It important to know the difference between egg cases of the invasive Chinese praying mantis and the native Carolina mantis. Both live on Fishers Island.
(l-r) Arabella Hatfield and Lillian Kane are proud finalists in the 2021 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair.
Arabella Hatfield and Lillian Kane, two senior honors physics students at Fishers Island School, were State Finalists in the recent 2021 Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair. The annual competition is open to all 7th-12th grade students in Connecticut schools and Fishers Island.
Both Arabella and Lillian benefited from Fishers Island Conservancy grants to purchase equipment needed to execute their experiments in Carol Giles’s science classes.
Arabella used the fluorometer, purchased for use by oceanography students at school, to measure phytoplankton population density for her experiment: Ocean Acidification: How it Effects the Phytoplankton Species Nannochloropsis Oculata.
Lillian used her grant to purchase oxygen and carbon dioxide probes for her experiment: Exploring Earthworm Ecotypes: Carbon Source or Sink?
Awards
Arabella:
Environmental Sciences Award with CACIWAC—HS Finalist, CSF Medallion
Lillian:
PepsiCo/Pfizer Life Sciences Awards—Finalist – Life Science Senior High – CFS Medallion
Petit Family Foundation Women in Science & Engineering Awards—High School Finalist – Medallion
Future Sustainability Awards—High School Finalist – Medallion
Alexion Biotechnology Awards—3rd Place – Biotechnology Senior High – $300 & plaque
NASA EARTH System Science Award—Certificate and $25 gift card given by CSEF
University of Connecticut – Early College Acceptance—UCONN Early College Experience Program: Life Sciences – Co-Op $100 Gift Certificate
Two new books of interest have recently been published: “The Nature of Oaks”, by Douglas Tallamy and “A World On the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds”, by Scott Weidensaul.
Fishers Island Fire Department maintains careful control over planned burning in the Parade Grounds Sanctuary in March. Jane Ahrens Photo
By Tom Sargent
President, Fishers Island Conservancy
March 25, 2021
Among the many things that were delayed by the pandemic was the annual spring burn of the Parade Grounds Sanctuary grassland. This critical land management tool has been undertaken for generations.
Set fires are a natural way to remove woody plants and invasive species as well as a way to release natural nitrogen back to the soil. Typically the Fishers Island Conservancy burns only 1/3 of the acreage so any grassland dwellers have plenty of room to relocate. Fire is a part of the natural world and birds and animals have evolved to respond to these rhythms. The burn is our most effective weapon in managing this native habitat. Last year, as the shutdowns loomed, we were forced to abandon this annual rite.
What a difference a year makes
On a chilly early spring evening this past week, our friends and partners at the Fishers Island Fire Department pulled up with their crew and equipment. Led by Chief Jeff Edwards and the Conservancy’s own Donnie Beck, they began by back-burning near Elizabeth Field and then progressed towards the center of the Sanctuary.
Once creating these fire breaks, they moved east towards South beach, setting controlled small fires along the way. The wind took over and spurred these fires across the center of the Sanctuary. The sound of the waves, the spring peepers, and the crackling of the fires was astounding. The choreography of the fire department was fantastic to see and it seemed as though half the island turned out to watch the dance.
They marshaled the fire through the Parade Grounds, never letting this new found predator out of their grasp. Flames, heat, and smoke roared as the monster consumed its prey. Then suddenly, it was over. Only smoke, ash, and small pits of flame remained as the beast was satiated. All was calm and quiet. The Red Wings returned to their perches calling out their territories. The peepers chorus, never disrupted, continued their spring song. We watched as the silhouettes of the firefighters moved slowly to their trucks, flashing lights doused, the rumbling of their diesel engines disappearing into the dusk.
To witness a short intense grassfire is to be filled with fear and awe. To watch it under controlled settings with the oversight of an experienced fire crew is to be filled with admiration and gratitude. So, THANK YOU to the Fishers Island Fire Department for all they do for the Fishers Island Conservancy and the community as a whole. It is partnerships like these that make Fishers Island such a special place. We are all friends and neighbors who share a common love for the island. Here’s to spring and an end to the pandemic and being once again able to gather with old friends.
A healthy manatee drifts under dock in Vero Beach, FL amidst reflections of boats on lifts. Disappearing seagrass causing a feeding crisis for manatees is farther up the east coast near Merritt Island. FIConservancy Photo.
Manatees are starving to death in Florida. These gentle giants, weighing up to 1200 pounds, feed almost exclusively on seagrass and eat 9 percent of their body weight everyday.
Seagrass has long been in trouble in Florida’s increasingly polluted Indian River Lagoon Estuary. But scientists say that this year, in main manatee feeding areas, there’s almost no seagrass left for these herbivores to eat, causing them to become “severely emaciated” and die.
Fishers Island seagrass does not have to support the voracious appetites of manatees, but “our” seagrass forms the base of a highly productive marine food web, providing foraging areas and shelter for young fish and invertebrates, and food for migratory waterfowl and sea turtles.
This unique habitat also improves water quality by filtering polluted runoff, absorbing excess nutrients, storing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and trapping sediment, reducing the force of wave energy, thereby reducing coastal erosion.
Fishers Island has 94 percent of the remaining eelgrass in New York waters of Long Island Sound and 25 percent of all eelgrass in the Sound. (Eelgrass is a form of seagrass and gets its name from its long, eel-like leaves.)
Decimation of once abundant and protective eelgrass meadows in Long Island Sound, prompted The Nature Conservancy to evaluate eelgrass areas and boating patterns around Fishers Island. The study concluded that boating activity, particularly in summer months, presents a grave threat to Fishers Island eelgrass meadows.
The Fishers Island Seagrass Management coalition has been working to raise awareness about the serious threat to seagrass, and to designate seagrass management areas (SMA) to guide and balance effective use and protection of seagrass ecosystems around Fishers Island.
The loss of seagrass along any shore, whether through pollution or summer boating, is a recipe for irreparable environmental harm.
Changes in eelgrass distribution around Fishers Island from 2012 to 2017, published Feb. 28, 2019 in The Nature Conservancy report: An Evaluation of Eelgrass Extent and Vessel Use Patterns Around Fishers Island, New York.
Mating ritual of least terns on South Beach. “What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird?” said Nature historian David Attenborough. Todd McCormack Photo
This young barred owl is typical of birds of prey at risk of ingesting anticoagulant rodenticides used to kill nuisance rodents, like mice and rats. Justine Kibbe Photo
Scientists agree that there is no such thing as a safe poison. That unfortunate truth applies to anticoagulant rodenticides (AR), which have been used for decades to kill nuisance rodents like mice and rats.
Rodenticides are anti-coagulants placed in bait stations to attract mice and rats. After feeding, rodents die from internal bleeding, but not immediately. While still alive, they are a food source for raptors, and after death, for scavengers. Ingestion transfers the poison to the birds.
A 2020 Tufts Wildlife Clinic study reported that 100 percent of the red-tailed hawks in the study tested positive for exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides. For the study, Clinic Director Maureen Murray, a wildlife veterinarian, sampled 43 red-tailed hawks, which were admitted to the clinic but did not survive due to their injury or illness.
Ms. Murray focused on these hawks, because they are most commonly seen at the clinic and are generalist predators, which offered a sense of how widespread the contamination is in the food chain.
“The ability of these rodenticides to permeate the food chain and ecosystems is pretty remarkable,” said Ms. Murray. “Other studies have shown residues in songbirds and insects. And that’s what this study reflects. Red-tailed hawks eat a lot of small mammals, but they also eat birds, reptiles, or amphibians that they might scavenge. Ultimately, their prey base is very contaminated.”
First generation ARs, chlorpophacinone, diphacinone and warfarin, were followed in the 1970s by a second generation of more toxic anticoagulant rodenticides (SGAR), brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, difethialone. This study found that SGARs were more prevalent in the hawks than ARs.
In 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began tightening rules regarding sales and use of SGARs. This study’s findings are meant to measure the effectiveness of the EPA’s approach to regulating SGARs in preventing exposure of wildlife species.
Ms. Murray encouraged anyone looking for pest control solutions to consider approaches other than ARs: Find out where the mice or rats are coming in, plug up holes in the house or around windows, take away food and water sources, and clean out nesting sites.
Blurry black images are winter robins dispersing seeds of invasive Chinese privet shrub. Ironically, the robins are spreading the very seeds that can lead to fewer insects needed to feed their young.
This interactive illustration was developed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, but these birds are all found in New York and New England.