Southeast Coast Network News August 2021

The Living Shoreline Reef Balls in place at Kingsley Plantation in Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.

Photo courtesy of Ches Vervaeke

Great Balls of Life

New SECN Coastal Ecologist helps with Living Shoreline Project

William "Ches" Vervaeke, the new SECN coastal ecologist, assisted Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve and the University of North Florida, with a Living Shoreline Project at Kingsley Plantation in the park. Ches surveyed the location of reef balls, a type of artificial reef which encourage oyster recruitment and provide fish habitat. He also assisted with the transport and placement of the reef balls on the shoreline. Ches comes to the Southeast Coast Network from the USGS where he was an ecologist at the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center (WARC) in Lafayette, Louisiana. Ches detailed with the network earlier this year, assisting with the installation and survey of Surface Elevation Tables (SETs) at five coastal parks. He earned a BS and MS in Marine Biology and Estuarine Ecology from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is currently enrolled in the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Environmental and Evolutionary Biology PhD program studying elevation dynamics of black mangroves as they expand their northern range in our network. Ches will start officially with the network on August 15 and will be duty stationed at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in the near future.

SECN Field Work Updates

Mission critical travel and monitoring trips have continued to be approved with specific and documented safety plans in place for each trip. The SECN staff continues to take all necessary and required precautions to stay safe while working in your parks. This summer’s activities will start to wind down in August but still a lot is going on in your parks.

Coastal Wetlands

Recently installed Surface Elevation Table (SET) sites were surveyed at Fort Matanzas National Monument , Canaveral National Seashore,. Fort Frederica National Monument, and Cumberland Island National Seashore. These sites are ready for monitoring pending final approval of new documentation for this monitoring effort.

Landbird and Anuran Communities

Automated recording devices (ARDs) were retrieved from Fort Sumter National Monument and Horseshoe Bend National Military Park in June. Thirty ARDs were picked up in Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in July. The ARDs deployed at Cape Lookout National Seashore will be retrieved in August and the ARDs at Cumberland Island National Seashore will be picked up in September.

Shorelines

Shoreline data summary reports are being compiled for parks monitored this spring including Canaveral National Seashore, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve and Fort Matanzas National Monument. Shoreline data collected by park staff at Cape Lookout National Seashore and Cape Hatteras National Seashore have been acquired and are being processed.

Vegetation Communities

The grueling vegetation monitoring effort continues through mid August at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

Wadeable Streams

Data collected from stream habitat surveys this spring at Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area are being processed.

Water Quality

Park-wide water-quality assessments were competed at Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Cape Lookout National Seashore in July. A data collection trip by SECN staff was completed for Congaree National Park, Fort Pulaski National Monument , Cumberland Island National Seashore. Canaveral National Seashore, Fort Matanzas National Monument, and Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. Fixed-station time-series data collection continues with assistance from park staff and partners at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Practice Makes Perfect. Eric Starkey, SECN aquatic ecologist, pulls the grab sampler full of sediment from Lake Oconee, near the network headquarters in Athens, Georgia, during a practice run for the Park-wide Assessments. This shake down exercise ensures sampling equipment and safety gear were in working condition prior to heading out to the parks nearly 10 hours away. Daniel McCay, SECN hydrologic technician, pictured in the background, also participated in the practice run.

NPS photo / Mark Hynds

Recent Publications

The Southeast Coast Network recently published the following reports:

• Terrestrial Vegetation Monitoring at Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve: 2019 Data Summary. Available at: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2286623
• Wadeable Stream Habitat Monitoring at Congaree National Park: 2018 Baseline Report. Available at: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2286621
• Shoreline Change at Fort Matanzas National Monument: 2019-2020 Data Summary. Available at: https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2286608