Category Archives: Park Projects

Park Projects

Deer Survey at Schunnemunk Mountain

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Keeping track of the deer populations in NYS Parks isn’t a pretty job. On Monday, March 31st, a team from New York State Offices of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation traveled to Schunnemunk Mountain to carry out a deer pellet survey. Schunnemunk Mountain is located in Schunnemunk State Park in Orange County. One problem that the state parks are facing is deer overpopulation. The large populations of deer are eating native plants and causing a decrease in biodiversity. To inform our knowledge of deer populations, State Parks monitor the deer pellets left in parks to estimate the number of deer in a region.

To make estimates of deer numbers in a large area, wildlife specialists draw parallel transects across the park area.

Schunnemunk transect map

Schunnemunk deer pelletsFollowing the transect using compass and GPS, the surveyors measure out points 100 feet apart and scan the ground for pellet groups at each point. Points have a radius of four feet in every direction (See figure below). When counting pellets, we look for at least 10 pellets in a grouping. The number of pellet groups can help surveyors estimate the number of deer living in the area.

Schunnemunk diagram

Naturally, this process involves scrambling through thick brush, across boggy creeks, and over big rocks, but it is all in the name of science!

Of course, it also means catching some lovely views from the top of Schunnemuck Mountain.

 

Post by Mary Greagan and Paris Harper, photos by Paris Harper

Park Projects

Bear Tagging

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The NY Department of Environmental Conservation maintains about 3-5 radio-collared female bears every year in order to collect long-term data on the reproduction and movement of black bears. As you can imagine, getting collars on bears is not an easy business. This winter, when a rabbit hunter hunter reported a denning black bear with cubs at Pinnacle State Park, the DEC knew that this was an opportunity that couldn’t be missed.

Adult female black bears give birth every other year, with birthing occurring around mid-January. Collars are never put on small cubs because they grow quickly and the collar would pose a strangulation risk. However, DEC felt that the mother bear identified by the hunter would be an ideal target for collaring.

This winter, DEC partnered with State Parks, the Black Bear Management class at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, and veterinarians and technicians from Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester in order to radio-collar one female black bear.  The process involves tranquilizing the bear while still in her den in order to attach the collar. Because the bear is usually immobilized for half an hour to an hour, the specialists also need to care for the cubs and keep them warm while others are working on their mother.

The following link to a YouTube video will give you a good idea of what a den visit entails,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJRDpTUIrJI

bear tagging 3

Bear cubs are very cute, but please remember that approaching mother bears and cubs, in their dens or out, is extremely dangerous!

photo by Josh and Jim McGonigal

Park Projects

Cleaning Up Phragmites

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Evicting invasive species from our parks is a tough job. Clearing Phragmites from around the rim of Moreau Lake in Moreau Lake State Park, for example, takes a large team of environmental staff and Student Conservation Association Interns an entire day, as we found out in early April.

phrag1

Phragmites is a tall reed which grows all over the world and has culturally been used for food, weapons, weaving material, music instruments.¹ However, populations of Eurasian Phragmites were introduced to the U.S by boat during the 18th and 19th centuries. Lacking natural population controls, the invasive Phragmites has rapidly spread throughout the U.S.²

Phragmites spreads rapidly because, in addition to reproducing through seeds, it also clones itself through rhizomes, a type of root that can form new, genetically identical plants. In this way, Phragmites can rapidly form dense stands that overcome all other plants in an area.³

Cutting down Phragmites isn’t easy work. Structurally similar to bamboo, Phragmites needs to be cut down with a heavy machete or a metal-bladed weedwhacker. Plant can grow as high as fifteen feet and often shelter higher populations of ticks than stands of native plants.

Phrag Moreau Before and After

Because of the particularly pernicious nature of Phragmites, NYS Parks uses herbicide on large stands, in addition to manual and mechanical forms of control. However, even after the plant is dead, cutting Phragmites down is an important part of the restoration process because it allows native plants to recolonize the area, improving the health of wetland ecosystems and building a buffer against future Phragmites invasions.

Sources

  1. Driscoll, Leslie. 1999. Phragmites australis. University of Massachussetts Boston. Online, http://site.www.umb.edu/conne/leslie/lesliepage.htm.
  2. Saltonstall, Kristen. 2005. Plant Conservation Alliance Alien Plant Working Group—Phragmites australis. Online, http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact.htm
  3. Phragmites australis (grass). Global Invasive Species Database. http://www.issg.org/database/welcome/

Post by Paris Harper, photos by Casey Holzworth

Park Projects

Hailes Cave Bat Gate Project – Protecting Bats’ Winter Home

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Bats in Hailes Cave at J.B. Thacher State Park have been kept safe all winter long thanks to a bat gate installed by State Parks staff along with volunteers from the Northeastern Cave Conservancy and staff from the DEC. Hailes Cave serves as the winter hibernation site, or hibernaculum, for at least two species of bats. However, since the 1980s the population of bats in Hailes Cave, as well as other hibernacula throughout New York, has been in decline. Most recently, bat species in the North America have been afflicted with the outbreak of a rapidly spreading fungal infection which produces white nose syndrome, a condition which has decimated bat populations as threatens multiple bat species with extinction.

Besides white nose syndrome, recreational overuse of the cave area has been identified as one threat to the bats which can be easily mitigated. Frequent visitation to the cave, particularly between October and April, can disturb the bats during a time when they need to conserve their energy into order to survive until it is time for their spring emergence in April. The bat gate at Hailes Cave will protect the bats home during the winter while setting the stage for allowing patrons summer access to the cave through a permit system in the future, as was recommended in the park’s recent Master Plan.

Hailes bat gate

While the bat gate will keep curious visitors out of the bats’ winter home, the horizontal position and spacing of the main bars allow the bats to pass in and out easily. Each of the horizontal bars weighs more than 190 pounds and, over the course of three days, workers and volunteers moved over 3,000 pounds of steel from the top of the escarpment to the gate location 75 feet back into the cave at the base of the cliff! A huge thank you to the NCC and the DEC for their help protecting our State Parks’ natural resources!