Friends of St. Vincent NWR Fall 2019 Newsletter

Fall 2019 Newsletter President's Message A few weeks ago, just before the arrival of Tropical Storm Nestor, I kayaked across Indian Pass to St. Vincent at dusk. I beached my kayak and walked past the boathouse on Road 0.  The tracks and scat of red wolves led me down the sandy trail to the beach.  Catbirds and towhees rustled in the fragrant scrub.  I spotted a single bald eagle perched on a north-facing pine. Exactly one year ago, Hurricane Michael washed this island’s ancient foredunes into the sea.  But now, sea oats and beach morning glory are building new dunes where the old ones once stood. As I walked, I thought of a song written by Susan Osborn: “You and I, on a small green island, spinning round and round through space And this small green island is a living being And we the living proof Of her grace.” This brief, gorgeous song reminds me of the offerings of our public Refuge.  Brilliant sunrises.  Flocks of migratory birds.  An opportunity to join a Christmas Bird Count, or fish, or participate in a public hunt.  A chance to stretch our minds and hearts wide open to meet the Gulf of Mexico, unimpeded by condominiums or seawalls. But if we are to be “the living proof of her grace,” as the song says, we must give back.  We can help protect increasingly rare shorebirds and sea turtles.  We can help lead tours.  We can advocate for the protection of public lands.  We can donate to specific projects that move our hearts. Please come along with us this winter, on a tour or at an event.  And if you’re not a member of our Friends group, now is the perfect time to join! Susan Cerulean, President Is your membership in the Friends of St. Vincent NWR up-to-date? Your contribution will go far to help protect the threatened and endangered species on our Refuge. Thank you! Join the Friends of St. Vincent Today! International Coastal Cleanup Day Every year in September, communities gather to participate in the International Coastal Cleanup Day to pick up litter on their coastline. This year’s International Coastal Cleanup Day service event at St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge was an utter success thanks to a fantastic partnership between refuge volunteers and employees. Over 40 passionate students from Florida State University’s Environmental Service Program arrived at Indian Pass boat ramp that Saturday morning ready to do their part to help out the island’s pristine wildlife. Unfortunately, the barge that typically transports large groups to the island was out of commission. That didn’t stop these dedicated student volunteers from getting to the refuge. Thanks to Refuge Biologist Bradley Smith and Friends of St. Vincent Board Member John Inzetta manning two small boats, the students traveled in groups of 3-5 to the refuge. John Stark, Refuge Deputy Manager, took each group back to Indian Pass. St. Vincent is so lucky to have such dedicated people working on its behalf. This slight bump in the road didn’t faze the volunteers who were committed to get there and pick up some trash!             Once we landed on the island, the volunteers were split into groups to clean multiple portions of the island. My group was lucky enough to be led by Lisa Johnston, Friends of St. Vincent Board Member and sea turtle enthusiast. As we walked down the shore, Lisa pointed out a turtle nest cage and explained its purpose: to protect its inhabitants from predators. However, this cage wouldn’t save baby turtles from large pieces of rope, twine, and other debris as they make the enormous trek from the nest to the ocean. This first hand educational and visual experience allowed the volunteers to understand the difference their efforts were making. Walking further down the beach, a volunteer named Sammi spotted an animal track and excitedly alerted our party. We all hurried over and after some discussion decided that these prints in the sand were caused by the paws of an endangered Red Wolf pup. I could sense the thrill the volunteers were feeling, and I was experiencing it myself. Times like that remind you how special the refuge is. With no one regularly on the island aside from a couple staff members, it is a true ecosystem of prey and predators. Whether for service or pleasure, everyone should visit this enchanting little piece of wilderness we are lucky enough to have so close by. Lauren Corey, Florida State University Student Representative Walking in the Wild ‘I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.’ Jacques Rousseau In October 2018, during USFWS Wild Week, wagon tours the Friends had scheduled on St. Vincent NWR for the week were canceled due to Hurricane Michael. The roads were damaged; trees were down; overwash from the Gulf had covered seventy per cent of the island; the composting toilets were gone; the docks destroyed, and our elderly tour wagon was left smashed into some fencing, a bit worse for wear. National Wildlife Refuge funding is determined in part by visitor numbers, so what could the Friends do to ensure St. Vincent maintained a healthy number of visitors?  Although we had never hosted guided walks before, it seemed like a great way to allow people to visit the Refuge even if it was different from what had been on offer previously. We put together guided walks as soon as the island was safe to visit. Visitors signed up for guided bird walks, plant based walks, the ever popular Valentine’s Day, World Wildlife Day Walks and more. Visitors often brought trash bags and picked up storm debris during the walks. We gave out prizes for the most unique trash collected. We found that visitors really enjoyed moving at a pace that allowed them to see the story told by the Red Wolf tracks on the beach following the white tail deer tracks. We found the tiniest toad on the island, about the size of a thumbnail and discovered miniature carnivorous plants in soil that seemed way too sandy to support them. We found a gopher tortoise hole and the bleached skull of a feral pig that it seemed likely that the wolves had snacked on. It is much easier to connect with nature when one hears the birds and feels the ocean breeze, discovers a site where the state listed threatened species Gulf Coast Lupine has recolonized a flattened dune and sees wolf scat full of animal hair while walking along the trails on the island. Experiencing this helped us all appreciate the resilience of all life. What the Friends learned is that taking time to experience the Refuge through walking provides us all with both personal benefits as well as the joy of being part of our unique island. Won’t you join us? "We overlook at our peril the gains to be made from walking, for our health, for our mood, for our clarity of mind." - “In Praise of Walking", Shane O’Mara 2019-2020 Guided Walks and Wagon tours can be booked at our website: https://www.stvincentfriends.com/ Carol Brown Plastic, Plastic Everywhere Almost 2 years ago, I answered a request advertised on Oyster Radio for volunteers to test for micro plastics in our community. I attended training at ANERR along with other area volunteers. We chose different beach testing sites along the coast so we could collect diverse data. The first year a grant from Mississippi State University supported our work, and now we continue to collect and process data to be used by other organizations. Microplastics are not what you think. I am used to finding small bits of plastic on the beach, but true microplastics can only be seen under a microscope. They are a real problem. These minuscule pieces are so small that they infiltrate our drinking water and accumulate in fatty tissue in our bodies, not what we humans would choose to have floating inside of us. However, the issue starts with us in the first place. Microplastic fibers and particles are released from the plastic we use and the polyester clothes we wash. The CDC has identified micro plastics as having negative health impacts for us all. As a result, I personally try to downsize my plastic consumption through buying ceramic dishes, drinking glasses and cotton clothes. These are just some of the changes we could make to help both planet Earth and our own health. Lastly, while I was testing quarterly at Cape San Blas for microplastics, I was contacted by Jace Tunnell at the Port Aransas Estuarine Reserve. He is on a mission to educate us all about Nurdles, which are the manufactured component from which all plastic items are made. Unfortunately, they often spill from container shipments into the ocean, and they can also spill while being loaded into those same containers on land. They are very small pellets of subtle colors that cause real problems in our oceans. Since they are so small, they are easily eaten by sea creatures. So, once a month I look for Nurdles on the Indian Pass beach where I live and am sorry to say that I have found some. For more information, checkout the Nurdle Patrol on Facebook and www.nurdlepatrol.org. Nancy Jones Member Musing: Will the wheels fall off my bus? The latest value of a volunteer hour is $25.43 – up 3% from the previous year. That figure, estimated from data collected in 2018, shows the incredible contributions volunteers make to their communities and our country. Currently, about 63 million Americans volunteer about 8 billion hours of their time,  to improve and strengthen their communities. With the new Value of Volunteer Time, these Americans are contributing approximately $203.4 billion to our nation through nonprofit organizations of all types.  <independentsector.org>  Recently, several Friends Board members attended a meeting on membership at St. Marks NWR. The speaker had a lovely presentation full of great ideas for enhancing and growing membership for the Friends. At the conclusion of the talk, our group sat and discussed what we might be able to implement. We concluded that we were dealing with the challenge of limited capacity. Twenty per cent of the membership is providing eighty per cent of the work needed to keep the organization running. Many of the critical tasks the Friends need to accomplish in order to support the Refuge have remained undone. Volunteering to be responsible for jobs that must be done means the difference between whether the Friends can grow and provide assistance to the Refuge or whether the Friends fold and die. For many of us, St. Vincent is a unique yet fragile home. The threats to its continued existence are many and growing. The support that volunteering Friends provide could well mean the difference between St. Vincent continuing to thrive or dying for lack of interest. So, we are asking you to become one of the 63 million Americans who volunteer. Your time is valuable, $25.43 per hour! We pay that amount in gratitude and appreciation. Please consider volunteering to help the Friends. Everyone has unused talents. Share with us your experience and knowledge. The positions we need filled are: Membership Committee  Sea Turtle Adoption Coordinator Member Newsletter Editor Tour Wagon Narrators and Drivers Friends' On-line Shop Fulfillment Coordinator Grant Writer Please e-mail us at stvincentislandfriends@gmail.com to obtain further information. We need your expertise to keep the wheels on this bus. We guarantee it won’t take 8 billion hours of your time! Carol Brown The Summer (and then Fall) 2019 Protect the Point Internship As the sun rises from the mild waters of summertime Apalachicola Bay, visitors to Saint Vincent National Wildlife Refuge (St. Vincent NWR) reach the island for a day of feeding, nesting, and resting. These neotropical migrants have flown hundreds of miles to take a rest stop on Franklin County’s deserted island of paradise. Water birds, from iconic Eastern Brown Pelicans to beautiful American Oystercatchers to the smallest Snowy Plovers use the shores of St. Vincent NWR when all other beaches are crowded with human and canine visitors. This summer, I had the honor of serving as the second intern for the Friends of St. Vincent NWR and protecting these feathered friends. The Refuge is open during daylight hours, and visitors are welcome to come by commercial shuttle or their own private watercraft. While the mainland beaches showcase a quiet coast forgotten by chain-stores, resorts, and traffic jams, the 12,000 acre barrier island, only a quarter of a mile across from Indian Peninsula, is a visit back in time. Before tourism swept our beaches and when oysters were piled high at seafood markets, coastal Florida looked much like St. Vincent NWR. Large predators like American red wolves prowled through miles of pine savannahs shaped by fire. Sea turtle mothers hauled themselves out of the Gulf to lay their eggs upon beaches lined by swales of dunes and scrubby vegetation. Shore and sea birds scurried down to the waters edge to look for marine invertebrates, a mate, and an open, sandy area in which to lay their eggs. Although St. Vincent NWR, unlike much of Florida, offers miles of beaches undisturbed by humans, the Refuge is open to the public. The Refuge balances recreation with its original mission: the protection of migratory birds. To allow birds a sanctuary, the westernmost point of the island is closed. No entry is permitted beyond signs set up at a kiosk on the Sound side of the island and to the west of the nature trail on the Gulf side of the island. The shore all around the Point is closed. I spent ten weeks this summer devoting four days a week to educating campers, beach house renters, and various other members of the public about the island: ESPECIALLY the closed area. To accomplish our goals this summer, I had a routine that I modified from the first intern. In the morning, I would set up an information booth at the Indian Pass boat ramp with signs inviting visitors to ask me about the Refuge. I talked with anyone and everyone from out-of-town renters and campers to locals launching boats to go fishing to curious kids wanting to know more about the animals they were seeing along the shore. Between my regular posting at the boat ramp and exhibiting at the Sea Turtle Festival in Port St. Joe, I educated approximately 450 visitors and locals about the Refuge and the species that depend on it for survival. This summer, by creating colorful flyers and designing magnets, by determining the abundance and variation of birds utilizing the closed point, and by becoming more knowledgeable about the Refuge itself, I was able to help maintain a wild area for generations of both human and avian visitors for years to come. Although my internship had an original end date of July 31st, my time was extended for three more months to continue to serve as an ambassador for the island and to help manage threatened and endangered species on the island. My time at the refuge is coming to a close as I explore new opportunities this internship helped me find. After seeing how receptive visitors to the island were to my instruction and information, I am confident that my work will be continued by those who care for their local refuges. I would also like to thank the members of the Friends' group and St. Vincent NWR staff for welcoming me with open arms and supporting my career in wildlife. I have cherished every moment of being able to serve the refuge, and working for this fantastic group was an incredibly helpful step for me. From welcoming me into your homes to sending me to additional wildlife conferences and workdays, I am extremely and eternally grateful. I would especially like to thank Sue Cerulean, Friends' President, and Bradley Smith, Biological Technician, for being the best mentors a young biologist could hope to have. Chloë Dubben Funding support for the St. Vincent NWR turtle patrol is almost completely dependent on donations from the public. Please help us monitor and protect our sea turtles by adopting a nest this summer. Our projected expenses are close to $3,000 and include the following:  - Repairs for the vehicle that volunteers use to patrol 9 miles of beach daily  - Fuel for the vehicle and water for the volunteers  - Stakes and cages for marking & protecting nests  - Gloves, flagging tape and batteries Your tax deductable donation of $25 or more will help us provide these necessary supplies for the program. If you would like info on how to adopt a nest in 2020, visit www.stvincentfriends.com or email us at stvincentislandfriends@gmail.com Thank You Mother Sea Turtle Adopters!  Upcoming: 2019/2020 Tour Season  Wednesday Wednesday Thursday         'Soil Day' Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Sunday      'World Wetlands Day' Friday                 'Valentines Tour' Wednesday        Saturday      'Leap Day Tour' Tuesday      'World Wildlife Day' Wednesday Saturday      'UN International      Day of Forests' Wednesday Monday      'International Plant      Appreciation Day' Wednesday      'Earth Day' Friday      'World Migratory Bird      Day' Nov. 6 Nov. 13 Dec. 5 Dec. 11 Jan. 8 Jan. 22 Jan. 29 Feb. 2   Feb. 14 Feb. 19 Feb. 29 Mar. 3 Mar. 11 Mar. 21 Mar. 25 Apr. 13 Apr. 22 May 1 *Tour season is underway! Sign up for our guided tours HERE.

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