What's Wild, page 14
These dramatic successes have also been mirrored by non-game and non-hunted species as well. Many species have flourished expanding their range into and within the state, thanks to changing habitat, protection of wetlands, and better environmental laws regarding pesticides and with the help of man.
Ravens, ospreys, cardinals, house finches, mockingbirds, mourning doves, and turkey vultures have either migrated into the state or have greatly expanded their breeding range within the state. The bald eagle has once again successfully nested for four years after a more than fifty-year absence. Osprey have begun nesting in the coastal region after a long absence. The peregrine falcon required the hand of man to reintroduce them into traditional nesting sites beginning in 1976. Since 1981 they have successfully nested, with a growth in nesting pairs producing eleven offspring in 1990.
Waterfowl populations have shown great changes. In the 1960s a relatively new species, the ring-necked duck, began nesting in the state. The wood duck, which was thought to be going extinct at the turn of the century, now flourishes and has become nearly the most abundant duck species in the state.
The last decade has brought a more urbanized population of mallards and Canada geese. Nesting populations of Canada geese have flourished in Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties over the last ten years. Over thirty-one hundred urban Canada geese were counted in the fall of 1992. Winter counts of resident mallards in January through March of 1993 showed nearly five thousand wintering from the lakes region south.
Eric Orff helped conduct early research on Eastern coyotes while a student at the University of New Hampshire in 1969.
Flourishing wildlife has not just been birds and mammals, but fish too. Enforcement of new environmental laws such as the federal Clean Water Act coupled with the construction of fish ladders at century-old dams and the restocking of several species has brought resounding success to the state’s major river systems including the Connecticut, Merrimack, and five coastal rivers. The coastal rivers—Cocheco, Exeter, Lamprey, Oyster, and Taylor—have developed major runs of river herring over the ladders. By transporting spawning adults to Strafford’s Bow Lake, which forms the headwaters of the Cocheco River, the number of fish returning to the ladder in Dover increased from 477 in 1984 to over seventy-two thousand in 1992.
The Merrimack River has had an increase in river herring from about a thousand in 1984 to nearly four hundred thousand by 1989 in the lower river, and with the completion of a fish ladder at the Amoskeag dam in Manchester in 1989 has allowed herring to reach all the way up to Hook-sett. The Atlantic salmon run in the Merrimack increased from 65 in 1988 to 332 in 1991.
The Connecticut River along our western border has had substantial increases of Atlantic salmon, American shad, river herring, and sea lampreys over the two fish ladders south of New Hampshire allowing them once again to swim into our state’s waters. Between 1979 and 1990 the American shad run increased from 300 to 27,900 at the Turners Falls Dam, which put these fish into New Hampshire’s waters.
The trend for increased wildlife populations for both fish and wildlife will likely continue over the long term.
If you are a hunter, fisherman, or even a casual wildlife observer you have a greater likelihood of experiencing these wildlife species than your grandmother and great-grandmother did. The good old days are now!
First published in 1992.
22 Million Juvenile River Herring Seeking the Sea
US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Joe McKeon, from the Laconia office, is predicting that upwards of twenty-two million juvenile river herring will be heading down the Suncook River into the Merrimack River. This slurry of two-to four-inch-long silvery fish must dodge great blue heron, gulls, otter, and some very hungry bass. They also must go over, around, or through the seven hydroelectric dams that are scattered the length of the two rivers. How many will successfully reach the sea at the mouth of the Merrimack depends greatly on the willingness of the dam operators.
Two years ago, perhaps millions were made into sushi for the hordes of gulls at the confluence of the Suncook River and the Merrimack River when low water conditions sent all the young fish into the turbines.
In 1997, the hydro operators were alerted to the downstream migration of up to fifteen million fish when the dam-boards at Crystal and Suncook Lakes in Barnstead and Northwood Lake were removed to lower the lake levels for the winter. The torrent of water sent the anxious juveniles into the waiting currents of the river for the quick ride out to sea. Most of the juvenile fish were allowed safe passage past the hydro sites thanks to the cooperation of the operators.
The river herring restoration effort was initiated about six years ago by Bill Ingham, biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. I worked with Bill to transport several hundred adult alewives (river herring) from the seventy-two thousand that had ascended the Fish and Game fish ladder on the Cocheco River in Dover to Northwood Lake. Adult alewives migrate up the coastal rivers in the spring from the sea. There are so many that some can be transferred inland to the Merrimack River system in order to bolster the ongoing restoration efforts there. One adult female alewife may lay two hundred thousand eggs! With the assistance of the staff from the marine division, several hundred were released in Northwood Lake in Northwood. Early success was evident by the large schools of young alewives seen patrolling the lake shores by midsummer.
About four years ago the US Fish and Wildlife Service offered their assistance to help transport larger numbers of adults. What a difference they have made! In 1998, there were 7,845 adult alewives transferred to the tributaries of the Merrimack.
Fish passage for upstream migration has been constructed at the three lower dams, which allows fish to swim up to the dam in Hooksett. By transferring adults who spawn into the tributaries it is hoped that a greater number of fish will return to the Merrimack River and more quickly restore the ecology of the whole system. River herring can provide a significant forage base for the many predators living along the river and even the gluttonous striped bass that dominate the food chain where the river meets the sea. An additional twenty-two million herring can only mean good things for the Merrimack River system.
As of 2024, the number of herrings continues to grow. They’ve been restocked in Lake Winnipesaukee, which has been more successful than any other attempt. This is where they should have been all along, because thousands of years ago, Native Americans fished thousands of herrings at the weirs in Lake Winnipesaukee.
First published in November 1998.
New Hampshire’s Threatened and Endangered Wildlife Rebounding from the Mountains to the Sea
From the high peaks of the White Mountains where peregrine falcons soar, to the sands of Seabrook beaches where the piping plovers scamper, New Hampshire’s threatened and endangered species continued to rebound in 1998.
Ten pairs of peregrine falcons nested along the cliffs of the White Mountains and to the north. Sixteen young were fledged from the seven successful nests.
The spectacular osprey was able to fledge twenty-five chicks from eleven successful nests despite the floods of June that dampened their nesting ability. Although the osprey stronghold is the area around Umbagog Lake in Errol, the Seacoast continues to have four nesting pair. The excitement continues to be the expansion of osprey into the central part of the state along the upper Merrimack River system.
The lone pair of nesting bald eagles continued with their success in the waters around Lake Umbagog in Errol as well. Unexpectedly, a pair of eagles attempted nesting in the southwestern part of the state. We have high expectations for next year’s nesting season for this pair.
An experimental project begun in 1997 on Seavey Island at the Isles of Shoals sought to return nesting common terns that were displaced by gulls several decades ago. Last year this was met with limited success. But in 1998, forty-five nesting pair of common terns were enticed to nest on the island by coaxing them with a flock of wooden decoys and a CD of raucous calls of other common terns played so loudly that only a teenager could appreciate it. Nearly one hundred young terns were fledged on the island in 1998.
Most exciting of all was the successful fledging of twelve piping plover chicks from five nests along the Seabrook Beach. This robin-sized, pale-colored bird had not successfully nested in numbers along our coast since the 1950s. Plovers first appeared on the New Hampshire coast again in 1997 when only three chicks were successfully reared from five nests.
This year’s success was due to a cooperative effort by the New Hampshire Audubon Society, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and community officials from the town of Seabrook. Beachgoers were extremely cooperative as well. Meetings were held in Seabrook and plans were hatched well before the nesting season in order to develop the strategy that enabled twelve chicks to fledge compared to only three last year. Few people, except for those directly related to the project, realize the effort needed to bring a species back from the brink of extinction. As the wildlife biologist for the coastal region, I was called upon at the first sighting and immediately gathered equipment to protect the first nest, and rushed to Seabrook to protect the nest. It has given me great satisfaction to know that my years of effort on this project have helped restore this federally endangered species.
As of 2024, there are over three thousand nesting pairs of terns on the Isles of Shoals. In 2023, there were over twenty nesting pairs of piping plovers on New Hampshire beaches.
First published in September 1998.
Heavenly Habitat
The first astronauts were awestruck by the beauty and the fragility of the earth as it glided beneath them on each orbit. Well, since July 23, 1972, scientists have been able to measure that fragility thanks to the first Landsat satellite launched by NASA that summer day. Other Landsat satellites were launched regularly over the last three decades to continue the work of looking down at earth from space to monitor vegetative changes world-wide. The latest Landsat satellite, Landsat 7, was launched April 15, 1999, to continue one of the longest and most successful space-based programs.
Landsat satellites measure vegetative cover and numerous other Earth features by its Thematic Mapper (TM). Essentially the satellite takes continuous pictures of the Earth with specialized cameras that collect the light reflected off the vegetation. Millions of images have been taken. One of the best things is it takes images of the same location every sixteen days, so growing cycles, year-to-year changes, and even the impacts of development can be accurately measured over the long term. We humans are changing the face of the Earth. Landsat bears witness to those changes.
Beginning in 1991 the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department began funding a project to map land cover in northern New Hampshire. In 1990, legislation passed that required bear hunters to purchase a special bear hunting license. Incidentally this bill was proposed and shepherded through by the New Hampshire Bear Hunters Association. They had wanted a ten-dollar fee, which was scaled back to five dollars when it passed. But most importantly the funding was required to be spent on research and management of the state’s bears exclusively. As the state’s bear biologist at that time, I requested that we use bear money to begin mapping the bears’ habitat. A large part of the bear license funds were first used to fund the Fish and Game’s portion of the land cover mapping. These and other hunter fees were the backbone of a more recent statewide land cover mapping project that the department helped fund.
Fortunately, the NH GRANIT (New Hampshire Geographically Referenced Analysis and Information Transfer System) staff at the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire was already working on a similar project for the EPA in southern New Hampshire in 1991. The ten thousand dollars in bear license fees was used to expand the mapping to the northern counties in order to access bear habitat. In the initial mapping of the northern regions, nine different land cover types or classes were generated using the TM imagery. These included: hardwood versus softwood, various wetland types, and other land uses such as agriculture, gravel pits, and alpine habitats.
In January 2002, the NH GRANIT staff at Complex System completed a statewide New Hampshire Land Cover Assessment. This most recent mapping effort used Landsat 5 and 7 satellite images collected between 1990 and 1999 to develop a statewide map of twenty-three types of land cover. This time the satellite imagery was able to distinguish types of trees such as beech/oak, spruce/fir, hemlock, and birch/aspen, and even in some cases how dense the forests were. Most importantly, thousands of ground-truthing sites were selected and staff was sent to check each one in order to improve the accuracy of the satellite maps. As a result, the current data is known to be 82 to 95 percent accurate, depending on the forest type. This was a vast improvement over the last mapping effort. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department contributed eighty thousand dollars to this two hundred and fifty thousand dollar project. Several other state and federal agencies contributed to the latest mapping effort.
Now conservation groups, such as the Bear-Paw Regional Greenways, can use this important data to develop conservation plans to protect and preserve the most significant wildlife habitat. These land cover types will be used to analyze wildlife habitat and travel corridors needed to connect Bear Brook State Park with Pawtuckaway State Park as well as other significant habitat blocks in western Rockingham County and eastern Merrimack County. Thanks to this latest Landsat technology, New Hampshire is better prepared to meet the challenges of identifying and conserving vital wildlife for decades to come.
As technology evolves, NOAA continues to launch satellites that more accurately access ground habitat.
First published in August 2002.
Silent Woods
Nearly a half century ago Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring awakened a giant, the American public, to the environmental disasters caused by DDT and other chemicals. The awakened giant was motivated to outlaw the use of this product in the United States. An environmental movement hatched after a brief incubation period in the early 1970s that included the first “Earth Day.” A fledgling peregrine falcon restoration effort took off as well. These birds were vastly diminished in numbers across North America because DDT caused them to lay thin-shelled eggs that failed to hatch. New Hampshire is fortunately the residence of over a dozen pairs of nesting falcons because of the restoration efforts, the banning of the dangerous chemicals, and the release of falcons in New Hampshire.
Yet a more insidious disaster has infiltrated our wild lands across New Hampshire and much of North America. It is not poured from a barrel, is all around us, yet is unseen, and has caused an even more dramatic decline in bird numbers far greater than Rachel Carson could have imagined. It is called urban sprawl and its result, habitat fragmentation. The disaster is us. It is you and me, our sheer numbers. It is our houses, roads, golf courses, malls, parking lots, and whatever else we have deemed necessary for human civilization.
Our wanton ways of using this land we call New Hampshire has caused a significant decline in numbers of songbirds, called neotropical migrants, in the last two decades. Neotropical migrants are the colorful songbirds that live and breed here through the spring and summer, yet must migrate vast distances to Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean in the winter. Less than 10 percent of the songbirds we love to hear and watch in the spring actually winter here. Most are neotropical migrants. For instance, blackpoll warblers migrate nonstop for twenty-three hundred miles over an eighty-six-hour commute from eastern North America. Red-eyed vireos, scarlet tanagers, song sparrow, meadowlark, ovenbirds; the list goes on and on. Over twenty species have been recognized to be in decline locally.
Studies over the last two decades have laid much of the blame on the decline in loss of large tracts of land to development, those over five hundred acres. Indeed, urban parks protected decades ago have fallen silent to many of the wooded songbirds historically found in them. They have become “silent woods.” For a variety of reasons, the fragmented woodlands have become sinkholes to songbirds, particularly ground-nesting birds like the ovenbird. Predators such as skunks, raccoons, and even our lovely housecats efficiently sweep these smaller woodlots clean during their foraging. Skunk and raccoon numbers can explode with little natural control thanks to the availability of our trash and pet foods. The smaller lots also increase the “edge effect” that actually encourages several species, such as jays, starlings, cowbirds, orioles, and crows, which also prey on the eggs and young of neotropical migrants.
At least in New Hampshire, most land conservation efforts are at the town or several-town level through the efforts of local land trusts. My experience has been that just a few key people in a town or adjoining town can really make a significant different in protecting large tracts of land that will maintain a diversity of species. Will your favorite woods be silent? Or will your grandchildren hear the melodious notes of a wood thrush? You can give song to our forests of the future through your town’s conservation commission or local land trust.
These woods were good medicine for us during the COVID-19 pandemic.
First published in 1999.
Bear-Paw Greenways: Woodland Tracts for Tracks
The Bear-Paw Regional Greenways Project is a grassroots effort by citizens in a seven-town region of northwest Rockingham County and southeastern Merrimack County to string together ribbons of greenways connecting significant wildlife habitat in southeastern New Hampshire. Why? would be the typical question that is asked of the group. After all, aren’t there animals nearly everywhere? “Why, just the other day a fisher cat dashed across the road in front of my car at dusk, just down the hill from my house.”
