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[wildliferefugeguy]

Throughout Monday morning, I had a lot of time to think about the implications that could result from taking down the fencing surrounding the Gibraltar Bay Unit of the DIWR. Obviously, there will be a greater flow of heterotrophs into the ecosystem because they will not have a fence restricting them from entering. Removal of this abiotic limiting factor will help increase population sizes within the Gibraltar Bay community---at least at first it will. Considering how volunteers and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have worked hard to control/remove invasive species and, in turn, promote native species diversity through habit restoration, herbivores will be drawn to the area to feast on native berries, seeds, and other vegetation that their diet has evolved with over time. 

This can create an abundance of deer, for example, which over time would decrease the abundance of blackberries or white ash leaves which they love to eat. But then, lets say, there is a harsh, snowy winter and where else would a coyote go to hunt than an area rich with a rich deer population. This is an example of a density-dependent biotic factor (predation/prey interaction) that could have a stabilizing effect population size. 

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to continue revisiting the area over the next few years and see how populations of wildlife at the Gibraltar Bay Unit will  increase!

[wildliferefugeguy]

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The US Fish and Wildlife Service appointed the Gibraltar Bay Unit to take down the fencing that the Grosse Ile Airport had put up before the property was transferred to the hands of the DIWR. I took this video yesterday, which was day two of the project. The fencing runs along most of East River (the road that the entrance is on) so it will be a somewhat long-term project. To see other pictures from my experience yesterday, stay tuned for some pictures that I will be sharing shortly!

[wildliferefugeguy]

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A quick video of one of the main clearings at the Humbug Marsh Unit. If you pay close attention (because the camera on my phone is awful) you can see several areas where crews in the past have stacked the woody invasives they cut down to produce clearings. These clearings will help encourage understory plants and native shrubs to thrive over time. 

Maintaining native species is necessary for both the biosphere and the hydrosphere. When invasive species begin to dominate an area, the wildlife native to the area have to adapt to the new plants and implement them into their diet, or they will have to flee in search of the animals or plants they have been traditionally use to eating. Also, non-native trees and herbaceous plants may have different nutrient specifications and can alter the pH of the soil in the area or make the soil deficient of certain nutrients that it siphons---thus impacting the nutrient cycle. 

In addition, the water cycle can be altered in a particular area that has been subject to uncontrolled spread of invasive species. Evapotranspiration and infiltration rates can change as the diversity of a region is impacted by invasive species, which would have an affect on the water cycle in that region as a whole.

[wildliferefugeguy]

Some pictures that I took volunteering at the Humbug Marsh Unit last Wednesday... 

We worked from 9-12 sawing down buckthorns. Dick Skoglund, the coordinator for the Humbug Marsh stewardship group, explained that the regulation of particular invasive trees like the buckthorn is necessary to maintain habitat management--- generating clearings to encourage more species diversity and create homes for wildlife (like the wood stocks that we created from all the buckthorns that were sawed down). Buckthorns are especially distinguishable by their rough, torn up looking bark. Furthermore, looking at the branches, they have many small woody “stem” protrusions that are useful in identification.

 My fellow volunteers explained to me that the berries which Buckthorns produce, are actually indigestible by most bird species and other wildlife. Therefore, they spread so quickly because these animals ingest the berries, then expel them and they germinate! 

[wildliferefugeguy]

The article talks about the regions past use---a New York merchant, Giles Slocum, bought about 2000 acres in the area in 1837 and cleared forests to raise sheep (eventually becoming the largest wool-grower in Michigan by the mid-1800s). Since the 1980s, intermediate woody species have flourished over the stages of secondary succession since agricultural practices seized.

Dogwoods are mentioned in the article as a species that restricts light from penetrating the herbaceous layer beneath. Canadian thistle, Canadian bluegrass and garlic mustard are mentioned as non-native invasive plants that I have found first hand are plenty abundant in Humbug.

Humbug Marsh, in addition to Grosse Ile (where the Gibraltar Bay Unit of DIWR is) and the Oakwoods Metropark are all stated in the article to have experienced significant disturbance since European settlement. Humbug is stated by the authors as the region with the most disturbance and they believe that remediation to return Humbug to its “natural” forest condition is not very fathomable, even with directed land management. 

The authors suggest prescribed fires, removal of woody and herbaceous species at marsh borders, selective harvest, canopy gap creation, planting of trees, and reduction of white-tailed deer population in order to regenerate Humbug’s “natural” forest. Alternatively, they mention that the DIWR can select  a different conservation management option to “maintain and enhance early successional habitats at Humbug Marsh for declining wildlife species and shade-intolerant plants.” This would help conserve local genotypes, which I learned the importance of in Michell Serryn’s seminar about invasive species a couple weeks ago. 

All in all, I felt this article is relevant to the habitat management plan that the DIWR is implementing with the help like volunteers such as myself and others. Humbug Marsh is also mentioned as a well situated area for academic research, considering the colleges and  universities nearby in metro-Detroit. 

[wildliferefugeguy]

Some pictures from Humbug Marsh last Friday...I worked alongside fellow volunteers Mike and Richard whom are in a couple of my pictures. Richard is actually a retiree from Detroit Edison, so we had some good conversation about his career working in the energy industry! We worked on cutting up and stacking invasive woody plants like honeysuckle, autumn olive, buckthorn, prickly ash, river drape , privet, and burberry.

Richard informed me of a gentleman named Greg Norwood who used to work for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and also worked as a volunteer with the DIWR. Greg left a couple years ago, which left the DIWR volunteers with a little less guidance---for instance, Greg had plans to eventually do some controlled burns in the area which we were working. Richard explained to me what Greg had told him about the importance of diversifying an ecosystem that was becoming a monoculture thicket, with increasing numbers of invasive plants. Controlled burns are a useful way of recycling nutrients, and encouraging more plant diversity. All the woody invasives that were previously cut down we stacked, allowing alternate growth on the forest floor (especially now that there are less tall trees absorbing the sunlight).

[wildliferefugeguy]

Photos from Monday morning at the Gibraltar Bay Unit. Peter Kantz explained a bit more about the history of the refuge. It used to be owned by the nearby airport, but was then sold to the Grosse Ile Nature and Land Conservancy, which then was absorbed by the EPA because they believed the land and surrounding waters were too toxic to be open for the public. However, after the EPA tested the areas, they deemed the land to be within safe toxic levels and it then became a portion of the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge. 

I used a post driver for the first time to install a handicap sign and we continued to haul away the dogwood trees into a pile---which has still not been picked up at all since the project began (I include a picture of the dogwood stack). 

[wildliferefugeguy]

On Monday I changed it up and volunteered at the Gibraltar Bay Unit of the DIWR on Grosse Ile. I met up with Mr. Peter Kantz, a Ford Motor Co. retiree, and a few other volunteers that also happen to be retirees. We worked on cutting down dead dogwood trees that were the unfortunate recipients of anthracnose, or diseases that result from the fungi known as Colletotrichum. Though the US Fish and Wildlife Service has treated many of these trees with a fungicide last spring, it was too late for many of these organisms. 

Trying to treat fungal and bacterial diseases that spread in the wild are arguably just as difficult as treating diseases among people. It is often hard to predict what effect a certain herbicide, pesticide or fungicide will have on neighboring plant communities. Even more so, the effect that these preventative measures have on insect and other animal species within the community can be fatal, as is being recently understood with phenomena like colony collapse disorder (CCD) of bee populations due to pesticide poisoning, among and other factors. 

The attempt at trying to save these trees is interconnected with both the biosphere and the atmosphere parts of the Earth system. It is important to evaluate the possible ripple effects of administering fungicides/herbicides/pesticides to an infected species, in terms of how the other biota in that community will be impacted---either through direct contact, consumption via the food chain, or by the wind.

Overall, despite the abrupt dramatic temperature drop over the past week, working with Peter and his crew was enlightening, informational, and also quite the workout!

[wildliferefugeguy]

About the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge (DIWR)

Volunteering at the DIWR Humbug Marsh unit this morning!  Humbug is the center of the DIWR—it is the last mile of natural shoreline along the United States side of the Detroit River (97% of the Detroit River shoreline has been disturbed or destroyed by steel, chemical and manufacturing plants). The area spans from the cities of Gibraltar to Trenton. Thanks to the late John DIngell, our country’s longest-serving congressman, this land was barely saved from also being developed. Nolan Finley published an article in the Detroit News back in August about Dingell and his advocation for the remediation of the Detroit River…

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2017/08/12/finley-dingell-legacy-detroit-river-humbug-marsh/104540502/