The Supporters of St.Vincent NWR, Inc.

Newsletter
W I N T E R

BIG NEWS!!
The Refuge office in Apalachicola is moving. The
visitor center is perma-

nently closed but in January staff and volunteers

will relocate to a temporary building at the Refuges 14 Mile mainland
property (on CR 30-A)

Board Members:
Trish Petrie, President
Audrey Schmidt, Treasurer
Landy Luther, Secretary
Virginia Satterfield
John Inzetta
Gloria Austin
Carol Brown, New
Nancy Widener, New
Nancy Stuart, New
Mike Turrisi, New

Contact Us:
stvincentislandfriends@gmail.com
www.stvincentfriends.com
https://twitter.com/StVincentNWR

In partnership with the

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

2 0 1 4

E D I T I O N

The Board members of the Supporters of St.

Vincent NWR, Inc. say a fond farewell to Shelley
Stiaes, Refuge Manager since June of 2009. She
leaves for a tremendous career opportunity in
New Orleans which also takes her back home
to family and friends.
We will miss Shelley but thank her for all she
has done for the Refuge. Although she describes
the contributions as just doing her job she
leaves the islands, despite the constant challenge
of money and resource constraints, with significantly more assets and improvements than when
she arrived. The equipment, seabird and shorebird
habitat improvements, protected radio system (to
name just a few), will allow the Refuge to prosper
after she leaves.
One of her proudest accomplishments is the
legacy of a stronger Friends group and she would
love to see us continue to grow our visibility, educational programs and member participation. She
realizes what a critical role we all play in the support of St. Vincent NWR Best of LUCK Shelley!

D E C E M B E R

2 0 1 4

2014 Turtle Nest

Adoptees
THANK YOU!
Jeff Ward
Forgotten Coast Used &
Out of Print Books
Kay Fugagli
Pat Tollefson
Lisa Jones
Scott & Mildred Hamilton
Mary Ann Zakrqewski
Mike Turrisi
John & Tina Epstein
Sabra Thornton
Carolyn Yarbrough
Cole Loveless
William Jones
Marilyn Speerschneider
Terrie Curd
Nancy Stuart
Gail Fishman
Adam & Lindsey Staley

Message in a Bottle
Contributed by Denise Williams, Sea Turtle Patrol Volunteer
During the summer months the beautiful beach of St. Vincent
Island is patrolled at least 5 days/week by our dedicated team
of sea turtle patrol members. This is a combination of Refuge staff and hardworking volunteers. Sea turtle patrol involves long hours, hot, humid weather and numerous physical challenges. We may be working in the pouring rain, a
heat index of 100+ degrees, or through insect encounters
that are deeply disturbing.
As we patrol the beach seeking out sea turtle crawls we encounter flotsam of every type. After major storm events living room furniture will show up on the beach. At times its
decidedly odd.

PAGE

2014-2015 Schedule
Christmas Bird Counts: Dec. 28-29, 2014
2015 Island Tours: Jan 14 & 28, Feb 11 & 25, March 11 & 25, April 8, May 13
Primitive Weapons Hunt: Jan 22-24, 2015 (Thurs-Sat)
Hunt permits available for sale at: http://myfwc.com/license/limited-entry-hunts/
Annual Meeting & Membership Drive: Sunday, February 22, 2015
To be held at the St. Joe Bay State Buffer Preserve 1-4pm EST
Speaker: Sue Cerulean Coming to Pass: Floridas Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change

St Vincent NWR Map

2014 Hunt Summaries

Public Archery Hunt:
50 Hunters (both check stations combined)
9 white-tailed deer (4 bucks and 5 does)
3 feral hogs (2 boars and 1sow)
2 raccoons (1 male and 1 female)

1972 Hunt Camp

Public Sambar Deer Hunt:

142 Hunters (both check stations combined)
A record 14 sambar deer (12 stags and 2 hinds)
5 feral hogs (4 boars and 1 sow)
1 raccoon (male)
The Indian Pass hunt camp was opened on the sambar hunt for the first time this year.

2014 Sea Turtle Nest Summary

Total Nests: 52
(all loggerhead sea turtles)
First documented nest5/19/2014
First emergence7/29/2014
Last emergence9/20/2014
Supporters Board and Service staff had a wonderful
time volunteering at the
2014 National Estuaries
Day at ANERR this fall!

Total hatchlings: 3733

Want to adopt a nest for the 2015 season?
Contact us at: (850)-229-6735
Makes a great and meaningful gift!

ST.

VINCENT

NWR

WINTER

2014

EDITION

PAGE

Recovery from storms:

Damage and regeneration of barrier islands
Contributing author: Carol Brown

The impact of storms on barrier islands is primarily affected by:

The island location relative to the hurricane eye,

Position of landfall,
Proximity to most damaging winds
(usually those on the northeast side of the storm),
The relation of tides at the time of landfall,
The extent and type of plant colonization on the island

The first four factors can vary wildly in each individual storm, while the extent and type of plant colonies is
more stable and can be studied. Recent research into storm impacts upon barrier islands suggests that increased strong hurricane activity (storms rated 3-5 on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale) will affect the ability
of barrier island plant communities to recover.
Impacts on the plant communities of microtidal barrier islands, such as St. George Island, depend primarily on
the location of the dune fields, what type of plant has colonized the dune and how much damage they sustained. Plants on the backdunes of microtidal barrier islands tend to be at a higher elevation and more distant from damaging storm surges which affect the foredunes. Plants on the foredunes, such as sea oats, are
rapid regenerators, usually re-colonizing within a year after being eliminated. Plants in the interdunes such as
railroad vine are burial tolerant and can respond positively to sediment deposited during overwash events.
Plants that cannot tolerate exposure of their root systems are most impacted when parts of the dune are
washed away during scarping.
Mesotidal barrier islands, such as St. Vincent Island, contain old growth forests and sustain different types of
hurricane damage. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo struck Bulls Island (which was the first red wolf island propagation site), a mesotidal barrier island off the coast of South Carolina. Researchers Gardner and Conner determined that the most prevalent type of damage to those old growth forest communities tended to be from
wind and exposure to salt spray. Wind induced tree crown damage caused die-back of pine trees, almost
completely eliminating them from the island. Sabal palms proved the most resilient to wind and salt damage.
Live oak and swamp tupelo were the least damaged hardwoods. The damage was most severe in areas that
had trapped and retained storm surge waters, raising the salinity of the ground water.
Because plant communities can act as dune stabilizers and dune builders, failure of these communities to recover and rebuild after repeated and increasingly more frequent storm events will affect dune landscapes.
Barrier islands have continued to exist in part due to the colonization of plant communities. Since most of
the barrier islands are a relatively recent geologic phenomenon, it is unknown exactly what combination of
these factors would constitute a point of no return for barrier islands.
Continued on page 5

Message in a Bottle continued...

One of the more interesting items we occasionally find is the message in a bottle. These bottles are tightly
sealed against the elements and include a note. We take the message in a bottle encounter seriously.
Someone put this note out into the world and is hoping they will reach another human being.
Toward the end of July of this year, while on sea turtle patrol, biologist Bradley Smith found one of these
missives. He handed it to me. He had recently answered a bottle message from a fifth grader. She was requesting whoever found the bottle to please let her know about where it landed. He sent her a nice wildlife
post card on which he described St. Vincent NWR and explained what a National Wildlife Refuge is all about.
Having recently done his message we agreed it was my turn.
After removing layers of tape from the rum bottle I was able to extract the note. Unfortunately most of the
note was faded and the only clear part of the message was a thank you and a phone number. Upon completion of sea turtle patrol for the day I took the note home and called the mysterious number.
The encounter I had with the individual at the other end of the phone call thrilled me. M was the wife of
D, a long line fisherman who has strong environmental concerns. They were on a data gathering mission.
While out fishing deep in the Gulf D would drop his message bottles in the Gulf of Mexico. He had a longitude and latitude written on the note (unfortunately washed out on the note we received). His goal was to
track how the bottles dispersed throughout the Gulf and beyond. They had just recently received a call from
the Bahamas, one of the Gulf of Mexico bottles had traversed all the way around the Florida peninsula via the
Gulf Stream current to the islands. This was a two year project which they hoped to publish and help demonstrate that EVERYTHING that goes into the Gulf affects all of us. I thought this was a wonderful, proactive
way of trying to make a difference.

Summer/Fall Intern Stephanie Taylor

The Supporters group was proud to sponsor a second intern in late summer who
worked at St. Vincent NWR for eight weeks. Stephanie Taylor completed her undergraduate degree at Auburn University and was a graduate student in Qualitative Fisheries at the University of Southern Mississippi. She was also a graduate assistant for the
Gulf Coast Research Lab and currently lives in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. During her
time with the Refuge she conducted a hiking trail assessment and was able to cut and
trim all but three of the existing trails. She aided in tracking our endangered red wolf
pair and began an inventory of heavy equipment with the help of Refuge staff. Before
leaving to defend her Masters thesis in October, Stephanie had the opportunity to see Refuge management
from an entirely different perspective and walked away with a greater appreciation and respect for everything
involved. We hope to continue, with your membership support, helping the Refuge and students alike benefit from these unique and valuable conservation internship experiences.

Would you like to contribute an article or pictures to our newsletter?

Have suggestions regarding articles or information you would like to see?
Please contact us at: stvincentislandfriends@gmail.com
Join us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date happenings
on and around the Refuge! @stvincentnwr
ST.

VINCENT

NWR

WINTER

2014

EDITION

The Impact of Storms on Barrier Islands, contd

Recovery from storms, contd.

Contributing author: Carol Brown

Contributing author: Carol Brown

Barrier islands are, quite literally, a buffer between the ocean and the
mainland along the eastern seaboard and Gulf coast of the U.S. It is difficult to predict what will happen if these barrier islands, with their unique
ecosystems, should diminish or disappear. As concerns over global warming and climate change increase, the fate of these barrier island communities will be of increasing importance, both from an ecological perspective
and from the perspective of what influence the loss of the barrier islands
could have on human habitation on the islands and on the coastal mainland.

Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA)

Nesting Shorebird Survey Summary
Contributing author: Dayma Wasmund
From the spring to the fall of 2014, work was undertaken to preserve and protect imperiled beach nesting
shorebirds and seabirds on St. Vincent NWR. Personnel and materials were funded by the Natural Resource
Damage Assessment and Restoration field office in Fairhope, Alabama. Focal species included American
Oystercatcher, Snowy and Wilsons Plovers, and Least Tern. In addition to collecting nesting and productivity data, symbolic fencing was installed and maintained to protect these ground nesting birds from unintentional but detrimental human recreational and vehicular disturbances.

in

Shorebird numbers fluctuated predictably throughout the FebruaryAugust nesting season with the number of Snowy Plover adults peaking
May. Our beach nesting birds faced a variety of threats throughout this
breeding season including washovers and animal and human disturbance.
Unfortunately, signed and posted closed breeding areas were not always
respected, and evidence of visitor trespass was documented on more
than one occasion. In one instance closed area signs were damaged
shortly after they were posted.

A seasonal Biological Science Technician position is currently funded for the

next three years. Work will begin again in late winter 2015 to help sign and
protect nesting areas to benefit the rare and imperiled shoreline dependent
birds that rely on St. Vincent NWR as a safe nesting, resting and feeding location. We will continue to report our progress in upcoming Supporters
newsletters. If you are interested in volunteering to help conserve these
beautiful migratory birds, please contact the author at the Refuge office.

The Impact of Storms on Barrier Islands, contd

The Supporters of St. Vincent NWR, Inc.

Contributing author: Carol Brown

Announce the formation of a joint research project

on migratory song birds

The Supporters of St. Vincent Island NWR, Inc. are pleased to provide support for a joint project with the
Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through NOAAs Education Partnership Program (EPP) and Environmental Cooperative Science Center (ECSC).
The Supporters of St. Vincent Island NWR, Inc. are keen to promote the goals and mission of the U. S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. These goals are:
Working with the North American Waterfowl Management Plan objectives
Working within the Threatened and Endangered species recovery plans/actions, particularly where essential to prevent extinction
Identifying migratory birds in decline and prioritizing at risk species in danger of becoming Threatened and Endangered
Connecting underserved audiences with nature
The Supporters have been working with Dr. Christopher Heckscher from Delaware State University who is
the lead investigator for ongoing research into migratory songbirds who return to North America from
South America in the spring. These birds make first landfall along the barrier islands of the Florida panhandle
during April and May. In prior years, Dr. Heckschers team of graduate and post-graduate students have
been working on St. George Island, accumulating data on songbirds such as Indigo and Painted Buntings.
The team erects mist nets and takes an inventory of the birds captured, identifies species, weighs them,
checks their muscle mass, takes blood samples and other information before releasing the birds. Their work
is usually done in the early morning and dusk, when the birds are most active.
Expansion of the existing research from an inhabited barrier island such as St. George to include an uninhabited island such as St. Vincent will provide an excellent comparison of the type of birds found, the health of
the birds and information on food availability. Dr. Heckscher believes that should the studies on St. Vincent
Island prove valuable, the research may well be expanded further into barrier islands along the coast as far as
Louisiana and Texas.
The research team may need a few experienced volunteers this spring. If you are interested, please contact:
Carol Brown for further information www.stvincentislandfriends@gmail.com Attn: Carol Brown