Returning to Alaska

The Manomet Team | April 29, 2021 | Newsletters

Credit: Shiloh Schulte

Stephen Brown

Vice President, Science

Many North American shorebird species are declining at alarming rates, but we do not know why. Through our Arctic field research, we are hoping to increase our understanding of the status of shorebird populations and to learn what is causing their declines.

Manomet has conducted shorebird research in the arctic every field season since 2001, except for 2020 due to the pandemic. This summer, senior shorebird scientist Shiloh Schulte will return to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to continue several studies delayed by COVID-19 in 2020. Shiloh will work closely with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to deploy GPS tracking tags on Whimbrel, American Golden-Plovers, Pectoral Sandpipers, and other species as part of an ongoing study of local movement patterns and long-distance migration pathways and stopover sites. In addition to the tracking work, Shiloh will be collaborating on developing methods for remote monitoring of shorebird nests and mentoring new USFWS technicians and volunteers.

American Golden Plover. Credit: Shiloh Schulte.

Movements of Pectoral Sandpipers tagged in 2019.

Pectoral Sandpiper. Credit: Shiloh Schulte.

We also just received funding to conduct shorebird surveys in the Teshepuk Lake Special Area, potentially the most important wetland complex in the Arctic. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced this month nearly $589,000 in grants to support the conservation of fish and wildlife species in Alaska and engage Alaska Natives in conservation activities to encourage community stewardship. The grants will leverage almost $607,000 in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of just under $1.2 million.

Teshekpuk Lake, northern Alaska. Stellar Stock/SuperStock. Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/place/Teshekpuk-Lake#/media/1/588572/181062

Manomet and our partners at the US Fish and Wildlife Service are the recipients of one of these grants for a project called “Assessing Shorebirds in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska.” This grant will enable us to continue work toward measuring the status and trend of arctic breeding shorebirds across the entire North American Arctic with our partner organizations as part of the Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring (PRISM). The project will raise additional matching funds, for a total conservation investment of $213,122.

The National Petroleum Reserve is the largest tract of undeveloped land in the United States, larger than the entire state of Indiana, and this extensive area of tundra wetlands has some of the highest densities of nesting shorebirds in the North American Arctic. The Teshekpuk Lake Special Area is one of several parts of the Reserve identified for their special values, in this case an unusually high density of both shorebirds and waterfowl. The Special Area was fully surveyed for the first time by Manomet and USFWS in 2007-2008. Repeating the surveys next year will allow us to calculate the change in population size for the area since the initial surveys. Monitoring this declining group of birds is critical to measuring the impacts of conservation efforts underway throughout the hemisphere as part of Manomet’s focus with our many partners on restoring shorebird populations.

Shiloh Schulte, Senior Shorebird Scientist, contributed to this article.