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With partners, protect, conserve, and restore aquatic resources including habitats throughout
the Southeast, for the continuing benefit, use, and enjoyment of the American people.
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![Linda Kelsey and Halibut](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs197/1102374183619/img/171.jpg?a=1114192880703) |
Linda Kelsey with a Successful Halibut Catch
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Fisheries Star Linda Kelsey Retires
Contributed by Cindy Williams, USFWS Fisheries Program Supervisor, and SARP Staff
In May 2013, Linda H. Kelsey retired after 13 years as the Assistant Regional Director for the Fisheries Program of the Southeast Region of the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). Linda was responsible for the management of all Fisheries Program activities that work to protect and restore healthy populations of fish and other aquatic species and the environments on which they depend. In her role, she directed the activities and functions of the Regional Fisheries Center, which includes the Fish Health and Fish Technology Centers, 14 National Fish Hatcheries and 6 Fish and Wildlife Conservation Offices throughout the Southeast Region.
In 2010, Linda received the Meritorious Service Award of the Department of the Interior for her leadership in the formation, development, and implementation of the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP), a regional collaboration of state and federal natural resource and science agencies, conservation organizations, and private interests working to strengthen the management and conservation of the aquatic resources in the southeastern United States. Her promotion of this concept of locally-driven efforts that build private and public partnerships to improve aquatic resources was so successful that SARP was selected as one of the first Fish Habitat Partnerships for the National Fish Habitat Initiative. She served as SARP's Co-Chair until her retirement. She was also given the Meritorious Service Award for her role in seeking reimbursement for the Fisheries Program's hatchery mitigation expenditures associated with federal water development agencies. For many decades, the Fisheries Program mitigated the fisheries impacts of these projects using its own operational funding. By securing this reimbursement, much needed Service funding was freed up to support other high priority fisheries program activities.
Linda leaves a great legacy of cooperative conservation of fisheries resources and the habitats they need to survive and thrive. Her leadership and passion for conservation will be greatly missed within SARP and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Click here to read the complete article on Linda's accomplished fisheries career.
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![Cape Fear River Lock and Dam 2](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs197/1102374183619/img/172.jpg?a=1114192880703) |
Cape Fear River at Lock & Dam #2. Photo credit: Mike Wicker, USFWS NC Coastal Program.
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Enhancing Fish Passage and Habitat on the Cape Fear River
For decades, the upstream migration of fish such as striped bass, American shad, river herring and sturgeon to the places where they spawn (lay eggs) every spring has been impeded by dams and other blockages on the Cape Fear River, once one of the most productive rivers for American shad in North Carolina. Commercial landings are currently 87% below historical estimates due in part to these same stressors, as well as overfishing, pollution, and habitat degradation and loss. The recently released Cape Fear River Basin Action Plan, a blueprint for restoring fish access and improving habitat and water quality in North Carolina's largest watershed, is seeking to change this. Developed in 2012 by the Cape Fear River Partnership, a coalition of state and federal natural resource agencies, academic entities and private and non-governmental organizations, the Action Plan is putting on the ground restoration and conservation measures in place and improving habitat conditions to ensure the recovery and sustainability of migratory fish populations. It will also assess the community and economic benefits of migratory fish populations on tourism, recreation, fishing and other commercial uses.
On May 30th, 2013, the Cape Fear River Partners celebrated the official unveiling of the Action Plan at a ribbon cutting ceremony for a rock arch ramp fishway at Lock and Dam #1 near Riegelwood in Bladen County, located 32 miles upriver of Wilmington. The ramp fishway is expected to improve passage of striped bass, American shad, river herring and sturgeon, to help them reach historic spawning grounds during their spring migrations. The completion of this fishway is the first step in restoring access to historic migratory fish habitat and is touted as one of the best things to happen to the Cape Fear River by anglers and environmentalists alike. Following fishway construction, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) anticipates the project will achieve a fish passage rate of approximately 80%. Additional work is still needed to provide fish passage beyond two additional existing lock and dam structures on the river in Bladen County so fish will have unimpeded access to historical spawning grounds located at Smiley Falls near Erwin in Harnett County. Passage at these additional lock and dams is a critical step to restoring migratory fish habitat and a top priority of the Action Plan.
Click here to read the full article on the Cape Fear River Partnership and projects.
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![GCPO SARP Meeting Spring 2013](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs197/1102374183619/img/173.jpg?a=1114192880703) Integration of Aquatic and Terrestrial Conservation: a deeper relationship between SARP and the GCPO LCCContributed by Greg Wathen, LCC Coordinator
The Steering Committees of the GCPO LCC and Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) got together on the banks of the Mississippi River in Memphis, TN in June 2013, to discuss conservation of aquatic resources in our region, and how our two partnerships can better coordinate and collaborate with each other. We were also joined by leadership of the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, which provided us a unique view of hands on conservation along one of America's most important aquatic resources, the lower Mississippi River. All told, about 55 people came together for two days to discuss priorities, roles and responsibilities in aquatic conversation.
Synergies for SARP and the LCC Using the principles of Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) as a foundation, we explored how the two partnerships can synergize their conservation outcomes by evaluating our respective strengths and weaknesses and thinking about how we can better meet the full conservation needs of our aquatic resources. From the comments that I have received thus far, by all accounts it was a very successful meeting, and I'm sure that our two partnerships came away with a much better understanding of each partnership's priorities. You can only gain that understanding through person to person communication, so having the opportunity to meet and socialize on the banks of the Mississippi River was the perfect setting to get to know each other and discuss all issues aquatic. For two days, our discussions centered on how our partnerships could better accomplish conservation of aquatic resources in our region, capitalizing on the collective strengths that our partners bring to the table, and thinking about how to coordinate without duplicating, and by creating synergistic outcomes. We did this by discussing specific initiatives that are important to one or both partnerships: alligator gar priority habitat, in-stream flow, the Lower Mississippi River Resource Assessment, and the Native Black Bass Initiative. Each of these topics helped us to think about our partnerships in a specific, real world sense. To learn more about the integration of aquatic and terrestrial conservation and the SARP/GCPO LCC meeting and relationship click here. |
![Harpeth River Restoration Project Team](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs197/1102374183619/img/174.jpg?a=1114192880703) Harpeth River Restoration Project Earns 2013 Tennessee Governor's Environmental Stewardship Award On June 25th, ten key project partners came together to celebrate the Harpeth River Restoration Project receiving the 2013 Tennessee Governor's Environmental Stewardship Award for Excellence in Natural Heritage. This project was supported in part through SARP's National Fish Habitat Partnership/US Fish & Wildlife Service Aquatic Restoration Program. Visit the official TN Governor's Environmental Stewardship Awards website for more information and project images. Congratulations to the entire partnership and everyone who contributed to this project's success!
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![Gar landsat](http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs197/1102374183619/img/175.jpg?a=1114192880703)
Innovative HSI and Landsat Imagery for Alligator Gar Habitat Now Available
Contributed by Gregg Elliott, GCPO LCC Communications Coordinator
An innovative application of existing landsat data is providing land managers with information on some of the key variables that affect fish and other aquatic species: extent of inundation through time, water temperature, and ultimately the dynamic nature of floodplain habitat itself. Partners working at St. Catherine's Creek National Wildlife Refuge (SCC NWR) initiated this project to assess habitat suitability for alligator gar in response to requests from state agencies seeking guidance on how best to manage this species of conservation concern. What they have created is a Habitat Suitability Index methodology that has the potential to be applied to any species that responds significantly to water temperature, inundation frequency and land cover type. Moreover, their techniques can also identify the most suitable habitats for protection, management or restoration of each such species using remote sensing. Thinking Like a Gar Gar are large apex predators that have been extirpated from parts of their range in 7 of the GCPO's 12 states. With a reputation that has been rehabilitated from "trash fish" to "game fish," they are also increasingly popular among sportsmen, and wildlife agencies in most states with gar want to help maintain and expand healthy populations. A key part of this is protecting or restoring gar spawning habitats. The question has been, what makes alligator gar key in to certain habitats for spawning at certain times? In 2010, the alligator gar project began. It combines data from 24 separate landsat images taken of the SCC area from 1985 to 2011, all of which meet the criteria of being cloud-free and taken from December to March (for maximum accuracy). SCC NWR is the only refuge located within the study area still subject to direct inundation from the Mississippi River. By analyzing these photos in correlation with river stage and landsat thermal data, Yvonne Allen, Aquatic Habitat Analyst for the GCPO LCC, was able to develop a model that shows how inundation and temperatures in the area change according to river stage. These data were ground-truthed from 2010 to 2013 using water quality data loggers placed at key sites on the refuge. "The data loggers told us that what we think we're seeing - in terms of water, temperature and turbidity - is actually there," explains Allen. Telemetry tracking of 20 gar per year, 60 total, told researchers which habitats gar were using at which times. From these analyses emerged the alligator gar Habitat Suitability Index, which shows that the warmest parts of the floodplain that are inundated roughly 50% of the time tend to be the most important for gar. These areas are generally 4 to 5 degrees warmer than river temperature, and tend to be open canopy. Biologists are now thinking that temperature is the spawning trigger. Thinking like a gar, you want to get to the warmest places for eggs to incubate properly because just a few degrees drop can cause lots of problems (such as fungal accumulation). Serendipitously, the qualities that gar seem to prefer in their spawning habitat are often associated with moist soil units managed on the refuge to provide migratory waterfowl habitat. To get at this last piece of the puzzle, Allen added the 2012 cropland data layer to her analysis. This dataset is produced by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, and it includes not only crop type but also woody wetlands. This analysis indicates that mowed fallow fields, moist soil units, and even barren dirt with vegetation at field edges all seem to provide the structure and temperature, when water is present at the right times, to support gar spawning. To read the full-text article and learn more about how to access alligator gar data layers click here. |
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