The Bedford Audubon Society will be leading an effort next weekend to catalogue every living thing in six nature preserves across northern Westchester. Scientific teams have already been assembled but technical support volunteers are still needed.

From the society’s Web site:

“A BioBlitz has the dual aims of establishing the degree of biodiversity in an area and popularizing science. Bedford Audubon Society will invite top scientists to participate in the survey, and we are excited about this opportunity to contribute to an inventory of all species in these sanctuaries and provide valuable scientific data for planning boards, conservation committees, and the general public.

Our objective is to expand on the knowledge of the area’s biodiversity while enabling conservationists to expand and refine habitat management plans to best reflect and support the species the area is responsible for preserving.”

The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation will hold a “Watershed Biodiversity Summit” next month.

The meeting seeks to create a framework for a five-year action plan to address the “Species of Greatest Conservation Need” that were identified in the state’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy for several regions, including the Lower Hudson Valley. The goal of the summit is to gather a regionwide perspective by bringing together state agencies, non-profit organizations, universities and local municipal governments. The conference will include break-out groups on habitat and species to concentrate on the participants’ expertise. Each group will be asked to prioritize species management and habitat restoration criteria for their specific work group. The summit will begin the process of developing an inclusive action plan for the Lower Hudson, Long Island and Atlantic Ocean watersheds. Participants will be encouraged to continue their role in this process and join the Watershed Action Plan Team, which will assist the DEC in drafting the plan itself. The summit will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 12, at the Prospect Park Audubon Center Boathouse in Brooklyn. Contact DEC prior to June 1 for more information or to register. Send an email to jysmith@gw.dec.state.ny.us or call Jason Smith at 718-482-4919.

There is still time to submit comments on a state proposal to reduce the amount of mercury in New York’s waterways — but you’ll need to get a move on.

Written comments are due by Friday. Seven states, including New York, collaborated with the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission to produce a draft plan called Northeast Regional Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load. The plan tries to serve as a starting point for controlling the atmospheric deposition of mercury so that fish-consumption advisories are no longer needed, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said. More than 80 water bodies in New York have restricted advisories for fish consumption based on elevated levels of mercury, the DEC said. The plan recognizes that the majority of mercury in the state’s waterways comes from sources outside New York, including coal-fired power plants whose emissions drift and settle in New York. The plan calls for reducing the deposition by between 86 percent and 98 percent before fish-consumption advisories can be rescinded and waterways can be removed from the impaired list.

Want a habitat instead of a yard? A place that is a sanctuary for you, your family and your fauna friends? That’s the thinking behind Audubon’s Healthy Yard effort.

“A healthy habitat provides a natural haven beneficial to birds, other creatures, and people, and is an extension of your home and part of a larger ecoregion. Learn how to be a responsible caretaker of your piece of the earth,” according to the Audubon Society.

Want to see a tornado spook a herd of cattle? Want to redo your bathroom in an ecologically sound way? Then check out the National Geographic videos posted to YouTube. The selections, according to NG, are a “catalogue of award-winning, short form segments on lightning, hurricanes and tornados; environmental news; and a video series with tips on living a greener life”

Did you watch ABC’s “Extreme Makeover:Home Edition” last night? If so, you saw the TV show rebuild an Albany-area home and also build a new recreation center at Camp Heartland New York. The Hudson Valley got a mention once or twice but beyond that the location of the camp wasn’t really specified. It was actually the Clearpool Education Center in Kent, which uses its natural setting to teach NYC school children about the environment.

Camp Heartland, which is based in Minnesota and runs camps for kids infected with and affected by HIV, will be using Clearpool’s 350 acres of woods, streams and wetlands this summer to run a NY-based version of its camp.

Read my colleague Melissa Klein’s story about the viewing party at the Kent camp last night.

Nearly two dozen state-owned and operated campgrounds have received national recognition as popular vacation destinations in Reserve America’s fifth annual Top 100 Family Campgrounds list, according to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Reserve America is a reservation service that covers state, national and private facilities throughout the country, including New York state’s parks. Nearly 3,000 parks were reviewed and the final 100 were chosen based on specific family-friendly criteria, ranging from educational programs and visitors centers to camping amenities and overall beauty and scenery.

Visit Reserve America to find the best biking trails, bird-watching and romantic spots, fishing areas and unique cabins in our neck of the woods, or elsewhere.

I’m sure many have visited the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Scientists and rehabilitators there were involved with the release yesterday of 15 seals back into the Atlantic Ocean. Check out their video on the project and read a story here about the mammals’ rehabilitation.

Seals occasionally show up in Long island Sound in the winter. Read my colleague Ken Valenti’s story from last year about more seals in the Sound.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

More seals in the Sound

Researchers aim for an accurate count as population rebounds

Ken Valenti The Journal News

NEW YORK

From Orchard Beach, they could see the seals with sleek telescopes that magnify objects enough to show the pinnipeds on rocks that were nearly impossible to see with the naked eye in the choppy blue water of Long Island Sound.

“We’re getting a good crowd out there,” Mamaroneck resident Larry Epstein, 41, said yesterday, his eye to the scope. Seven or eight seals sunned themselves on the rocks, unaware of Epstein and his three companions perhaps a half-mile away on shore.

With their equipment – forms for marking the weather, and coats to bundle against a brisk, chilly wind – they were part of a network of volunteers and biologists conducting the most comprehensive survey of pinnipeds (carnivorous aquatic mammals that have flippers) on the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coast.

The volunteers are scanning the shore, flying overhead and monitoring cameras to log the number of seals that frolic, sun themselves on rocks and dive for fish from Massachusetts to the middle of New Jersey, including Long Island Sound. This is high time for seals, which migrate from colder waters off Maine or Canada. More seals are wintering in Long Island Sound. What’s more, they are beginning to stay local, even having their pups in the waters off Connecticut or Rhode Island, a phenomenon that was unseen in previous years.

“They may not need to migrate,” said Heather Medic, the coordinator for seal rescues with the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Conn. “They may actually start breeding here. We are seeing pups where we never used to see pups in the summertime.”

The counts being taken now are expected to start off a comprehensive look at where seals roam in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Collecting the information could help by, for instance, showing rescuers cleaning up an oil spill where the mammals are likely to be, and helping aquariums and other organizations that rehabilitate seals to project how many they will have to save, said Gordon Waring, a research fisheries biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service who conceived the idea of the count several years ago. Knowing areas that seals frequent can help communities looking to develop their waterfront areas to do so with more sensitivity toward seals, he said.

For years, the surveys were done piecemeal by different organizations, with overlapping information. Waring’s inspiration for the coordinated effort was Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count. For several years, researchers tried to count seals on St. Valentine’s Day, but found that some marine areas were too caked with ice for an accurate count, he said.

This year, the counting day was moved to March, because most of the ice is gone, while the seals are still spread throughout the region, he said. It is being coordinated now by the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

Dozens of volunteers from as many as 20 organizations throughout the region are making the counts, said Robert DiGiovanni, the Riverhead Foundation’s director and senior biologist.

The count comes as the number of seals in the Sound, about 3,000, is thought to be increasing, with seals seen in more and more areas, particularly in the western end of the Sound, researchers say.

“I had no idea they were this far into Long Island Sound,” said Amy Golden, 27, a New Rochelle resident and zookeeper with the Bronx Zoo, eyeing the seals with Epstein and two men from Norwalk, Conn. They were trained for the project by the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, another major participant in the survey.

The harbor seals in Long Island Sound come from a population that gathers in Maine in warmer weather. The population was estimated at 100,000 strong in 2001, based on surveys taken in Maine that showed 38,000 lying on rocks and other objects, Waring said. Researchers calculated about two seals swimming for each one seen.

Amy Ferland, the researcher in charge of the Maritime Aquarium’s involvement in the study, said the numbers of seals on rocks off Sheffield Island – viewed from a monitor in the aquarium offices three miles away – varies greatly. But she sees seals showing up in more nooks and spots – areas such as East Haven, Greenwich and Pelham Bay Park. On Thursday, she and other researchers in the project, observing from Greenwich Point Park, spied 14 west of Little Captains Island.

At the same time, the number of harp seals, though they are much more rare locally than harbor seals, bodes for more encounters with humans.

Harp seals are more likely to hop up on piers or beaches than harbor seals, which stick to rocks offshore, Medic said. Last month, a juvenile harp seal caused a bit of a commotion when it hopped up on a finger slip of ice in the New Rochelle City Marina.

The U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 prohibits anyone from feeding or bothering seals. Still, many people with good intentions but poor awareness of the law try to help the mammals when they don’t need it. Officials at the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk talk about the woman who put a blanket on a seal believing it was cold, and a Stamford man who took one home.

Mamaroneck Harbormaster Jim Mancusi watched a police officer trying to feed frozen bait to a seal on the beach at Harbor Island Park, only to have the seal snap at him. Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Northeast region, recalled one case in which someone left a Twinkie next to a seal.

Gray seals, a third species in the Sound, are very rare in the estuary, Ferland said. She said perhaps 20 to 40 enter the Sound.

Anglers have seen them for years out on the water. Ferland said that decades ago they were hunted to stop them from competing with fishermen.

John Knight, owner of Hudson Park Bait & Tackle in New Rochelle and an avid angler for almost all of his 58 years, said he sees fewer seals now than he did in the 1960s.

Larry Flynn, a Norwalk plumber who was surveying seals with Epstein and Golden yesterday, said his winter fishing for striped bass of Northport in the 1990s was interrupted when seals moved in to feed.

Frady said anyone encountering a seal should not get close to the mammal.

“Think of it as any other wild animal and a wild animal that can bite,” Frady said. Look from a distance, she said, adding, “don’t feed them a Twinkie.”

Reach Ken Valenti at klvalent@lohud.com or 914-696-8255.

Seal counts

Numbers of seals hauled out on rocks and other objects spotted in flyover surveys taken in Maine in late May or early June. Harbor seals, the most common pinnipeds in Long Island Sound, return to Maine in the spring.

1972 count: 5,700

1981 count: 10,500

1986 count: 13,000

1993 count: 29,000

1997 count: 31,000

2001 count: 38,000

The numbers show an increase in population, but do not present a full picture of the seal population. Many seals are swimming during any one count.

The 1972 count was done by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The 1981 through 1997 counts were done by the University of Maine for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The 2001 count was done by NOAA with the University of Maine.

Source: Gordon Waring, research fisheries biologist, National Marine Fisheries Service

The following information comes from a release issued today by the Endangered Species Coalition:

Washington, DC – Today, America celebrated Endangered Species Day, a national recognition of our country’s commitment to protecting and recovering endangered species, including the bald eagle, gray wolf, grizzly bear, and American alligator. Educational institutions and community centers across the country held events. “Endangered Species Day gives us a chance to celebrate America’s commitment to protecting our unique wildlife,” said David Robinson, founder of Endangered Species Day. “Endangered Species Day is a great opportunity for young and old alike to learn about our nation’s wildlife and get involved in protecting endangered species and their habitat,” Robinson said. The U.S. Senate unanimously proclaimed May 18th as “Endangered Species Day.” The Senate resolution encourages all Americans to “become educated about, and aware of, threats to species, success stories in species recovery, and the opportunity to promote species conservation worldwide.” In addition, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared May 18 “Endangered Species Day” in California; Governor Ted Kulongoski declared Friday “Oregon Endangered Species Day;” and Governor John Baldacci
declared May “Endangered Species Month” in Maine. Endangered Species Day was endorsed by more than 70 organizations across the country, including: the Association for Zoos and Aquariums, Society for Conservation Biology, National Association of Biology Teachers, Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, Restoring Eden – Christians for Environmental Stewardship, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, Endangered Species Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity, and Environmental Defense. Click to learn more about Endangered Species Day.

There’s nightlife in Manhattan and then there’s night life, as in four screech owls released last night in Central Park.

More information on eastern screech owls can be found here.

UPDATE: My colleague, Terry Corcoran, just spied this on the Associated Press wire: NEW YORK (AP) — In a May 17 story about four screech owls, The Associated Press reported erroneously that the owls were released into Central Park. The Parks Commissioner said Thursday that they would released, but inclement weather forced a last-minute postponement. So stay tuned. . .