spots though.

They will be in the pools for a couple of weeks. So if you have favorite vernal pool head out to see them for yourself.

Big night?

No this isn't a Monday morning post about some wild weekend party. At least not for me. The "Big Night" is that first warm (>40F) rainy night in the spring when all of the amphibians come out of their woodland hiding places to converge on their favorite vernal pool. Here they all meet up for a once-a-year breeding event. This is one of the great facts we learned at Jessica Tenzar's talk at the Landing last Thursday. For the second year in a row Jess came to teach us about vernal pools, the animals that live in them, and what we can do to protect them. This year Jess added a discussion about her own research. Although her field methods had some folks squirming in their seats, it was very cool to learn how stable isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen within the bodies of salamanders can actually show us exactly what they are feeding on throughout their lives.

The timing of the talk was just right. Not only is it the season for vernal pools throughout the Northeast, but we happen to be in the middle of a survey for the endangered Blue-spotted salamander near the Wapping Road Dam (see post from last week). So we are wating for that Big Night and waiting to see what we find. But the Big Night can be elusive. We had rain on the Thursday night of Jessica's talk. But it wasn't as much as predicted and no salamanders or wood frogs showed up in our survey area. So then we had our fingers crossed for the rains this weekend. Saturday night and Sunday were POURING and it was warm(ish). But still nothing. Our salmander survey expert Dan Wells tells me that it may have started raining too late on Saturday night. It usually needs to start before dusk.

So we'll keep waiting and watching.

First day of Spring!

Friday was the first day of spring! With a busy of weekend of spring chores I couldn't post until now, but I certainly couldn't let it pass unnoticed either.

Obviously the onset of spring is an exciting time for us at the Watershed Association. (Although, I have to admit I'm a little sad to see the slopes up north turning brown and green. Still a few more weeks left though). Although winter's grip has been slow to release this year I've still started to see the signs slowly emerging. Out in the bay I've started seeing spider crabs and horseshoe crabs moving around a lot more. I've also picked up a few flounder while working the oyster beds in the past 2 weeks. On the river, almost all of the snow is finally gone. Flows are high as the ground and surfaces releases all of the ice they've been holding. In my yard, the crocus and even a few forsythia are blooming. In the woods the vernal pools are full and ready for the 'big night'. Speaking of which, don't forget to stop by for Jess Tenzar's vernal pool talk this Thursday night at 7:00 (more info here).

Skunk cabbage budding by the river


Beaver practicing?

Of course, this is all just the slow start of things to come. Spring has an accelerating trajectory and in no time everything will be in full swing. Of course one of the highlights for us will be the herring run. The river herring, smelt, and other fish are already on their way and will start showing up in the river in the next few weeks. We will see them congregating at the bottom of the Elm St Dam. Then, when the water temperature is just right, they will all start racing up the ladder. You can help us capture the details of this critical ecological event by getting involved in our herring count (info here). It's a great way to get personally in tune with the natural cycles of the river while generating important data on the health of this species.

Final Feasibility Study

This post backtracks a little bit. But since I didn't post much over the winter I thought it would be worthwhile to give a brief summary of some activities. I'll try to get a few more of these out over the next few weeks....

Throughout 2008 JRWA worked closely with a team of partners to conduct a feasibility study for restoration options at the Wapping Road. The project involved a big group of private, local, state, and federal partners. This included Jones River Realty Trust (the property owner), the Town of Kingston (Cons. Comm.), Division of Marine Fisheries, the Riverways Program, and NOAA Marine Fisheries. The bulk of the technical work was conducted by Milone & MacBroom Inc, a well known river restoration firm. Our study was guided by a specific set of goals for the river:

1. Restore the river habitat back to a more natural environment.
2. Reduce operation and maintenance requirements of the Wapping Road Dam.
3. Promote long-term sustainability at the dam and of the river system.
4. Avoid or mitigate impacts to the Wapping Road Bridge relative to scour and stability.
5. Create a condition that is compatible with the adjacent mill buildings, considering
structural stability as well as ongoing and future operations.
6. Pass target fish species, including alewife, blueback herring, American eel, and sea lamprey.
7. Improve the upstream water quality in the Jones River.
8. Maintain or enhance habitat for rare species that may occur in the project area.
9. Promote recreational use of the river (i.e., canoeing and kayaking).

The study assessed the engineering, biological, ecological, economic, and logistical issues surrounding a variety of alternatives for the site. The alternatives considered included doing nothing, installing a fish ladder, installing a bypass channel, installing a roughened ramp, removing portions of the dam, and removing the entire dam. After weighing the pros and cons of each alternative, it was determined that full removal of the dam would best meet the project goals.

If you want some more detail, please take a look at the Final Feasibility Study Report.

Salamander surveys start

As we move forward with the Wapping Road Dam project we have a lot of permitting to take care of and a lot of regulatory compliance to be clear on. One of the really import ones is with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP). This program is part of the State's Division of Fish and Wildlife. They watch out for all of the species listed as Endangered, Threatened, or of Special Concern. On the "Special Concern" list is the blue-spotted salamander (Ambystoma laterale). NHESP keeps maps of where potential habitat for these species exists. These maps show that the areas around the Jones River near the Wapping Road Dam might have habitat for these little guys. These salamanders use vernal pools and floodplain pools near rivers for breeding. There is concern that when the dam is removed and the water levels drop it might impact these important pools.

NHSEP has come out to see the site and they are excited about the overall ecological benefits that the project presents. But we do need to assess the potential impact to the blue-spots. The Riverways Program has stepped up to help us with this issue. They are funding a survey to identify specific habitat for the salamanders and determine if they are in the area and using the pools for breeding. An expert on these species (Dan Wells of Hyla Ecological Services) has been hired to come out and conduct the surveys. The first day of the survey was today and consisted of a site reconnaissance of the entire area. Pine and I did the walk with Dan today, here's where we went....

We had an interesting walk and identified several areas that have the potential to support blue-spot breeding. The next steps will be to set some traps to count catch and count salamanders, identify actual breeding pools through egg mass surveys, and figure out how the draw dawn will impact the pools. This will be happen over the next few weeks as the weather warms and the salamanders start moving. We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime...we'll be hosting a talk at the Landing by Jessica Tenzar. Jessica is an expert in salamanders and vernal pools. She will be discussing how to identify and certify vernal pools. She will also be presenting some of her new data that reveals the distances that salamanders travel to feed. This data suggests that existing regulations on vernal pool buffers may not be protective enough. Join us at 7:00pm on Thursday, March 26th to hear more.

Back again

It's been a while. Lots and lots of activities and progress since the last entry. But a good deal of it has been of the desk work variety which doesn't lend itself to good pictures and exciting posts. Not that hasn't been interesting and important. The feasibility study for Wap[ing Rd Dam has been completed and the final report has been delivered. The 'preferred alternative' is full dam removal and we are now working to make that happen.

Winter is holding on. But spring will break through soon and there will be a lot of activity around the river. Stay tuned as a bunch of projects get really rolling.