© Blake Richard
This post was submitted by Eden McCall, media intern for the U.S. Forest Service in Cordova, Alaska. Eden and Blake Richard, an intern with Ducks Unlimited, slogged through miles of the Copper River Delta this summer, learning about and documenting the nesting success of Dusky Canada Geese. Meet Eden and Blake in this short video taken this summer in Cordova.
Each summer for almost four decades, waterfowl biologists navigate miles of North America's largest contiguous wetland on the Pacific coast, Alaska’s Copper River Delta, to maintain artificial nest islands that increase hatching success for the Dusky Canada Goose, Branta canadensis occidentalis.
After an earthquake in 1964 uplifted some wetland areas more than six feet, the ecology of this vast delta shifted and many ponds began to fill in, increasing predators’ ability to reach Dusky nesting sites. The Dusky is a species of conservation concern, and because they nest almost entirely on the Copper River Delta, ensuring their nests are successful is critical to maintaining their population.
In 1984, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), in partnership with Ducks Unlimited (DU), began building and maintaining artificial nest islands across the Delta with the goal to provide long-term nesting habitat for the geese. These islands are twice as successful as natural nesting sites as many predators don’t venture out to islands in ponds. As the wetlands continue to change, these nest islands are a place for the geese to return to each spring.
This year, Blake Richard, a DU intern, carried on the conservation tradition. A current natural resource student at Northland College in Wisconsin, Blake flew north in April, in tandem with the geese’s annual migration north from their winter grounds in Oregon and Washington, to spend the summer helping maintain and improve the Dusky Canada Goose program.
Monitoring Nesting Success
Since arriving, Blake has experienced the Delta as few others in the world have – he has crossed leech-filled ponds, weaved through dense alder brush, and paddled along ever-changing tidal sloughs. He spent a week in late June at “Dusky Camp,” a remote field camp set up in the heart of the Delta that the USFS uses each summer as a hub for goose monitoring and maintenance operations.
“The thing that was most surprising about working with these geese was just how similar they are to other subspecies of Canada geese I’ve encountered,” Blake said. “I can definitely tell them apart now, mostly by the color, but I never would have been able to before.”
To monitor the success of the nest island program, Blake and Forest Service field technicians visit each nest island and record data about the island, including pond depth, distance to shore, and vegetation coverage, as well as the nesting activity – including the presence of a nest, and, if there was a nest, whether it likely hatched or was predated. This data is used by managers to correlate which island variables may matter more for nesting usage and hatching success to improve the program in years to come.
After visiting almost 400 nest islands, the team will return in August to islands they determined need maintenance – like those with reduced shrub coverage or missing positioning anchors – to ensure Duskies have continued nesting success.
The Internship Inspires
With a camera always at-the-ready, secured by his chest waders, Blake has documented his wildlife sightings and posted about his internship on his blog. The internship experience has cemented his interest in conservation and also photography. “It’s been an awesome opportunity, and I think it’s a good experience getting my name out there with an organization like Ducks Unlimited,” Blake said. “Now I really want to become a photographer documenting what Ducks Unlimited is known for, conserving waterfowl ‘today, tomorrow, and forever.’”
